Mariner Fan Posted June 9, 2008 #1 Posted June 9, 2008 I guess my laptop is toast. The screen just decided to shut off after about a minute. I started it back up and it does the same thing. Took it to a repair shop and they said the motherboard is starting to go out. I think Ruth is feeling abandoned since I have to go upstairs (we have a desktop in the den) to yak on VentureRiders. Has anyone bought a laptop lately? I mainly use mine to surf the internet, download our pictures, and music for the MP3 player. Guess I need to re-educate myself on what all those specifications mean. I have a Dell laptop that is about 3 to 4 years old. Doesn't the new Vista operating system eat up a lot of memory?
GigaWhiskey Posted June 9, 2008 #2 Posted June 9, 2008 If you want to verify what they said, plug in am external monitor. If it does the same thing, it is the mobo cause the video card is built into it. If it works on the external monitor, it is just the LCD going out or the connection to it is bad. You prolly could order an LCD kit if that is all it is. Try a Mac.
Mariner Fan Posted June 9, 2008 Author #3 Posted June 9, 2008 I'll check that out. The computer guys said that they did hook it up to a monitor and it did the same thing only it took longer to black out. Mac eh? Hmmm, never thought of that.
BuddyRich Posted June 9, 2008 #4 Posted June 9, 2008 We have had pretty good luck with Dell's the past couple of years
saddlebum Posted June 9, 2008 #6 Posted June 9, 2008 Get an "Apple". Whats eating healthy got to do with it. OHHH I get it he can chew on the apple while he thinks about what to do , good idea:lightbulb:
friesman Posted June 9, 2008 #7 Posted June 9, 2008 I work in a school system that uses both macs and toshiba laptops with over 1000 of each ibook and Toshiba satellite laptops out in use. Our repair rate on the ibooks is AT LEAST quadruple what we see on the Toshibas. You cant beleive everything you see on the commercials. The MAC osX operating system probabnly is more user friendly but there isnt many games written for it, and I think (purely an opinion, here guys) that xp pro is as good for the average user to use. Tigerdirect.com had some laptops advertized today from 350 bucks on up. My recommendation no matter what you buy is just to load up with as much ram as it will hold and get the biggest harddrive you can get for your budget and youll be fine. Brian :cool10:
Squeeze Posted June 9, 2008 #8 Posted June 9, 2008 Maybe it's just Time to clean everything inside from collected Dust and probably replace the Fan ?
jonesy Posted June 9, 2008 #9 Posted June 9, 2008 Toshiba for brand, premium for vista, at least 2gbs. ram. They don't load a bunch of junk on it, best verison of vista for most, does use ram so 2 or 3 gbs. ram needed. Do not go cheap, $600 +- $50 is the norm for decent machine.
Gray Ghost Posted June 10, 2008 #10 Posted June 10, 2008 Personally I have had great luck with HP. Had one I carted all over the US, a lot of it in my bike trunk, then took it to Iraq and the crappy conditions there. I have since upgraded but it is still in use with one of my sons. I would agree that whatever you get, more ram and more harddrive are always appropriate.
Bummer Posted June 10, 2008 #11 Posted June 10, 2008 Go to a store or two and test drive a few. Find one with a display you like and adequate response. Either buy that one, or write down the major specs - monitor size and processor speed, mostly - then call the Dell Dude. Or whomever. I prefer to feel a laptop prior to buying. Same for keyboards for desktop/towers - I use a Logitec Comfort Cordless ergonomic keyboard. You end up touching these things a lot. It's nice to actually like the feel.
dr_bar Posted June 10, 2008 #12 Posted June 10, 2008 Then there's always the latest technology... Stackable drive laptops. You need more memory? Just stack those babies up. What do they cost? Peanuts, and the user interface is as good as the user could hope for... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www3.telus.net/drbar/pics/paper.jpg
nkbjones Posted June 10, 2008 #13 Posted June 10, 2008 ............................., and I think (purely an opinion, here guys) that xp pro is as good for the average user to use. Tigerdirect.com had some laptops advertized today from 350 bucks on up. My recommendation no matter what you buy is just to load up with as much ram as it will hold and get the biggest harddrive you can get for your budget and youll be fine. Brian :cool10: What he said, get XP and check out the deals at tigerdirect.com
Guest bsreg Posted June 10, 2008 #14 Posted June 10, 2008 I am a toshiba certified tech tat I am a hp master tech I am a dell certified dcse Sony and IBM certified I own a hp, acer, toshiba, ibm, dell, and panasonic laptop. The hp is junk, the acer is worse, dell is the easiest to repair since they break the most, panasonic is toughbook it is pretty bullet proof (literally), I hate with a passion to work on them but the $650.00+ toshibas are probably the best I ever deal with. There lower priced ones are pretty compatable with everyone else.
juggler Posted June 10, 2008 #15 Posted June 10, 2008 I went to the Mac Book Pro this winter. Best computer I've ever owned. I am now very tempted to replace my PC desktop with an iMac desktop.
