Interesting Stuff From Microsoft Hardware Developer Documentation

The Information below is taken from Microsoft Hardware Developement Document, Specifically Processor Power Management

Artificial Processor Performance State Domains

When Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 were developed, several dual-core and dual-logical processor designs were prevalent in the marketplace. These CPUs typically provide one set of performance state controls that are shared across both cores or both logical processors, which implies that a control dependency exists. However, the system firmware for systems that have these CPUs targets earlier operating systems or otherwise predates the release of Windows Vista and therefore generally does not provide the ACPI 3.0 dependency objects. To support these popular processors without first requiring a platform BIOS update, Windows 7 creates an “artificial” processor performance state dependency domain for the operating system to use. Windows synthesizes a dependency domain for all logical processors in the same physical package. This is the default behavior for Windows 7, and therefore the _PSD object is not required to be present in the ACPI namespace to realize multiprocessor performance states on systems that are equipped with these dual-core processors.

For future systems that might provide two processor cores that share the same physical package but that have independent PPM controls, the default behavior of creating an artificial control dependency domain can be overridden in the following two ways:

· Include a _PSD object in the ACPI namespace that describes a separate dependency domain number for each logical processor or for each processor core.

· Create a DWORD value that is named PerfEnablePackageIdle under the following registry key and set its value to 1:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Throttle

Some Laptop Recommendations

The info below is outdated will "refresh" when i have the time.

If you guys want to buy laptops but don't know anything, don't care about anything. I happen to have a list of "Not so Bad" recommendation (Someone asked me what laptops do I recommend).
Note they are all cheap or rather value for money systems because personally I don't recommend paying a lot for a laptop since they are all powerful enough to perform daily task.
I consider 15" a bit large for a laptop so I will only list 14" at most.

Disclaimer: When I meant Virtualisation in this article I meant Hardware Virtualisation


Dell:

Dell Vostro V13

Why it is great:
Looks good, long battery life, Light and highly portable Alumium Casing like Macbooks (Although I see no point, personally I prefer magnesium casing like HP Probook)

Why it is not so great:
Lousy Intel Graphics.
1 RAM slot only limited expansion
If you need to game look somewhere else otherwise this laptop is actually quite good.

Tips:
Try to look for Dual Core(SU7300) version as Core Solo is slightly underpowered, however this increase the price point so weight your pros and cons.
Only the SU3500 and SU7300 supports Virtualisation.


HP:

HP Probook 4415S

Why it is great:
Look awesome (Design very similar to Macbooks but Black is cooler)
It has a nice rubbery plastic palm rest very ergonomic.
Has decent entry level graphics for gaming Radeon 4200HD.
Decent Mobility.
Virtualisation support.

Why it isn't so great:
AMD Turion II Processor may not be up to par to Intel Low Voltage Processors in terms of batterylife but rather decent processing power.
Uses BroadCom Wireless which isn't so good compared to Atheros

Tips:
Try and get the M5XX Processor +35 dollars but it is Turion instead of Athlon which is more power optimized.

HP Pavilion dv4-2140us

Why it is great:
It is actually the HP equivalent of the Acer Aspire 4540 (No G)
If you hate Acer for whatever reason you can consider this

Why it isn't so great:
It is slightly more expensive than Acer for the same specification.

Acer Aspire 4540G

Why it is great:
Like all Acers this is cheap
Great Graphics Radeon 4570HD the slightly lower end version(4540) comes with Radeon 4200HD.
Looks decent but more like a entertainment laptop instead of a serious look like the Probook.
Support Virtualisation.

Why it isn't so great:
AMD Turion II Processor may not be up to par to Intel Low Voltage Processors in terms of batterylife but rather decent processing power.

Tips:
Try and get the M5XX/M6XX Processor but it is Turion instead of Athlon which is more power optimized.

Acer Timeline

There is a lot of Timeline offering different specification options.
Travelmate Timeline: TravelMate 8X71 (X is the inch of the screen 13(3), 14(4), 15(5))
Aspire Timeline: Aspire X810 (X is the inch of the screen 13(3), 14(4), 15(5))
For Aspire Timeline there is TZ, TG, TZG
G means there is better graphics Radeon 4330HD with switchable Intel 4500MHD graphics.

Why they are great:
Cheap as usual, Light Portable and great batterylife
The TG version has entry level graphics for a bit of gaming.

Why they are not so great:
The TG is slightly costly.

Tips:
Pick the one that fits your needs.

ASUS:

ASUS UL80

Why it is great:
Low Voltage Intel Processor with Nvidia Graphics (You seldom see this combination for a low Price).
It is said to switch graphics automatically according to your needs in Windows conserving more power. How bug-free is this implementation I seriously don't know.

Why it isn't so great:
Some people said the keyboard and casing isn't exactly good(Solid) enough.
Slightly more expensive than Timeline if you are not fond of ATi Graphics you can consider this.

Other Laptops
These are the following laptop with a Generic Intel Processor and Entry Level Nvidia Graphics (G105M/9300M GS/Radeon 4330 HD/Radeon 4200) (Not too special not too bad either)
-Compaq Presario CQ35 (Nvidia)
--Compaq Presario CQ45 (Nvidia)
-Acer Aspire 4736G (Nvidia)
-Dell Inspiron 1440 (ATi)
-Dell Inspiron 1470 (With Low Voltage Processor SU7300)(ATi)
-Toshiba M300 (Nvidia)
-Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 (Above Average Nvidia Graphics solution G130M quite a powerhouse)

The rest of the laptop are
1)Too expensive
2)Has Generic set up Intel graphics + Normal Intel SKU Processor (T6600) (Not good enough for me) normal sized not as portable.
The rest of the value segment is probably:
Intel Mainstream Processor (T6600)
And Intel Graphics 4500MHD
Nothing especially interesting.

