Dear CJ
Thanks for offering to help with this. The typical problems appear to be:
1. Reawakening after the laptop goes into "standby". On some occasions it comes out of standby when you press any key, sometimes it does not (and you have to take the battery out and reboot). On my machine it seems to reawaken properly if the stanby is initiated by use of the "on/off" button but not if the standby is initiated by closing the lid. None of the Tech/consumer lines at DSG seem to have the answer (except disabling standby in XP).
2. DSG and Philips are unable to sell a spare battery or even identify where one could be bought. Worse still they cannot identify the precise model name. The source of the difficulty is that no-one is prepared to say who actually makes the machine (it appears to be made under licence from Philips, but they will not assist). I even tried to get hold of the design/purchasing dept at DSG to see what spec they use when they buy, but of course it was impossible to get through the telephone system.
Any reliable answers you could give would be gratefully received!
Matt

Hi just bought the x56 yes2day fab laptop !!! Just wondering whats the max RAM you can place into the laptop ?

Hi,
For the folks who've bought the X56 and are still struggling to find spare batteries - After what must have been 20 odd phone calls getting bounced from the various DSG guises to another, phoning Twinhead in Malaysia, and in Australia, emailing every man and his dog about the laptop and doing a bit of digging on the PC world support site I did manage to answer the battery question.

The X56 shares the chassis with a few of the other X series laptops. What you should know is that partmaster do have these in stock when I last checked. The problem is twofold a) Partmaster's data on their spares is rather weak, so for example if you use their website and search for Philips X series batteries you get nothing, even though they are carrying some in stock. b) secondly, the staff who work at Partmaster wouldn't win any awards for initiative or creativity so you have to employ your own.

It took several of my phone calls to partmaster to get them to look in detail at the battery specs being listed on the X batterys that they *did* have in stock, and it turned out that for several of the X laptops this was in fact exactly the same part. But Partmaster are clearly assigning a laptop model to the batteries as they come into stock, meaning that they'll tell you they have an X53 battery in stock, but no X55 or X56 batteries, although they are the same.

With some persuasion I got one of the geniuses in PC world to manually remove a battery from one of the other X models and insert it into the X56, with which it worked perfectly.

There's quite a bit of information on these models here if you dig:
http://support.pcworld.co.uk/layout.aspx?ID={332f0901-e701-4cda-bcb0-11d06ce35c3b}&CatID={16e3e8a0-22bc-407b-b588-b6a29f3e7303}

Note the models that look identical. Click on their hardware specs. Click on battery, and look at the model, they refer to Philips Li-On 3800. You can see the same battery is referred to under various X models, but not all. However I should point out this is not the actual product name of the battery, I think the 3800 is the mAh rating not the model name.

Anyway to cut a long story short, identify the models that are the same chassis, call partmaster, ask if ANY of those batteries are in stock and just order away. I think it was quite reasonable the price I was quoted, something like £55.

Good luck.,

Bob

Hiya CJ...
Firstly I must say you're braver than I am. I think a lot of people have fallen out with Dixons etc over the years and so often it's the staff who get it in the neck. Anyway... Bum-licking aside...

I'd like to ask you if you can shed any light on the Vista upgrade. I bought my x56 from Dixons Online, and was quite happy with the service I got, just seems the after sales doesn't match sales, and I can't get any SOLID info.

Thanks again... And good luck!

@Sue:

Hi you probably already resolved this with pc world but for the benefit of those who may encounter the same problem with missing dvd rom drive icon. You will need to revert back to the manufacturer's default setting. START=>All programs->System recovery->System recovery (select the last opt quick format)

Remember to back anything on you computer before running the program.

You probably wonder why you need to do this when the computer is brand new. So was mine, but reverting it back to default does resolve some installation issue. In my installation i also had problems with the sound. Reverting resolves both sound and dvd rom issues. Shouldn't a brand new laptop already installed with such default setting. Well your guess is as good as mine!!!!

I went back to Currys asking where's my free vista upgrade and I asked this sales person and he wasn't sure what to do so he asked the store manager, he told me when vista is released you ring up Microsoft UK quote your receipt number and they MS will sent out vista to you. Hope this is useful to any one.

Any news on Linux and Philips X56? I'm particularly interested in openSUSE.

Lee

Richard et al
That's the fourth different 'story' on Vista upgrade I've heard from DSG! They either don't inform/train their staff or, if they do, they employ people who don't listen/understand/care. Wouldn't it be great if they just said "I'm sorry, I really don't know but let me find out for you" and then actually did it. No doubt there are competent and well intentioned people at DSG but everyone's experience here and elsewhere suggests they are in a tiny minority. In our market economy such behaviour should kill a business off but unfortunately once a business has a substantial monopoly the market stops working. Or maybe this is the one employee with the right advice????? Sorry to be so consistently cynical. My X56 is fantastic and I haven't had any problems (other than the battery sourcing issue) - hope I'm not tempting fate - but PC World/Currys/Dixons ne Currys Digital annoy me more and more with almost every visit. I'm semi-illiterate when it comes to computers yet again and again I know more than they do - they just bluff (when you can find anyone that is). In contrast, staff at my local Computer Fair are enthusiasts and answer any dumb questions with good advice and a smile.

Re: linux
I have Ubuntu (well Kubuntu actually) running on my X56 though it wasn't an easy task. as far as I can tell it is hit or miss. though I haven't tried Suse myself I don't think it is one of the ones that 'just works' (google might help). I had to fiddle with it a lot to get Ubuntu working. Slax on the other hand worked brilliantly (apart from the resolution not quite right and the lack of laptop button support) so if I had a problem I put the Slax CD in booted it up deleted/edited the appropriate file then tried again.
The best guide for Ubuntu was here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=287939&page=2
(page 2 had the how-to part)

Good Luck

The Vista upgarde is a huge black hole at the minute with all purchases not just the X56 and not just from a DSG store. I bought a second laptop direct from Sony not long after buying an X56 and even though Sony are a registered seller for the upgrade programme they know nothing either! You merely register your email address with them for future info and I mena JUST your email address. I get the impression these upgrades will be dished out oin the New Year pretty much to anypone willing to pay the postage regardless of whether youve bought a new pc or not.