Mariner Fan Posted June 10, 2008 Author #16 Posted June 10, 2008 Well I had a long talk with our IT guy. My laptop was top of the line 3 years ago and now is a paperweight. Lucky for me, I can still get my saved files from it. I ended up buying another Dell. They had a sale on and I bought it. The funny thing was the XP models ended up costing 150 bucks more than the Vista. So, I bought the sale unit with Vista and 3 gb of memory. Only had to pay 600 bucks for it. Since these seem to have a short life I figured I'd just get a basic one. Thanks for the advice, Bob
Freebird Posted June 10, 2008 #17 Posted June 10, 2008 Last months issue of Consumer Reports had a pretty good review of laptops. I was a bit surprised to see that though Apple had the highest customer support satisfaction, they also had the highest incident of repair.
GigaWhiskey Posted June 10, 2008 #18 Posted June 10, 2008 That is interesting that I am hearing that new about apple. All the people I know have not had any trouble. I have 3 MACS, one is an ancient G3 533 iMac that is still running strong and has OSX 10.3 (paid $75 for it), my Dual 867 G4 MDD Desktop I have had about 6 years has had nothing replaced (Just added memory) ang my 1.8 ghz iMac runs like the dickens. No issues on any of my MACs and my kids use them too! I have seen no viruses or malware/spyware on these machines. Well, there were a bunch of Windows viruses that droppin my mail a few years back but they don't run on my MACs.
FozzyUSN Posted June 10, 2008 #19 Posted June 10, 2008 I have had two HP that were decent, and where I worked used to have Toshiba's. I currently own a Dell (over 2 years) and love it. I picked it up on e-bay for about half the price any of the stores were selling it for. An added advantage on Dell, is that you can still order them with Windows XP loaded on them, provided you like XP.
halfwitt Posted June 10, 2008 #20 Posted June 10, 2008 We have three HP Vista laptops and one HP XP desktop. We have had no problems with any of them. We have not had any issues with Vista.
jonesy Posted June 10, 2008 #21 Posted June 10, 2008 One thing that I heard lately, XP is no longer sold separately as of 6-01-08, on new machines but not seperate. Also next year it won't be supported by Microsoft, no updates. As much as you may not want to, vista is going to be the only way. And that will be updated in a couple of years.
clay18 Posted June 10, 2008 #22 Posted June 10, 2008 well i gota gateway 6860fx that im loving it has vista 64 duo 1.8 intel 17inch widescreen 4 gigs of ram i belive a 300 gig harddrive with a place to put a 2nd one and it was about 1300 at best buy
Al Bates Posted June 10, 2008 #23 Posted June 10, 2008 Don't know what your needs are but this is what I would look for. Processor: I prefer an AMD 14" High-Definition Widescreen Display no less then (1280 x 800) (Small & compacted) System Memory: 4GB DDR2 No less then 3GB DDR2 Hard Drive: 320GB 5400RPM SATA no less then 250GB Blu-ray Disc (BD/DVD/CD read/write) make sure it's a blu ray recorder and not just a Blu-ray disc player Bluetooth Most of all don't over pay for an out of date Computer. Just because it sounds like a good deal, most likely the Computer is out of date. Should get the laptop above for around $1000. to 1700. The Blu-ray recorders (BD/DVD/CD read/writeis) are new and may be hard to fine, but there out there.
Mariner Fan Posted June 10, 2008 Author #24 Posted June 10, 2008 I guess it depends on how you use it. We have a really nice desktop that can handle anything we want. Our now defunct laptop was a high ticket item 3 years ago. We soon found out that the only thing we used it for was the convenience of having a computer downstairs and for trips. We had an overbuilt computer for just checking e-mails and playing on the internet.
Mariner Fan Posted June 10, 2008 Author #25 Posted June 10, 2008 This is what I got. http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DNDWPT3&s=dhs
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