M2400, another ultra-sleek notebook on the market

M2400, another ultra-sleek notebook on the market

Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id

First, here's a little tip about the importance of power
supply for our desktop computers. My PC is a Pentium III machine
that I assembled myself. I chose an expensive ElanVital T10
casing for this PC, which also came with an ElanVital power
supply.

Within the last three months or so, the fan inside this power
supply stopped working. I kept procrastinating and thought I
would take it to Astrindo, the company that imported it, and ask
them to replace the fan as soon as I had the chance. Well, one
day last week, my PC suddenly started to reboot on its own. Soon
it became worse, such that I had to turn it off altogether. When
I turned it on again, I checked the BIOS. The ASUS CUSL2
motherboard was smart enough to tell me that the processor had
become too hot and unstable. That was not a surprise to me, as I
had overclocked the 733 MHz Pentium III processor to run at 907
MHz. Overclocking is very easy to do with this motherboard. When
I reset the processor speed to its original 733 MHz, it worked
again. But the power supply was now as hot as a toaster.

I knew that if kept using it I would end up losing my entire
PC. So I went to Astrindo in Mangga Dua Mall and had the fan
replaced. I was quite lucky, as it had a very good power supply
that was still working properly. Cheaper power supplies might not
have lasted a week without the fan.

While the fan was being replaced, I had a chat with the
technicians there. I learned from them that it was really
important to use a good power supply in one's system.

"ElanVital's power supplies are very expensive -- around Rp
500,000 apiece. On the other hand, at the computer stores
upstairs in this building you can find a complete casing for your
PC, including the power supply, for around Rp 160,000," Eko, one
of Astrindo's technicians, told me.

"The problem with cheap power supplies is that they can
quickly toast the motherboard and even the graphics cards,
because these components are very sensitive to voltage spikes."

I was also told that a lot of computer stores cut costs by
using cheap casings and power supplies in order to be able to
offer their PCs at competitive prices to their customers.

"They will use original ASUS motherboards, because that is
what their customers want. But computer buyers very seldom check
the power supply that they get. If something happens to the
motherboard, the store will just return it to us, because we will
replace every burned motherboard as long as it is still under
warranty," Eko added.

I asked him what they did with the returned motherboards. "We
just dump them," said Eko. Once the boards are burned, they
cannot be repaired.

Fortunately, as Eko told me, the latest motherboards from ASUS
are now equipped with protection against poor voltage. "The
computer will simply refuse to power up if the voltage levels are
incorrect," he said.

So, if you buy a locally assembled PC, make sure it has a good
power supply. Use a utility such as ASUS PCProbe to check the
voltage levels of the power supply output. And if the fan stops
working, do not procrastinate as I did. You might not be as lucky
as I was.

Sleek notebook: Last week, I also got to test drive the third
notebook in a row. After the IBM ThinkPad A31p and the Acer
TravelMate 630, this time it was an M2400 notebook from ASUS.

In many respects, the M2400 is not that different from the
ultra-portable ASUS S1300 that I reviewed in early April. They
are both wrapped in a polished magnesium cover, their keyboard
and touchpad are basically the same, and they are both very sexy.

Like the S1300, the M2400 has a built-in modem, a Fast
Ethernet port, an IEEE 1394 port for video capture, a VGA-out
port, a parallel port, a PC Card slot plus line-in and line-out
audio ports. Like the S1300 too, the M2400 comes with neither a
S-Video port nor a floppy diskette drive. You will need to buy an
external, USB-based floppy drive if you choose this notebook.

The first difference between the M2400 and the S1300 is the
size of the TFT screen. While the S1300 comes with a 13.3-inch
screen, the M2400 has a larger, 14.1-inch one. I found the
M2400's screen better than the slightly bluish one on the test
unit S1300 model. The second difference is that the M2400 has a
bay for removable drives. My M2400 test unit came with an
internal, removable DVD-ROM drive.

The third difference is the CD playback control buttons on the
front side of the M2400. These buttons enable one to play audio
CD without powering up the notebook, as if it were a CD player.
Once I accidentally left a Balinese gamelan CD in the drive and
it played it over and over again for the entire day. When I
finally stopped the CD, there was still a lot of power in the
battery. When the notebook is on, the buttons will control the
playback using the operating system. Needless to say, the
notebook is far too expensive for just playing audio CDs.

No operating system: I had quite a scare when switching the
notebook on for the first time. After showing the ASUS logo, the
text on the screen read "Press any key to reboot". It happened
over and over again, making me think I had damaged it. I had been
told by Pak Fendi, who lent the unit to me, that it was brand
new. How come it refused to work?

I frantically contacted Pak Fendi to let him know that he
might have sent me a defective product or that I might have
ruined it. He laughed and told me that the M2400 came with no
operating system installed. In fact, there was no operating
system CD in the box. I had to find it and install it myself.

Fortunately, I still had an unused Windows Me that I had
bought at Changi (airport) around two years ago. I installed it
on the notebook, and it worked flawlessly. ASUS provided all the
necessary device drivers on a CD ROM included in the notebook's
bag.

What is on my wish list? There are a couple of small things
that ASUS could improve on this US$1,750, Pentium III M notebook.
As with the S1300, I wish there were a space between F4 and F5
and between F8 and F9, so that one could easily locate them
without really looking down at the keyboard. I frequently use
Alt-F4 to close applications, and that is why this is such a big
deal to me. The Insert and Delete keys could be grouped together
with the arrow keys, too, I suppose.

I found placing the CD on the tray a little too challenging. I
had to firmly press the CD down on the shaft before it would snap
on, and I was worried I might damage it after all that pressure.
Like the S1300, the two speakers on the M2400 are too weak, too.

ASUS also placed the backslash and vertical bar key to the
left of the space bar. This was not a very good design decision,
I think. I often pressed this key unintentionally, thinking that
it was the Alt key.

Despite these minor wishes, this notebook is really a great
joy to use. The power is more than sufficient for most tasks
these days. Connecting to the Internet from a hotel room or
business center is a "no-brainer" with the built-in Fast Ethernet
port. The notebook is very quiet, too, so you will not disturb
your sleeping partner.

It is not easy to choose between the S1300 and the M2400.
However, I guess I would go for the M2400 for its larger and
better TFT screen.