My HP Pavilion dv5215us: A 2.5 Years Later Review

My laptop. My cherished, beloved laptop. It’s gotten me- no, it’s given me- more than two years of service. Hard work. Not really. Man that was a sappy sentence!

I got this laptop somewhere around the time I started this blog- way back in late August 2006…and Post #1: Drama at its Finest. I must say that, given my inexperience at blogging at that time, that’s one fine first post. Drama at its Finest? Genius.

It cost $700 according to memory. With tax and shipping it would be around $800. I got one other, but returned the other. I forget why and where…I just faintly remember that I got one then returned it and got this model. It “looked weird.” And I was the one who said that. It does have some unconventional, trying-to-look-cool-like-an-expensive-car features, but it doesn’t look all that weird after staring at it for two years.

The processor is either 1.79 or 2.2 GHz (power saving 1.79 or power-sapping 2.2), single core. When it goes from 1.79 to 2.2 it lags, but it’s not too noticeable. I got it one generation/line of laptops before dual cores became standard. It is an AMD Turion, which I like, but it isn’t an AMD Turion X2. I could have gotten the dual core for $100 more. A sticker on it says “Designed for Windows XP. Windows Vista Capable.”

The screen is nice, but dim according to today’s standards. I haven’t experienced any dead pixels- I despise dead pixels. It came with 1 GB of RAM…and I never upgraded to 2 GB. And I’ve never had a system stability problem that wasn’t caused by me- a lucky run so far with no spyware or viruses. It runs very decently with few lockups or slowdowns. My biggest problem with it is the Wireless Indicator Light, a very bright LED which resides at the bottom of the display and indicates when the wireless receiver/transmitter is active. It’s oppressively bright in dark rooms and especially when the monitor is turned down. I lived with it.

It has either a 128 MB or 256 MB graphics card- it never really gives me a straight answer- and the most recent game it can run is Command and Conquer: Kane’s Wrath. It runs it quite well (except for infantry swarms), but the graphics have to be bottomed out. It came with a 5,400 RPM 80 GB drive which lasted me until I upgraded (space requirements) in October 2008 to a 250-GB 5,400 RPM Western Digital Scorpio Blue. Space is nice.

The battery was all but useless by mid-late 2008. After living with it for months, I bought a new one at the same time as the 250 gig hard drive; a nice doublecell which increased battery time from 7-10 minutes to 2-3 hours. Time away from the outlet is nice.

It also has a decent keyboard. It’s sort of loud (not overly clicky) I suppose, at least according to today’s standards; I’d never use it in a classroom setting. And it catches your fingers under the keys at odd times. I enjoy this, some might not, but it’s rare enough to ignore. In mid-2008 the ‘O’ key failed to reinstall. I removed the ‘`’ key (next to 1) to attempt a structural replacement. It failed and I lost both keys, destroying the placement structures. The rubber nipple that the key normally presses on has worked just fine without a key. That’s neat. Also, the lettering on the keys has not faded at all. That’s neater.

The touchpad is very nice. It’s slick but not too slick- and that also means it isn’t sticky. And it isn’t sandy, either. Travel is nice and it’s happily controllable; it also happens to be in the middle of the laptop. I can’t fathom why you would align it to the right or left. The color wore off of it in the high-traffic middle, and the scroll wheel is only operational when some as-yet undiscovered process is running. Maybe “ScrollWheel.exe,” I don’t know- point is, when that process isn’t running, or is preempted by a process with higher priority, which is often enough to annoy, the scroll wheel does not operate. It will return when the problem resolves, sometimes requiring a system restart.

For some reason I’ll never know, about as often as the scroll wheel issue occurs, the control key will get stuck. Try holding control and typing “so there I was.” A million things pop up, it’s wacky, don’t try it. The sound is loud enough, but lacks any real oomphish depth that you get with more modern/expensive systems/desktop speakers.

In mid-late 2008 (can you tell this laptop lasted exactly 2 years before it started falling apart?), the CD/DVD drive began malfunctioning. As a result, a month or so later the faceplate fell off. The structure is a bit weak, and sometimes the uneven pressure of picking up the laptop with one hand causes the CD/DVD drive to rev up as if you had pressed the “rev up and do autoplay” button. Extremely annoying, I got used to it, it happened less when the faceplate fell off. But when the faceplate fell off, the ejection motors began wearing down, and it only pops out part of the way. At current, my CD/DVD drive is only operational at odd times. It’s usually operational when I need to game. That’s serendipitous.


