using laptops overseas

[blackcat]

dont have a laptop but may buy one soon.

basic question:
If I buy a laptop here in Japan say with English OS will I have no probs using in Australia..LAN connections etc? or are all PCs pretty much the same?

110/240 volt issues aside.

[Neo-Rio]

As long as the OS (and keyboard) is English, you should have no problems as far as I can tell. Laptops are designed for international travel anyway.

Laptops usually have universal power supplies that automatically do the switching anywhere between 240v-100v (best to check all the same though). All you need is a Japanese to Aussie socket converter so it fits into the wall later.

Ethernet LAN ports work anywhere in the world, unlike dial up modems which work differently, country to country.

[blackcat]

Neo-Rio
Thanks, I thought that must be the case, I also forgot about the plug!
I also wonder if its OK to install English OS, use it then when I'm finished format it and reinstall but with Japanese OS??

I might not need the laptop so long , then I could give it to my wife.

[bolt_krank]

The actual machine itself is the same as what you'll get if you buy overseas.
The power pack is also the same. The only difference is the keyboard.
Japanese models have a Japanese keyboard which has a slightly different layout.

You install whatever OS you want on it (Linux, Windows, etc.) and in a few months, maybe you can install Mac OS too ... but maybe not.

[Hanakuso]

Ive got a dual boot of windows Japanese and English versions on my gals pc here in Aust... Everything seems to work fine with that setup..

[FG Lurker]

You'll have no big problems using a machine in Australia that you buy here.

There are of course a couple of things to consider. One is power, as mentioned above. You can buy laptop power cables anywhere though, so you can pick up one with an Aussie-style plug on it, or just use an adapter.

Another is the fax/modem, which you'll quite likely never use anyway. Every modem that I have seen on a modern laptop is multi-country now so that angle should not be an issue. As with the power plug above though you will need an adapter or a new cable. No biggie.

Warranty is something else. If you are thinking about moving home soon after buying the machine you should be aware that you will likely have no warranty in Australia, even if the sales guy claims the warranty is "international". Many international warranties are for travelers, not for people who move from one place to another. If you are in Australia with a dead notebook screen chances are high that they will not fix it for you.

For OS and keyboard... If you buy an IBM, Toshiba, or Dell, you can get English keyboards and OS on some models. Dell has the widest selection (most Latitude models). You can't buy these English models in stores, only from direct from Dell/IBM/Toshiba.

If you do buy a Japanese model from a shop it will very likely come with a set of "Recovery CDs". If it doesn't then you should be able to order them from the manufacturer, but recently some models come with their recovery data on the hard disk only. If so you will want to find someone who will make you some recovery CDs from the machine when it is new. Otherwise if the hard disk (or OS...) crashes then you're stuck with no easy way to recover the computer. Once you have the recovery CDs in hand you can wipe the machine and install English OS and set up the Japanese keyboard. At some point in the future if you want to re-install Japanese you only need to wipe the English OS and run the recovery CDs.

If you do buy from a shop stay far away from non-standard machines such as what Sony loves to put out. These machines will of course run English XP, but generally speaking all those neat-o whiz-bang proprietary features won't work. Sony is especially bad as they do not provide full drivers for download, only upgrades that require you to have the original (and unavailable) driver installed first... Gotta love that "logic".

However, rather than go through the install/reinstall language switching mess, you may find that your wife is fine working with English Windows XP. If properly set up it will support Japanese perfectly, running *any* Japanese program in exactly the same way that Japanese WinXP does.

[GomiGirl]

What OS are you thinking of getting as the situation is much different for different platforms.

[blackcat]

thanks one and all! appreciate it.

well situation is I`ll head back to OZ soon then my wife will come a few months later(long story) anyway I need a PC for a while, and she was going to buy a Japanese OS laptop and take back with her,now I could use that but was worried I may have some hassles setting it up over there...so I thought I could get a no OS laptop,I have my own CD XP pro install and it until she comes. then format and install Japanese OS so she can use it, reason is we use an old PC(partitioned J/E) now and need a new desktop, but I dont want to buy a destop first up as I'll be moving around, and dont really want to buy 1 new desktop and 2 new laptops!!

SO I have another question, any big deal in using a Japanese keyboard with eng. OS?

and the way I see it, If I get a laptop with no OS here, use my XP CD, then she can use japanese later after I format it?

thanks again.

[Neo-Rio]

I know for a fact that Japanese Windows XP can work quite admirably on an English keyboard. The only problem is that it is a bit of a pain to switch between hiragana,katakana, kanji, etc.... because of the missing keys.. but it is possible.

English Windows doesn't work out of the box the other way around so well with a Japanese keyboard (maybe there's some way to make it work, but if there is, it's not very obvious as to what it is though). Maybe someone can chime in about that.

And the other people are on the money about laptops with weird proprietary add on hardware that only has drivers on the Windows recovery CD. (Sony is a big offender in that department. eg. their scroll wheel). Avoid those where possible, or you'll have issues when you decide to use something else on those machines besides the recovery CD.

