That Targus looks fine, though
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834997730 has a similar rating and supposedly dropped in price.
I usually order from Newegg.com as they are quick & cheap, and haven't had any return issues.
Regarding Laptops, well Newegg had 3 Asus laptops under 400$, and the one for 379$ had the best ratings at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230265
I'll look into those. Thanks.
Edit:
That cooling pad happens to be the only kind that they sell at the place I had the diagnostics done. The guy there said that it works well but is really only suited for using at a desk. As I like using my laptop on my lap and watching streaming movies in bed with it on my stomach, I'd strongly prefer one with side intake and a bottom softer than exposed rotating blades. He said that one of his best friends is happy with a Targus just like my old one, but that he much prefers his Logitech Lap Desk. He claimed it is about the same price and still has 2 fans, but also has an off switch and spare USB ports. I forgot to ask for its specific model though, and have not found that kind yet. The only Logitech model at BestBuy has a single fan, and is clearly meant for smaller machines.
When I asked for advice on what kind of laptop to get for <$400 his initial answer was that I should avoid anything in that price range. He said that entry level laptops start at $450 and anything cheaper is normally poorly made. He then expressed that he was a big fan of refurbished computers, since quality control tests only 1 in 10 new machines but every refurbished one. He also admitted that occasionally a store will have an exclusive deal with a manufacturer that brings the price of a decent laptop down under $400. He said he would not trust a $379.99 Toshiba, but that the $349.99 Asus (which Amazon claims has a list price of $899.99, although I haven't found it actually selling anywhere for over $460) could be a good deal.
I stopped by BestBuy on the way home from picking up my old laptop. The first saleswoman seemed pushier and once I shied away from the much more expensive models she was pushing recommended that I act fast to get that Asus. I then double checked online though and found that it was not available for shipping and is not in stock anywhere near here.
The second salesman took more time to listen to how I use my laptop and what went bad with my last one. He insisted that as someone who burnt out my last video card and lost a motherboard in the process, I should really have a machine with a dedicated graphics card. He said that among everything they sell
this is the best suited for my needs. He claimed that it would last me a lot longer than any of their cheaper models. With tax it costs about $10 more than I have now, but if I put it on my mom's BestBuy credit card I won't have to pay anything for 18 months. They do not have any in stock at that location, but they do at the next closest branch, they are getting more soon here, and I could have it shipped for free to my house if I order online. I think I am leaning towards this one, but will continue to look for better deals online before making a final decision.
Edit: I just looked up the graphics card, and it seems that the salesman lied about it having a dedicated graphics card. My research shows that it has one of the best integrated graphics cards on the market with comparable performance to an entry level dedicated graphics card, but that frying the graphics card would still ruin the motherboard. Come to think of it, I am pretty sure that the sign there clearly said that the graphics card has 512mb memory that it does not share with the CPU. Maybe that is not the same as having a dedicated graphics card and he just chose not to correct my confusion.
You can see a side by side comparison of the two I am now most strongly considering
here. Note that the Toshiba is $100 cheaper at BestBuy.com than NewEgg.com and with my gift card would be reduced to exactly the same price as the Asus
, but would take a week longer to get to me. Edit: It appears that they actually just got a new shipment at my local store, so I could pick one up immediately instead of having it delivered.
Now I know I installed it wrong. BtS is unplayable at all now.
I'm not sure how you managed to do that.
OK, I'm having no end of trouble. Winzip will not extract the Bug file. What do I do?
I'm not sure what could be going on there either. If you were having trouble extracting my mod with WinZip, that is because you should be using
7-Zip instead. I've reduced its size since then, but the first version of MagisterModmod 2012 was too big for this forum to support uploading it as a normal zip file, requiring I use the more efficient compression of the 7z format. The BUG Mod folder is in an ordinary zip archive though. Note that you can play my mod just fine without that BUG folder, so long as you aren't too distracted by messages about missing ini files.
I don't know if this was intended, but my game last night the Sheaim built Infernal Gate twice after Clan of Embers, so there were 3 different Infernal leaders. I don't know if more were on the way, as I ran into a WoC problem. I have posted the save game. I experimented with the Full of Resources map option.
Edit: I noticed Basium did NOT attack AV civs (probably intended).
Edit: Oh, and no barb ships whatsoever.
I just got around to trying your save game.First I tried to see if I could edit the file to work under my version without changing the name, but that corrupted the file and make the game crash so I changed the name of the mod on my version instead. I ran into a WoC Problem too, and since I'm using a 6 year old laptop my machine probably had a worse time handling it than yours. My computer became completely unresponsive until I just turned it off. I think that is a larger map than I usually used even with my newer laptop before it broke.
I could not tell much by simply playing the game, but since I have logging turned on (as explained
here) I have a couple of ideas. The end of PythonDbg.log says that the last thing that was happened is that the city of Stoville was acquired and kept. That could very well be related to another Infernal player entering the game. Alternately the problem could be related to the last event found in BBAI.log, which is Jonas III's Dragon Fanatic casting Evangelize. Apparently I used the same txt_key for evangelizing to units or cities with this particular religion, so I'm not sure which spell is being cast. It it is SPELL_EVANGELIZE_UNITS_DRAGON_CULT and is successful, then it could be causing the next unit to call def effectCultusDraconis(caster) and defect to another player while the AI still thinks it needs to be given orders. If it is the city version, then maybe it is triggering a revolt.
I don't really want to risk another game on a map that size on this pc. Maybe you can test to see if changing the <bAllowAI>1 tag under SPELL_EVANGELIZE_UNITS_DRAGON_CULT helps?