Here are the specs: HP dv5215us 15.4″, $800 including tax/ship.

Processor/CPU: 1.79 to 2.2 GHz Single Core AMD Turion Mobile
Graphics card/GPU: 128 MB dedicated, possibly additional 128 shared Mobility Radeon Xpress 200 series
RAM: 1 GB
Battery: Double, 2-3 hours at brightest setting running browser and writing programs, charges slowly
Weight: roughly 7 pounds with normal battery, 7 pounds 7 ounces with extended battery.
Notable features: nice touchpad, nice placement of USB (2 on left, 1 on right), came with remote.



Well done, good and faithful servant.

Trials and Transfers, Part 1: Onto You Going There

The following occurred yesterday.

I'm trying to do a backup of my laptop because my 500 GB MyBook Essential Edition External Hard Drive is out of commission; so in effect, I currently have no backup. I'll go in fast format:

7:30 AM. Got working on repairing the MyBook.
10:30 AM. I finish trying to fix the MyBook. I took it apart (quite an interesting and quite-obvious-it-was-taken-apart process) and attempted many other fixes. The problem may be the housing, so I need to put the drive itself into a desktop, but our desktop doesn't have the correct connector. I shelved the project.
11:30 AM. After taking a break, I go to get the 30 GB hard drive which Mr. dataDyne gave me. What a lifesaving, serendipitous thing this is! I declared inwardly. That man's a saint, I thought.

Come to find out, he didn't give me the power cord for it. Which is fine because 1) they're so common that we actually have two, except that both are in use by the wireless Internet system, and 2) it's actually a dandy 60-GB hard drive, not a 30. SUCKER! AHA HA HAH HA!

11:40 AM. I install the 60-GB drive into my old 80-GB drive's external housing. It works like a charm. In the process, I found our jeweler's screwdriver things. I lost my USB mouse connector. I found my USB mouse connector (thanks, mom!).
11:45 AM. I decide to try to set up a wireless connection between my mom's job's Vista and my XP. It works but I don't know how to configure it. I give up and go to the 60-GB hard drive idea.

Problem, I have 80-100 GB worth of material. (The drive is only 60 GB. Keep up, humble fool.) Therefore, I determine to store a backup consisting of two parts on my mom's laptop. Thus I need The Beachhead and The Lodgement- two separate folders that can quickly be dropped into a new computer if the need arises. Now, I call this a backup. It's quite brutish, and not as refined as the whole "backup everything including operating system" idea. But since I'm working with a 60-GB and not a roomy 500-GB, I got to make dues. Due.

1:56 PM. I finish Beachhead Party, consisting of Desktop, Masters, and the My Documents folder (which only has My Music and My Pictures along with 20 text/.pdf documents). Roughly 45 GB. I'll see if it transfers onto the 60-GB drive and transfer it there in three parts.
3:30 PM. Transfer of Beachhead to 60-GB drive complete.
3:35 PM. Beginning transfer of Beachhead to mom's laptop.
Somewhere around 4:50 PM. Transfer of Beachhead Party to mom's laptop complete.
4:58 PM. I discover that there are 25 GB of games on my laptop; and 50 GB of files; thus there are roughly 60 GB missing.
5:10 PM. I discover that the WinXP operating system does not take up 60 GB of space. I am confounded and cannot locate the missing files.
5:15 PM. I realize that Beachhead party is taking up an additional unneeded 50 GB of space because it's copied and still on my desktop, therefore I'm missing only 10 GB. WinXP supposedly takes about 2. I seek the remaining 8 GB. (The recovery partition is 12 GB on its own partition.) Temp files are currently taking 2 GB. The rest I don't care about, or at least I don't think I do.
5:20 PM. I make sure that my History folder is backed up. I still wonder if there's a standalone history operating program.
5:25 PM. I declare the backup completed.

And that's how I backup a laptop.

Bess' Wedding #2: Come to me, my baby!