If you want to ask my opinion on certain models post below.
I will pick out the pro and cons of the specific model for you to have a better understanding.

Acer Smart Power Manager

Finally some useful software from Acer
Please note: Different Power Smart Manager is meant for different configuration.
Some Power Smart Manager supports Radeon Switchable meant for laptops with ATi Radeon Specification.
So to get the best fit, look for the latest Acer Laptop with specification as close to yours as possible.

Acer Smart PowerManager

Download here
Conserve Power On the Go.
Installable on most Acer/Packard Bell/Gateway/Emachine Laptops (Even on Laptops that doesn't came with this originally).
When you install it on a (eg. Packard Bell) Computer the software calls itself Packard Bell Power Save!

Optical Drive PowerManager

Download here
Conserve Power On the Go.
Installable on most Acer Laptops (Even on Laptops that doesn't came with this originally).
Software originally meant for Acer Aspire Timelines but work on Non Timelines as well.

Tips To A Longer Living Laptop

1)Treat your laptop properly.
Do not drop it. Especially when it is on. Quite obvious, you don't need anyone to teach you how you should handle fragile objects.
Every Laptop should be treated with care unless it is a Toughbook.

2)Monitor the temperature.
The number 1 enemy of electrical components is heat.

Laptops should be subjected to as low a range of temperature exposure possible.
From boot when it is the same temperature as Room Temperature after which you boot the system and start playing games then it heats up to 90 degrees flat in 30 minutes (depending on your laptop heat dissipation capabilities).
Rapid heating and cooling causes a lot of stress to the electrical components so make sure temperature is < style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;"> and using the computer on your bed is not advocated as
there are vent holes located on the bottom of the casing on most laptops.

One additional note is high temperature can result from design fault (either components high TDP or poorly designed fansink modules).
There are 2 solution to this.
1)Passive Hard Modification to improve the design to improve heat dissipation, to do that you have to use your brain and some common sense together with your knowledge on heat from your younger days lessons.
The most common solution by consumers not willing to think out of box is to buy laptop coolers,
to me it is a waste of money since all laptop are suppose to be able to dissipate the heat they produce in normal operating environment not to mention laptop coolers inhibit mobility and consume extra power.

2)Return it to the OEM and prove that it is indeed overheating and request a refund most likely replacement will not help since it is a design fault.

3)Limit the max processor state can also bring down temperature at the expense of performance (An Exception is undervolting which brings down temperature and power consumption without inhibiting performance).

3)Condensation
Another enemy of electrical components is an electrically conductive liquid.
When moving from a cold to warm place especially in areas with high humidity keep it off and wait for temperature to equalize before booting to prevent short circuit.
Everyone knows impure water is a good conductor of electricity.

4)Disk Activity
There are recent talks on data security yes.
There are paranoid among us that like to sanitise disk free space.
Unless you have expert snooping around the laptop or you are selling it off, I am sure just a normal delete (Removal of file pointers) is sufficient. Try not to stress the harddisk unnecessarily.

I am sure you must be thinking I forgot something along the lines of malware etc.
For this there are malware which attempts to write rubbish into your Firmware Chip killing the laptop immediately.
However you must know for a Malware to spread it mustn't kill the host, so such malware is rare as it totally killed the system before it can use the system to propagate.

For 90% of the Malware it can be remove by a full format so it won't in anyway kill or shorten the lifespan of your hardware (Maybe some extra disk activity when you are doing a reinstall, but then again a mechanical device is doom to fail at some point in time).

Scrybe - New Touchpad Functionality

New Touchpad Functionality for everyone.

Here are the latest Synaptic Released Drivers that unlocks multi-touch on older touchpads.

Download and install Scrybe (From Synaptics).

Windows 7 Compatibility with Aspire 4530

I have tried to use Windows 7 on Acer Aspire 4530.
There are no compatibility issues.
Everything works including Launch Manager just remember to put to Vista SP2 Compatibility Mode when installing.
List of stuff that works (that required tweaking):

Launch Manager (Install in Vista SP2 Compatibility Mode)
Custom ShortCut button tweak continued to work.
Chipset Driver (from Nvidia) Note : No Coprocessor Driver required

List of Stuff that don't work:
Paragon Defragmenter (Hell you don't even need to defrag the OS since it is superbly responsive)
The Modded Synaptic Driver don't work had to use the latest Official Synaptic Drivers (No ChiralScroll)
AMD Dual-Core Optimizer

Unseen Changes in Windows 7
Better multitasking abilities (Developers did improve the CPU scheduling algorithm to make better use of multicpu this was mentioned in a Windows 7 interview)
Improved Network Performance (Better Network Stack)

The new Windows Experience Index for Acer Aspire 4530 (Remember to update DirectX otherwise the score will be 3.9)

If you used 64bit Windows 7 the score willbe even higher...Below was done using 32bit Windows 7.

Gaming Temperatures on Windows 7 in Acer Aspire 4530


Remember to set Restore Point after you finish setting up all the software:
Go to Control Panel >> System >> Advance System Settings >> System Protection >>
Create Restore Point
Any issues regarding Windows 7 and Aspire 4530 post below.
Those who want Windows 7 activated on Acer laptops go here.

Updated:
Please note Acer failed to include the Realtek USB Card Driver in their download page.
Please download it here
The driver will enable better power management control in Windows 7 when it is not in use.

Full Optimization for Aspire 4530 here
Get Windows 7 for Aspire 4530 here