ok so im off to college in the fall and my parents are getting me a new laptop for school. i have heard people have problems for tuning (i have TBI in my truck) with window XP, so should i order it with dual boot WinXP and Win98? also, what ports am i going to need, and anything else basically? thanks

i run winaldl successfully with XP and radio shack adapter(serial/usb) for my aldl cable. tunercat works with XP as well. some of us had issues others not, there is a post a while back on how to resolve the problems if any. only thing i noticed is that i need my car started and the winaldl running b4 i attach cable to ALDL.

Good luck with school, make it count.


Get a junker for using in the car. Too often doing something dumb, kills one. The vibration and running with the screen up take their toll after time. Not to meniton the one that ocassionally grows legs, when you run in to get a coke.

If you can run say 98, that would be a good thing, as well as having a Serial Port.

On the Fly Tuners:

PROMinator=Parallel

AutoProm=Serial or USB

On the software side just Get Partion Magic and you can partition you hard drive on the fly without loosing and data form existing drives and install as many OS that you want. I run XP,98,2000 on my home computer off of one Drive.

I'd have to agree with Grumpy... I managed to score a decent laptop for cheap ($150) last year. It was the perfect tuning machine.. PII/400 with 128M of ram (enough to run windows 2000 comfortably), but the great thing is that it has parallel, serial, AND a USB port (along with TV out and pcmcia slots).. Just when I thought that deal couldn't get any better, I scored an extra battery for $15 (this Compaq Armada has dual-battery capability for uptimes of around 3.5 hours--extended datalogs here I come!)..

Couldn't imagine [ab]using a really expensive laptop for tuning use though...

I'd suggest one that has "legacy" ports (i.e. old fashioned serial and parallel), vs. just being all USB. Shouldn't cost any more, and may help you cut down on the need for extra adapters later, since most tuning hardware is intended for the serial port.

Seems like most tuning stuff nowadays is written with XP in mind, so I don't think you'd necessarily need the dual boot. Might have to play around with some settings, but it seems like most people usually get things to work. I wouldn't order a dual boot if it added much at all to the price tag. Also, you might consider just buying a $50 junker laptop for datalogging, rather than subjecting your good machine to being knocked around in your vehicle, or being dropped or stolen.

HTH,

thats actually not a bad idea at all. i was figuring i would only use it regularly when goin to and from school (approx 3 hrs with basically all driving conditions). if i could score a good strictly datalogging machine though, that would be sweet. are any of these tuners in fact "on the fly", like i can adjust something while rolling down the freeway at 70mph?

thanks

In a sense yes But it is recomended to have a passanger do it and On the Fly is usually for tunning purpose. Some People have 2 or 3 different bins that they settle on, one for Crusing, one for racing, one for Smog Checks. So they can do this with out Problems I would recommend if you are by your self and want to switch or change something to pull over keep the car running and then make change and then hit the road again.

I Might be wrong on some asspect here but if I am some one will chime in and correct me.

Please, don't be as stupid as some of the cell phone uses, and think you can do two things at once.

Data log, or pull over and stop.
You can't write notes, type tuning corrrections, and drive at the same time. Tuning on the fly doesn't excuse you from note taking, and without notes, you'll just be wondering around in circles. Looking at one's notes and being able to spot trends makes it a million times easier.

no of course not. when i say "I", i mean can I make it happen basically. I just wanted to know if it can be changed on the fly rather than getting out and re burning then reinstalling a PROM. thanks guys