As you know (if you don't know, then you need to be told), Samus Aran's arm cannon has a tractor-beam effect on nearby powerups. When I first played Metroid Prime, and the first two times I played Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, I would say "Come to me, my baby!" almost every time I'd draw a powerup in. Since, I have matured, even bought a razor, and no longer have to narrate my actions in Metroid Prime. It's like babies; they have to tell their limbs to move; as you grow, you just do it through thought.



I use the same technique to draw my mouse and its USB connector, and my laptop desk (which is an old, desolated TV tray, and works great).

Although it did not work as I had hoped (I do not have an arm cannon), gathering them "manually" accomplished the same end result.


It's a little uncomfortable to type with the homemade lapdesk. Oh well. You can see the wireless USB adapter for the mouse on the left side of my comp, as well as the USB cord running to the Western Digital My Book external hard drive.

I had to format the drive, by the way. It was in FAT32, and FAT32 can A) not accommodate files over 32 GB in size and B) cannot transfer files over 4 GB in size. This made it impossible to store Bess' 11.6 GB wedding .avi- that's way over 4 GB. Simply right-click the My Book in My Computer, click "format," thus erasing everything on the drive, and choose "NTFS" instead of "FAT32." I strongly suggest the NTFS system for any drive over 300 GB even if you had no need at present.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to the "Level II" tutorials. Starting at 11:45 AM.


OK, there are only two in the "Level II" category- "Creating a Photo Slideshow" and "Sharing Your Movie." It is 12:41 PM, and I have finished both (the sharing tutorial took about 3 minutes).

Now for the "Projects" section of tutorials, which shows you how to accomplish challenging...uhh...video things. Important stuff for real men, you wouldn't understand. Beginning at 12:45 PM. It is now 1:11 PM. It is sprinkling lightly[outside]. I am 1/3rd through the tutorial.

It is 1:56 PM. I took a 20 minute break and retrieved a package. Within the package was the Satellite box I ordered. However, I was unsuccessful in my search for the card that goes with it (it's either in my parents' room, or my brother's room; probably my brother's room). Probably will have to order a new one from DirecTV. I continue at 1:58 PM.

2:12 PM and the "Wedding" project (tutorial) is completed. I've got some other business to tend to (plus my sponge-brain won't absorb no more), so off I go to another break.


2:49. I went ahead and took some more pictures for my photo montage of our late dog, Hannah. I will most likely do that montage before the wedding as practice (it'll only take 1-3 hours, then another hour to perfect, I estimate). Today feels like a pizza night for some reason. Maybe because it's cold and dreary. I'll make tacos for the folks so they can cease their whinnying. Whine-ney-ing.

Back to the projects...the next is "Christmas." 3:02 PM. At 3:49 PM, the Christmas project was completed. Ooookay...that was useless. About 20 minutes later, I order the pizza. I got a salad, too, as you know me. "A meal is just glorified air without a salad, and salads should be simple."

5:26 PM, and Project 3, "Child's Party," is finished. That was the longest tutorial yet by far. I estimate working time at 1 hour, 15 minutes. I'm done for now. I'm going to go enjoy some music. Gonna break it down old school with DJ Funk Barney and Baby the Bop. BJ the yellow who lets kids know that their two-letter names are acceptable the dinosaur might even show up!


No DV tapes imported.
Total time studying the program tutorials: 4 hours, 37 minutes.
Completion percentage: tutorials: exceeding 93%
Completion percentage: wedding video: unknown
Total estimated time left: way too much

All I want for Christmas

I'm a simple person to shop for. Either I want something grossly expensive, or something ridiculously cheap, thus there's an average I don't have time to figure out.

I was thinking what I would want for Christmas. Me and my mom are planning a new family tradition of exchanging gifts on New Year's. The only thing that came to mind- except a copy of Metroid: Fusion for the GBA- was a camera tripod. I know what you're saying. "Kev, you already have a tripod."


And you're right to say that, humble fool. However, I do not have a miniature tripod. Many times, I simply wish I could place my camera and tripod on the hood of the car to take pictures, and I really don't enjoy dragging a huge tripod around- so I don't. But you never know when old friends show up and desperately want to be seen with you, so it's good to be prepared. I think. Honestly, it's never happened, but it could.