If you're technically inclined, it is possible to make your own laptop from a barebones kit (e.g. ASUS's) and get an OS seperately. May be too difficult/troublesome for you, but the option exists.

[FG Lurker]

English Windows doesn't work out of the box the other way around so well with a Japanese keyboard (maybe there's some way to make it work, but if there is, it's not very obvious as to what it is though). Maybe someone can chime in about that.

Windows 2000 and XP have drivers for Japanese keyboards included with the OS. You just switch the driver to one for a Japanese keyboard and choose the Japanese layout in the Regional/Language Options control panel applet and it works without trouble.

Ancient history now, but it is also relatively easy to make a Japanese keyboard work on English Win95/98. NT is also possible but I never managed to get the CAPS LOCK key to work properly with it. Never use CAPS LOCK anyway so it was never really an issue.

[FG Lurker]

so I thought I could get a no OS laptop,I have my own CD XP pro install and it until she comes. then format and install Japanese OS so she can use it

You can get no-OS laptops if you buy a brandless one from one of the many shops in nipponbashi/akihabara. If you want to get a Toshiba/Fujitsu/NEC/IBM/etc machine then it will come with an OS.

SO I have another question, any big deal in using a Japanese keyboard with eng. OS?

No problem at all, just install the Japanese keyboard driver and choose the Japanese keyboard layout in the Regional Settings.

and the way I see it, If I get a laptop with no OS here, use my XP CD, then she can use japanese later after I format it?

Sure, you can do that, or you can leave it in English. Once you have installed the Japanese language support (included with 2K/XP) and set the default language to Japanese then the machine will function exactly as a Japanese Windows machine would. So much so that if you install a multilanguage program it will install the Japanese version, not the English one.

[blackcat]

Sure, you can do that, or you can leave it in English. Once you have installed the Japanese language support (included with 2K/XP) and set the default language to Japanese then the machine will function exactly as a Japanese Windows machine would.

Thats what ive heard but my wife thinks it has some limitations(otherwise why produce a japanese version?) we used the old language support dowloads a few years back, she wasnt happy...is it capable of doing everything in nihongo.

anyway If I install my old Xp will is there a likelyhood Ill have driver problems installing on a laptop with no pre-installed OS?

thanks folks...ahh computers gotta love em, gotta hate em!

BTW i was thinking of one of these...
http://www.primepc.jp/goods_pc/feature.php?v17=516&v18=1&v19=0

[FG Lurker]

Sorry for the slow reply, I didn't see your message.

Thats what ive heard but my wife thinks it has some limitations(otherwise why produce a japanese version?) we used the old language support dowloads a few years back, she wasnt happy...is it capable of doing everything in nihongo.

There is actually no such thing as Japanese Windows 2K/XP, English Windows 2K/XP, French, German, etc. There is only Windows 2K/XP, and on top of that is an interface in the desired language. This is of course transparent to the user.

If you install Windows 2K/XP and add the Asian Language Support, you can then set the default language to Japanese. The interface of the OS is still in English, but you can install Japanese programs (ALL Windows programs, not just Unicode) and they will work perfectly. You also get full 2K/XP IME support, not some scaled down version like they used to give with the 9x OSes.

In order to get a Japanese keyboard to work you have to do the following:
1. Install the Asian Language Support (or just Japanese if you wish). Reboot when requested.

2. Go into the Device Manager and find the keyboard. Tell it you want to update the driver. It will show you only the English driver, but click where it says "show me all possible drivers" or something similar. Scroll up the list and you will see the Japanese driver. Choose to install it and click on OK/Yes for the warning messages that come up. Reboot again.

3. Now go to the "Regional and Language Options" control panel applet (in XP. The name in 2K is slightly different but similar.) Click on the Language tab and then click on the details button. Here you can add a Japanese keyboard layout, set it to default, click apply, and then remove the US keyboard layout. Don't forget to click apply before you try to remove the US layout!

That's it! Your Japanese keyboard will work fine on English XP from now on. If you do these steps during the installation process then all users on the machine will default to these settings. Otherwise you may need to set up each user, a PITA.

If you want to set the default Language to Japanese then you can do that under the Advanced tab on the same "Regional and Language Options" control panel applet. You'll have to reboot after this as well.

anyway If I install my old Xp will is there a likelyhood Ill have driver problems installing on a laptop with no pre-installed OS?

Laptops with no preinstalled OS will likely come with multilingual drivers on a CD or two.

thanks folks...ahh computers gotta love em, gotta hate em!

BTW i was thinking of one of
these...

Looks fine to me. I would probably opt to buy an Acer or AOpen notebook though, that way you are cutting out the middle man (Prime PC) and should be able to get a better deal. Don't worry about quality so much, well over 90% of notebooks are now made by one of 3 Taiwanese companies, Apple included.