[Marty]

Many of you tune and modify the LS1. This requires a laptop with a serial port which is hard to come by and the add on serial ports from a USB may or may not work. I've also heard that programs like HPTuner don't like Vista which is the current standard. I was wondering if there was a market in the GM EFI tuning community for a remanufactured laptop?

There is a picture below along with a review. The specifics of what I have is 512 MB Ram, 80 gig hard drive, 2 USB ports, recessed serial port, and a DVD reader. The drawback I can see is they are bigger and heavier than a standard laptop. You could get a bar bones new mini laptop plus remote serial port for the same price. The Benefits are that you can drop them while running, will work after being driven over by a light car, and they are water resistant. This would help for the tough environments where cars are tuned. The parts and batteries are still available from Panasonic. It would come with a fresh load of Windows XP Pro but no Office Suite. This laptop was between $3500 and $4500 new and it would be around $450 used.

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/panasonic-...7-30676333.html

Would there be any interest out there?

[sgarnett]

I might be interested in theory. My tuning laptop died, and replacing it with a ruggedized box does have some appeal.

In practice, my net taxable income for 2008 is going to be much higher than my net actual income for 2008, so taxes are going to be very painful this year. My employer has also made it fairly clear that the January layoffs may not be the last.

So, the timing sucks, at least for me (along with the rebuildable hubs, tire blankets and several other items that hit just as my budget cratered). Maybe later.

[pknowles]

I might be interested in theory. My tuning laptop died, and replacing it with a ruggedized box does have some appeal.

In practice, my net taxable income for 2008 is going to be much higher than my net actual income for 2008, so taxes are going to be very painful this year. My employer has also made it fairly clear that the January layoffs may not be the last.

So, the timing sucks, at least for me (along with the rebuildable hubs, tire blankets and several other items that hit just as my budget cratered). Maybe later.

Sean, I'm an HP fan boy. I have an HP DV1000 laptop and love it. A quick search on eBay found a bunch of these for under $200. Take out the 2 that are crazy overpriced and all of them are under $200. There is a great one with out a HDD for $102!

Over course it depends are how comfortable you are working on computers. I find that most people don't want to touch them to fix them. My wife has a DV6000 that I got free early last year with a bad motherboard. I replaced the motherboard for $200 and a few hours of my time (laptops are not fun at all to work on). Can't beat a 1.83GHz core 2 duo with 2GB ram for $200 and a few hours of time. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/2thumbs.gif)