The idea is nothing new. A lot of things are miniaturized. There are small fans, small coins, small plates, small crock pots, small computers, and small discs. There are even small cameras. Thus, small tripods! Like the one pictured at right, call the Octopod. Clever. See how awesome it is? I estimate a raw base awenem rating of at least 10%. After refining, I estimate awesome at 40%!

See how it wraps around the tree branch? It's so certainly a scam picture it isn't even funny, but me, I believe it. It has such a small mount, it could actually be left on my camera, and my camera would retain its full swivel-headed functionality when the tripod is enacted. (I could be wrong, though.)


So, when the question arises, dear reader, of what to get me for Christmas, just look to Metroid: Fusion or this camera tripod, from some place called Mikhailtech that I do not know for certain is a real company. Link to product page.

It also seems as if it would mount on a steering wheel or door knob or even a door with its window rolled down. I like it. My camera weighs 255 grams, so it'll fit the tripod by 25 grams.


Edit: Oh, yeah...the only other thing I'd want would be a new laptop AC power cord, like this one that's assuredly not going to catch on fire and burn the house down like generic items.

Highspeed transfer VS. USB 1.0

So tonight I made an attempt to transfer some of my mom's pictures (9 GB worth! Wow!) to my computer. It failed miserably. The SD card didn't work, the new external hard drive we got tonight (a 500 GB My Book marked down from $170 to $130) wouldn't work, and it was just a mess.

These are the problems you encounter when you have a computer that is 6+ years old that has USB 1.0, no Firewire, no CD burner, and no DVD burner. It seems to be across the board; I get the same error message with the SD card as I did the previous external HD. It must be...I don't know.

Bah. Once more. Bah. Again, now, with feeling. Bah. Humbug! Humbug! Pancake flapperjacks!


I'll just wait until my mom buys a USB/Firewire upgrade...but then again, for the cost of buying the $40 upgrade, we might as well just buy a new desktop. OK, maybe desktops aren't that cheap, but darnit, I'm mad at my mom's computer right now. Oh, it's disclaimer time.


Disclaimer: I am in NO way an expert in computers. I studied purchasing laptops for about a week when I purchased my laptop a year ago, and it's easy to apply that to purchasing a desktop.

Go look at this Gateway GT5405E, and rage against my mom's machine with me. Ooh, feel the hate. Tss, burn.

A 2.8 GHz dual-core, 1 GB memory, 250 GB hard drive...only problem I see is that it has 2 RAM slots, and both are taken up by 512 MB chips/board/cards/whichever (max RAM: 2 GB). It's got Vista premium. The graphics processor looks like the only lmao but we have a (better) GPU on the current desktop. It costs $300, and shipping would make it around $350.

Then there's this eMachines T5230, which has the same processor as my laptop, only it's 2.3 GHz and it's a dual core. It also comes with Vista and a 250 GB drive. The difference is that this one has only 1 RAM card, which is 1 GB (max RAM: 2 GB). Actually...a reviewer argued that it has 2x 512, and Tiger Direct is usually wrong when contested by anyone. It has a Nvidia 6150SE GPU...only thing I know about that GPU is that it's shared memory, and I think the 128 MB GPU on our current desktop is 128 dedicated. It is also $300.

Then there's the Gateway GT5407E, which is almost the same as the first Gateway, except that it has a slightly different processor (it's still a 2.8 Dual Core), 2 spare RAM slots (max ram: 4 GB), and a 320 GB HD. It also comes with a TV tuner. I'd choose this model over the first Gateway, the 05E. This is the 07E.

I believe those 3 are the top 3 on Tiger Direct as far as refurbished in the $300-$400 price range. Now...would I choose the eMachines, or the Gateway 07E? First things first, only looking at Tiger Direct is a mistake. You have to vary your search to different sites, but given the choices...oh...I suppose since we already have a GPU, I would choose the Gateway. The 320 GB HD pushes it over.

The next step towards buying one would be A: see if the need is logical (it might be), B: get the money together and see if it's possible, and C: research the heck out of them and find others. But the really awesome, amazing thing about desktops is the ability to upgrade them. So any small lack of foresight can be remedied easily.


For example, I got Command and Conquer: Generals as a birthday gift from my dearest Granny several years ago. I was so overjoyed! I loved it already!

