Laptops

Post by **TheCatt** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 10:51 am

Is it me, or do most laptops out there just suck?

I'm required to get one for the MBA program, so I started looking around. The Dells just look cheap, the HPs look even cheaper. Sony's are a fortune for one you'd actually want. I won't consider a Mac....

I guess I haven't looked at Alienware yet, but are there any good laptops out there otherwise?

Post by **Troy** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 11:42 am

Before i spilled water on it and broke it, my IBM T41 was one helluva machine... everything you need without all the expensive little addons or Dell software BS.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 1:07 pm

I've heard a lot of good things about Toshiba. They don't break as easily as most laptops.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 1:11 pm

Troy wrote:Before i spilled water on it and broke it, my IBM T41 was one helluva machine... everything you need without all the expensive little addons or Dell software BS.

Are you sure it was water?

I had a guy bring a laptop into the shop because it stopped working. He claimed to have no idea why.

I took it apart and beer dribbled out. I found puddles of beer throughout.

I called him, and he did a "Oh yeah, we did spill can of beer on it the night before" thing. Dumbass.

I'm nost sure if I got it working or not. Sometimes you can dry those things out and they'll start up.

Post by **Troy** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 1:32 pm

Na, definetly a glass of water...

It would have cost me 1k to fix through IBM so I sold it on Ebay for like 650 bucks. Apparently there is a big market for broken laptops.

Post by **TheCatt** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 2:20 pm

I spilled on a coke on a laptop once. It screwd it up at the time, but the next day, once the coke dried, it was fine.

Post by **GORDON** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 2:39 pm

TheCatt wrote:I spilled on a coke on a laptop once. It screwd it up at the time, but the next day, once the coke dried, it was fine.

I'd think sugar crystals would be a kiss of death.

Mommy Dearest · Post by **Mommy Dearest** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 3:58 pm

I have a couple of cheap dells that i use at the office and they work pretty well. Hooked up to a desktop, keyboard and monitor and can disconnect to take home. Little slow on the startup but other than that really handy

69-1098720866 · Post by **69-1098720866** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 4:30 pm

My laptop is a Dell that I got a lil over a year ago. It usually works pretty well for me and I like it, but I know nothing about computers, so I suppose that means nothing.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 5:01 pm

TheCatt wrote:Sony's are a fortune for one you'd actually want.

You can whore yourself to 50 fat chicks for $1,000 each. Hey fat chicks need love too, they just gotta pay.

Post by **Troy** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 5:30 pm

"Hey, you ladies ever been penetrated?"

*Whack*

Shaft · Post by **Shaft** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 11:17 pm

For what it's worth, I'm on my second HP Pavillion. I bought one about 4 years ago, and it is still running fine. It was a PII 650 mhz. Gave it to the wife when I got my current one, about 6 months ago. P4, 3.2Ghz w/a gig o ram.

The main reason I bought HP again was service. I had to get a new power supply and a new keyboard on the first one. And HP service was excellent both times. And Oddly enough, I just got this one back today from service. Yes, they do break, but they fix them quickly. I had to have the motherboard repaired where the power supply connects. I just sent if off on Tuesday, and got it back today. That is pretty damn fast in my book.

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 11:35 pm

I'd rather have a laptop from someone with really really shitty service, but never breaks.

I've had a cheap Compaq from Best Buy for about a year and have had zero problems with it. SP2 slowed the Network interfaces (wireless and RJ45) way down. But, there was a hardware patch that sped it right back up. Only beef I have with it is, the volume is way too low when playing DVDs. Music plays fine, but you can barely hear the DVDs. Also, it warns you when the batteries are low and needs to be plugged in about 6 seconds before it hibernates. So, it's a mad scramble to get it plugged in when it warns you. Knew a kid going to college to be an engineer. Took his Compaq with him everywhere. Never had any issues with it. That's what I based my purchase on. If he could beat on his and not have problems, I should be able to take care of mine and be doubly fine.

Post by **TheCatt** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 12:49 pm

I guess HP would be better with a more than 1 year laptop. Mine died at 18months. PoS.

So what Dells do peeps have?

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 3:16 pm

I've seen alot of Dells over the years. Had about a 10% break down rate. Saw prolly 20 of them in corporate use, and at least two of them had to be repaired. However, it's always unknown if it's a user caused issue, or manufacturing. You just get the laptop with a "I dunno. It just stopped working." explination. However, of the 2 that I used for about 4 years, neither ever gave me any trouble and I liked them alot. And for comparison, every PC I've ever seen in corporate use had about the same breakdown/repair rate. About 10-15% would have issues. From the days of Compaq Deskpros in the mid/late 90's to the Dell Dimensions being put on corporate desktops. The only brand that stands out is Fujitsu. Of the 20 I saw in use, about half broke down to the point that it was too expensive to fix them. I ended up saving 10 of them from the dumpster. Changed parts enough to get 4 complete, and 3 usable laptops out of the group. By 3 usable, I mean, one didn't have sound or a CD drive, the other didn't have a CD drive, and one had a darker than you'd want screen and no CD drive. Anyway, Fujitsu has a very bad history with me. Most recent Dell issue I was aware of was: Sister inlaw called and said her keyboard wouldn't work. Would boot up. Mouse worked, etc, couldn't type. She called Dell and they had her hold a series of keys down while rebooting and things like that. No BIOS changes, or anything. The keyboard started working again. No idea what it was, but it was fixed with a phone call.

69-1098720866 · Post by **69-1098720866** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:46 pm

Paul wrote:
Troy wrote:Before i spilled water on it and broke it, my IBM T41 was one helluva machine... everything you need without all the expensive little addons or Dell software BS.

Are you sure it was water?

I had a guy bring a laptop into the shop because it stopped working. He claimed to have no idea why.

I took it apart and beer dribbled out. I found puddles of beer throughout.

I called him, and he did a "Oh yeah, we did spill can of beer on it the night before" thing. Dumbass.

I'm nost sure if I got it working or not. Sometimes you can dry those things out and they'll start up.

Umm....How would you go about cleaning baby puke out from under the keys of a laptop? The only way my 9mo niece would stop cryin was sitting on my lap watching the mouse go around the screen. Well, then she decided to puke all over the keyboard. I was able to clean most of it off but there's some under the keys that I cant get to....ugh.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 9:11 am

Sucko! Regular keyboard keys simply pop out and in. Laptop keys are a pain to deal with, and they have little clip-things under there that have to re-attache just right. Plus they can break if you don't pull them out correctly.

Try *gently* pulling off a key that you don't use. Then clean and reattach it. Go slowly and methodically.

You may want to remove the keyboard from the laptop, so you can spend time on it. You can just plug a regular keyboard into the laptop in the meantime.