|
Advent 6520 Specifications:
| CPU |
Intel Celeron 1.2GHz |
| Motherboard |
Mobo |
| Memory |
512MB SDRAM |
| Hard Drive |
30 GB (removable) |
| CD Drive |
Matshita UJDA 710 Combo drive (Internal) |
| Floppy Drive |
1.44mb 3.5" Drive (Internal) |
| Screen |
15.1" TFT (Native Res.1024x768) |
| Video Card |
SiS 630/730 8Mb Shared + TV Out |
| Sound Card |
SiS 7018 |
| Speaker |
Stereo Internal |
| PCMCIA Slots
|
1 Type I or II or III slot |
| LAN |
SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet |
| Modem |
Smart Link 56k HAMR56-V2.84 |
| Battery Info |
Smart Li-ion (Li-Ion) |
| IR Port |
1 x IR port on right side of case |
| Ports |
1 x Parallel
1 x Serial
1 x P/S 2
1 x VGA out
1 x USB
1 x S-Video |
| Made By |
Gericom: Rebadged as Advent (PCWorld Brand) |
I chose this laptop merely due to its specifications, eg the 15" screen, 30gb hard drive and the CD-RW. Also at that particular point in time in
my opinion for these specifications it was a bargain GB £1,299.
The only bad thing I can say about the Advent 6520 notebook is the sheer weight of the beast, Approx 3.4kg, quite heavy
but well worth it considering its specs at the time of purchase. Also because the processor is a Celeron it lacks the advantages of
Intel's Speed Step Mobile technology
The components seem to absorb a lot of power (when running off the battery, you get about 90mins usuage). The system fan seems to
situated in an awkward position and tends to overheat if the notebook is placed on an uneven surface. (one of the ducts is underneath
the notebook and the other on side)
XP Home Edition was installed on the notebook however proved to be very instable even when operating the simplest of tasks.
Windows 2000 was installed as the alternative OS and is so much more stabler (The system had a drivers cd for other Windows
operating system including Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows XP. - see below if you need or want to download the drivers for the
Advent 6520).
Having owned the system for thirteen months now the only complaints I have are a sore back and a slight whirring noise/hammering
noise coming from the HD (which started to occur 9 months from date of sale. The HD is a 2.5" Fujitsu which speaks for itself.
Replacement HDs can be bought from Dabs.com. If one day the HD dies I'll perform
surgery on the beast and get it a 60gb. The manual is very clear and concise should you become lost when using the laptop. It has
detail instructions on opening the case up, dismantling the keyboard. Only if PCWorld's customer support was written/documentated
as well as the manual then the High Street Store would kick some ass.
The Advent is PCWorld's own brand, over the years I have owned several computers and found them to be very reliable. The only
thing I dislike about Advent is their assocation with PCWorld. The specifications of the system seem quite reasonable, more often
than not value for money and also very robust/reliable. This does not mean that I am recommending PCWorld's services, the only
reason I buy from there is because when components fail I can easily replace the parts from mail order company.
When buying a computer from PCWorld its best to take a friend/colleague that know their stuff as PCWorld sales staff often do
not understand the needs and requirements of the user. In most instances PCs are used for emailing, word processing, yet the
staff recommend the top of the range systems sometimes costing £1,500 when a just as capable pc on their shelves can be bought
for £600 or less and do just as good a job.
Personally I cringe when I am on the premises and sales staff point newbies to the most expensive system. I find this extremely
bad practice and a lot of high street stores are guilty of this.
I also find sales staff do not understand what the computers offer and often when explaining stuff to the public they baffle
them with terms which in my opinion they do not understand themselves.
Conclusion:
A good decent notebook, at the time of writing, great value for money, very robust, good documentation and software package. The only
critism is its weight and lack of technical support from PCWorld when emailing them technical questions. I have emailed them three
times without no response on any of the occasions, however upon persistency I have managed to solve the problem myself.
If you would like
more information on the Advent series laptops/notebooks visit
UKTSupport or PCServiceCall. If you need any assistance with your Advent laptop.notebook or desktop computer you can post questions on my advent support forum (link provided below) and I will see what I can do regarding locating the drivers. If you do need
help the most important details I need is the make and model of the computer/laptop and the operating system that you need the
drivers for.
Also I have an unofficial advent support forum due to the millions of email requests in my email inbox. Visit
the unofficial Advent Support Forum where you can post your queries etc.
Download Advent 6520 Laptop drivers:
Unfortunately due to bandwidth costs which I can't afford to pay due to the high downloads of drivers. I
have had to take some drivers offline. However if you need specific drivers then leave a message on the forum, you will need to register to post messages.
3 mode floppy 171kb - including 2k, 98 NT
Audio drivers 7,621kb - including win2000, win95_98, win98se, winme, winse
Lan drivers 10,833kb - including all OS under the sun
Modem drivers 11,674kb - including NT4.0, win2k, win98, winme, winXP
VGA win2k & winXP drivers 42,135kb
VGA win9x including win95 & win98 drivers 49,230kb
VGA winnt 4.0 drivers 78kb
Utilities 2,053kb - including Flash82X, HDPREP, QBrowser, QKEYS
VGA Utility 1,215kb - you need this little application if you want to view stuff from your
laptop to tv via s-video (I am in progress of writing instructions on how to do this)
View the readme.txt on the above drivers & utilities
Advent 6520 manual download 912 KB
For the larger files and those on 56k modems I can extract the drivers needed for your Operating System and upload them here
for you to download.
If you would like me to do this post a message on my unofficial Advent Laptop Support forum.
Also you can download Gericom notebook drivers direct from their site
ftp://ftp.gericom.com/notebook/. I have had difficulty navigating their
ftp as their directories was not the easiest to navigate around.
(c) Cheester - no responsibility or liability can be accepted for information used on these
pages
|