I put it into the machine, and...lo and behold...it didn't work! It would crash the game and dump me onto the desktop just in the opening movie. If it were a laptop, I'd be out of luck. But it was a desktop, so my mom bought me a...I think Nvidia GPU. Then it worked. I was happy. I think I may have peed my pants; I can't remember.



Of course...I would install the current desktop's HD into the new desktop just to spite it, therein taking care of the file transfer problem. Assimilation. The Borg have it down right. Anyway, I consider the hard drive the soul of the computer, and we've had that old desktop for 6+ years. It's also refurbished (we would not have bought a new one), so I have no doubts about refurbished computers. It's still going very strong, and it's a generic brand, to boot. Get it? To boot? Computer humor! Laugh, man!

Of course, first things first, determine if there's a need. We'll see how all this pans out.

50th Post

Edited and updated Monday, May 14th, 2007.



*two balloons fall from ceiling*

It's the 50th post yay!!thatsucks, it should be 100 by now. Oh my, this keyboard is STEEP. Everything's twice as hard to press and three times as hard to reach. Let me get on my laptop.

(circus theme, dun dun dunna dunna dun dunn da-dunn, pause)

That's better. Flat keys. No elevation. Easier to press, not as square. I basically got about 20 paper-cut-like scratches from that other keyboard. Alright, not really, but you know what I mean...I'm currently trying to type using more fingers. It's confusing. I basically just use random fingers to type. I wonder what part of my brain makes the randomness decision...it's like, "dude, a key needs'a be pressed, go to it" and doesn't really direct it to anyone. Like, when I typed 'anyone,' I hit N with my pinky toe. Sometimes, you know how a typewriter's keys get stuck together? Well, that happens to my fingers every once and a while. WHACK! "Oh, crap!"



I'm hoping to get a new mouse and keyboard. I got my eyes on the Logitech MX518. I'll tell you a little secret: I really like Logitech. It's awesome- the name, the emblem. I had a Logitech mouse back when...it was at the beginning of the Optical mouse rush. Oh, boy, me an' that mouse had some fun...pointing, clicking. Good times, good times...anyways, I don't just like this model because it's a Logitech, but because it's gaming grade and doesn't have 400 flashing, too-bright, unturnoffable (that's probably a word) lights. That, and it has some solid reviews. Not just at TigerDirect, either. While using my Mom's mouse (my ex-mouse) I noticed it was off by about a quarter inch. Not fun when I'm in a tank fight. It seems that the real challenge in getting high-quality mice is getting them without flashing lights. That's really, really weird...oh, and it's corded.




I, guess, if I'm, smart I'll get, an Ergonomic, keyboard. Like the Mircrosoft Natural Ergonomic 4000. It's on sale at TigerDirect. Suckers! It's supposedly a great keyboard. It would have 5 out of 5, but some poor fool's house got burnt down and it burned and well, he's not happy about that. Apparently, he gave everything in the house a 1 out of 5 for burning...maybe that's not funny to joke about. I like it, though. It's overstating and exaggerating it, you know...and that's how I, personally, roll.

I like the idea of the built-in wrist-rest. One less thing to get burned and badly reviewed. Ohh, burn. Aha! Get it?! Burn?!

Dunno why, but TigerDirect photographed a completely different keyboard, that looks nothing like the 4000. This is one of the only pictures of the real one. I think it's corded- I hope. Call me old-fashioned.


Okay, just to make things clear, because I know people can assume things easily, I do NOT look at a cord as a chain that keeps the various peripherals from killing me in my sleep. I mean, a mouse could only hurt you, a keyboard could slap you silly I suppose, but they couldn't kill you, and I don't have a fear of them killing me. Not only that, but if I did have a fear of being murdered in my sleep by the various peripherals associated with a computer, it wouldn't necessarily be being murdered in my sleep that would cause me concern. So, I just like corded because it's TONS safer doesn't need batteries. That's all. Personal preference. Maybe you like cordless well it's your funeral chap don't expect me to show that's obviously your preference.


