User's guides for Laptops



Does this annoy anyone else or am I the only one?

Whenever I get a new computer - laptops are the worst, but it seems to
be a general rule - the largest and most complete user's guides are
for the most unimportant and simplest components. You can be sure that
the loudspeaker will come with a thick book in at least four
languages, but you're lucky if the system box has any instructions at
all.

I've just taken delivery of a new Dell Latitude D420. I can't say
whether I like it or not, but I will say that it took 20 minutes to
work out how to turn it on! It comes with a base station ("Media
Base"). Needless to say, this optional extra comes with a good thick
guide and diagrams of all of the many connectors and switches. The
power adapter has several guides and warnings for different countries.
But the box itself - absolutely nothing.

It has a switch on the side with and O and a I - but this is NOT the
power switch. Apparently it turns WiFi connectivity on and off. I
think you can remove the battery, but I'm not sure. The touchpad has a
couple of spare buttons - what are they for? Search me. How long does
the battery last? Clue: The Dell site says it has "a long battery
life" - but is this 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 days? And how can I find
out? Apparently I can expand the DDR2 RAM - but this is no use to me
because I've no idea how to open the box. And so on and on.

A simple PDF with diagrams showing the various parts would go a long
way to making the computer usable! I've singled out the D420 because
that's what I have, but I am sure other notebooks are no better.
Desktops might be just as bad - but at least with them being so much
bigger, things like the power switch are more obvious (although Dell
again like to disguise the power switch as much as possible).

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