Customer Reviews

Averatec AV6240-EH1 15.4" Laptop (Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 3000+, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW Drive)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I compared a plethora of high-end laptops before purchasing my Averatec 6240. For the price, the Averatec product has somewhat better features than comparable products from other big name brands like Compaq and HP. The one aspect of the Averatec unit that drove me to purchase it are its weight, thickness and battery life. At a smidge over one inch thick, it's very thin compared to other 15.4" laptops and has very nice aesthetics. You can watch three DVD movies one battery, very nice. I have been extremely pleased with the unit so far: great screen, lots of processing power, ample hard drive... My CD drive did break after a month of so of use, but that kind of bad luck can hit with any manufacturer because most of them OEM things like CD drives these days anyway. What really perturbed me was that Averatec will not let you return the unit to the place of purchase but require you to return the unit via mail to their repair facility in Silicon Valley. They will not pay for shipping, so you're out anywhere between $30 and $50 by the time you ship with insurance. Other than the shipping complaint, I'm very happy with my purchase.

Received my unit over 3 weeks ago and everything is still working great.

Pros:
- Lot of processing power
- Beautifull screen
- 4 usb ports
- TV out
- Price
- Can be used as DVD player with processor off. Has remote control.


Cons:
- Runs a little hot on your left leg when used a a LAPtop.
- My screen has one bad pixel left bottom corner (in the start button). This I don't considder this as a problem.- Inbuild speakers sound thin. (via headphones and the installed "sound effect manager" the quality is good)

Not a single software or hardware problem sofar.
I mainly use this computer to edit mepeg2 video and this computer does it well. Networking via wifi is good the range and connection speed (48Mbps) is good.
I'am happy with this computer. I like the color and design.

PROS:
Nice monitor
Pretty durable
Nice and light
3 DVDs on one charge is decent (video could be better but oh well)
Frickin' FAST! (Athlon 64 will blow you away)
Lots of drive space
Generous amounts of RAM
Great keyboard and touchpad with scrolls
Multimedia keys on the front

CONS:
WARNING!! IF YOU ARE BUYING THIS LAPTOP FOR PRESENTATIONS, LOOK ELSEWHERE. IF YOU CAN GET AN EXTERNAL MONITOR/S-VIDEO CONNECTION EVEN WORKING (TAKES A LOT OF MESSING WITH) THE ASPECT RATIO ON THE LAPTOP'S MONITOR WILL NEVER BE THE NATIVE RESOLUTION.

Forget gaming, the best game I could get to work was GTA: Vice City. Even old Half Life 1 games (Counter-strike, TFC) were unplayable. Anything with a 2d engine should be OK.

Overheating problems. My laptop was overheating so I sent it in to averatec to be repaired under warrenty. Unfortunatly, I had to pay for the shipping ($20). That was two months ago, it's been working fine but recently started overheating again. Apparently they use substandard thermal compound that can't handle the heat this thing puts out.

LOUD fan when running at 100% CPU

Gets very warm under wrists

Only 2 hours of battery life. They'll tell you 2.5-3 hours. Don't believe them.

Pretty bad wireless card. If you're close to the router you should be fine but it has a hard time picking up low strength signals when other cards do just fine.

Installed memory is 2x256 PC2700 333MHZ DDR. Expensive to upgrade, 1 GB of memory runs about $120 as opposed to DDR2 which is about $70.

Overall, if you plan on using one monitor, doing minimal gaming, and have the know how to take apart the laptop (voiding the warrenty), remove the heatsync, apply a better quality thermal compound and put the whole thing back together, this is the laptop for you.

I run a few laptops during the day here for various reasons.
No problems except the laptop generates so much HEAT.
I called customer service this morning. They told me to change the bios settings to turn off the fan. Are you kidding me. The fan is the only thing keeping this computer from melting.

This is no joke. I can keep my coffee warm by keeping the mug next to the vent.

Be careful what you pay for. I would spend the extra $300 or so dollars the next time.

The Averatec 6240 is a potentially nice laptop with 1280x800 screen, 4 USB ports, 64-bit AMD processor, and upgradable to 2GB of ram.

I've upgraded my laptop to the max 2GB, and it is very nice that way. I've also set up a dual-booted environment with Linux and Windows, so I will speak on that as well.

Firstly, the functionality -- I have a loose key on the keyboard and a single pixel out on the display. I have lived with both, as I don't fathom sending my workhorse out on an RMA. Pretty down on that. I need my hardware to just work and I don't have time to be without. The laptop runs hot -- the exhaust is on the right side where I generally have my hand operating the wireless mouse, and the exhaust is so hot it nearly burns my fingers!!!! I wish they had blown the air out elsewhere, but they can't really do that from the back because that entire area is taken up by the battery. Fan is noisy too. You can hear it constantly changing speed to handle the shifting cooling requirements.

Secondly, on the Linux side, I have Fedora Core 6 64-bit installed, and it is nice -- except you may find you have to hunt down and install the driver for its display (SiS M760), though I think it's covered OK in the FC6 release (I started out with FC4 on it and I did have to hunt down a driver at that time to handle the 1280x800 display mode). Also, the current driver does not support acceleration, so forget running Google Earth under Linux. Also, you will definitely need to hunt down the driver for the WiFi -- an RT2500 driver, which you will have to compile and install. WiFi works nicely under Linux, better, actually, than it does under Windows, at least at T-Mobile HotSpot points.

Thirdly, under Windows, it runs OK except when it overheats during game play, in which case the system simply shuts down. Some have suggested cleaning out the dust buildup, so I should try that. Also, the Windows CD it came with does not allow you to install Windows on a partitioned drive (which I need for dual booting) -- it wants to overwrite everything on the drive afresh, wiping out my Linux install. I had to get a "bootlegged" copy of Windows XP even though I paid for the Windows that came with the laptop. Which means, of course, I can't upgrade XP from Microsoft. I tried, and even though I had the original CD, they insisted that I reinstall Windows afresh, blowing away my dual-booting environment. They were rather nasty about it considering all I wanted to do was upgrade a single bloody driver. I know there's "Partition Magic" and other utilities that would probably allow me to install the crap that came with the laptop and restructure it, etc, but I really don't have time to muck around. My development is done under Linux and Windows is simply there to play games and to test sites with IE.

Overall, I like the laptop except for these nits. I can get my main work done with it, and I do have to live with the lack of video acceleration under Linux and the crappy WiFi under Windows. Aside from that, I would recommend this laptop for Linux users who have no need for graphics acceleration. The 1280x800 aspect ratio allows me to get two windows of code up side-by-side, and the 2GB ram and the 64-bit processor allows me to do serious software development.

The computer was not in stock so my order was canceled, therefore I really do not have a review for this item.