So...where was I. Oh yeah, did I mention I'm sick? Pff, no, I would remember that. I mean, 'cause I constantly proof read what I type. I have three monitors-

On the left, a monitor that shows what I've already typed, in the middle my laptop screen showing me what I'm typing right now, and the one on the right says "...yeah. Today I woke up to ghastly howls of the undead hordes. Like that one time..." so I'm pretty well set up to catch typos. There's like a 5 minute delay or, like, relay, you know, the opposite of delay, relay, or...the one on the right's basically hooked up to a time machine alright?


I was fine last night, and woke today with a really bad sore throat...my Mom actually got sick several days ago, and I've been trying, and luckily I caught it. The ole 'steep a used tissue in lukewarm sugar water (like yeast) and will yourself to drink it' trick. Gets 'em, or (chuckles) rather, me, everytime.

I feel terrible. I'm achey, especially in my calves, my arms ache, my fingers, my neck hurts, like I said my throat is sore. I don't have any energy, it hurts when I breath, my stomach hurts, my thighs hurt, I've been gnawing the inside of my mouth (uh,-) so it hurts, and I'm tired. I'm yawning at 2 PM...I will be napping once I finish this post. Actually, I'm starting to ache more. I'm developing an ear ache. Woo boy, this is gonna be nuts. YEEHAW!

I actually didn't get anything done on TA today, which is strange. I usually think up a few things as soon as I wake up...oh yeah. Today I woke up to ghastly howls of the undead hordes. Like that one time I was snoring, but I didn't know it, and I thought there was a being (I wasn't sure if it was a witch or a chupacabra at the time) at the foot of my bed hissing. Hiss......hiss......hiss...... I think I finally willed myself to look, or I realized it was me. It took me like 25 seconds of terror, though. I think I did realize it was me.

It turns out, (that today's horror) I don't know what it was. My Mom was doing something, I don't know what. It sounded like...have you ever seen the movie "All in the Zombies"? You know, with that one really bigoted Zombie? Well, I don't think it exists, so if you answer 'yes', you're most likely a liar. You...liar. But you could imagine, like, if the movie did exist, and it had a ghoulish, zombiesh, terrifying, hellacious scream of pure, toxic evil, that's what I woke up to.

Hey...maybe I was screaming in my sleep, and that's why my throat hurts. Dunno. Boy, when I laugh, I can taste blood afterwards. That's a bad sign. It hurts like a...like a...uhm...lion...on a...baseball...court? Full of sheep? Huh, there goes my humor thinger. And my naming thinger. -er.



Anyways, our air conditioner is out. Nothing TOO serious. We'll need to call someone out...we cleaned it both inside and outside, so it's nothing like that. Probably has a leak somewhere. Werewolves do that alot to mess with people. They'll need to fill it back up...and hopefully fix the hole. Luckily, my Mom has forced me to not keep it at 70 degrees so we're not suffering. In the winter I ALWAYS use the air conditioner, you know...it's like a "rite of passage," and I put that in quotations because it's in fact nothing like a rite of passage. I WOULD have it 65 degrees in here to celebrate my being sick, but noOOOOo


...whew, almost lost this post due to a .PDF trying to load. One for the keyboard, I do believe. It had to have my permission, but the "permission" thing wouldn't show up, so I clicked to exit...okay, short story, it almost blew up and I fixed it, miraculously.

I feel really bad for my old computer, the desktop, my Mom's current home computer. It, man, it had trouble running C&C: Tiberian Sun. For some CRAZY reason, it played C&C: Generals easily. It's weird...Tiberian Sun is more graphics intensive than Generals. That game, Generals, sure is fun for compstomps. They're friggin' clueless, but in a funny-good way, lol

The desktop is so slow and clunky...it needs to have a new hard drive, I think. A new start. Someday I'll have to get a new desktop- my laptop will do great with an external hard drive for uh, until they release Red Alert 3 that needs a 512 MB Graphics card and 502 TB of RAM. It's kinda like when Nintendo releases a high-def system, that's when I'm getting an LCD TV. Actually, I might get an LCD TV sooner.

I know that 500 TB of RAM isn't possible. Song of the Day is "Hey Now" by none other than Tobymac. I'm going to tag this and go to sleep. Tech and Sick are new tags. Welcome them, just keep your distance from Sick, as he's covered in milk, butter, and flour. Batter basically. It's to keep the other tags healthy. Oh man I am clever.