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[tidla]

i was considering entering the laptop repair business..



but i have run out of parcel tape!

seriously though, this piece of junk has after 3yrs:

colour lines down the screen.
all three usb ports shorted out/broken
cracked case
cracked and broken hinges
dicky charge port and a non existant battery.


anybody got any recommendations at the cheap end of the market?

[tunnie]

yeah, avoid HP. They are absolute. total. utter. crap. shite build! It stays locked away too, its not as if its carted around a lot.

I'd go Dell if you limited on budget 

[Dishevelled Den]

Well, if you insist in treating it this way Tid, I'm not surprised that it needs some TLC.......



[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiNaadVOQEM[/media]

[TheBoy]

yeah, avoid HP. They are absolute. total. utter. crap. shite build! It stays locked away too, its not as if its carted around a lot.

I'd go Dell if you limited on budget 

See, I'm the other way.  I type this on my trusty HP laptop - a Compaq 6720s, circa 3+ years old - and still perfectly happy with it. Its had a hard life, its on on average 4-5hrs every single day, spends lots of time in the garage and plugged in people's cars, comes with me in the bath, and is just generally abused.

OK, the battery only lasts about an hour now (original battery), the palm rests are worn, its not as fast as the latest i5 and i7s, but I can't fault it.

I tend to stick to HP 'business' type laptops, ratehr than the consumer Pavilions.

The low end Dell, Inspiron, always seem a bit fragile to me. I am always replacing keyboards and hinges.


I'm not brand loyal, I do tend to by Dell desktops - I have 4 Vostros on my dining room table that my brother is screaming at me for 

[blackviper90210]

Hi agree with Tunnie, HP/Compaq are crap, aftersales a joke etc etc.

I bought a new one from Medion (model P7610) last year and I can't fault it!

The service was excellent, fast delivery and good spec. Came with HDMI & DVi 4 USB's etc etc, paid £370 iirc.

Highly recommended and being German its got good build quality and excellent reviews.

HTH 

[TheBoy]

Hi agree with Tunnie, HP/Compaq are crap, aftersales a joke etc etc.

I bought a new one from Medion (model P7610) last year and I can't fault it!

The service was excellent, fast delivery and good spec. Came with HDMI & DVi 4 USB's etc etc, paid £370 iirc.

Highly recommended and being German its got good build quality and excellent reviews.

HTH 

Again, I see no end of broken Medions (assuming this is the junk that the likes of Argos and Lidl sell?).  They seem to be little different to that that back-street-joe builds.


For a laptop, my initial brands to choose would be (in order):
Tosh
HP/Compaq (Business)
Dell (not Inspiron)

[tunnie]

yeah, avoid HP. They are absolute. total. utter. crap. shite build! It stays locked away too, its not as if its carted around a lot.

I'd go Dell if you limited on budget 

circa 3+ years old

Think there is problem, few years ago, HP made solid kit. We have loads of their old docking stations (again around 3 years old) Solid, heavy, work well.

The new ones they are producing are kak, feel so flimsy. You dock my current HP, thud, its docked. New ones feel hollow, slide around when docking. Same with next gen laptops too.

Just took delivery of my new MacBook Pro which (hopefully) is its replacement!

[saltyone]

pc world on line . have some great refurbished laptops all come with full 12 months guarantee . i picked up a acer7741 3gb ram and 640hdd 3 weeks a go £219.00. WELL HAPPY WITH IT   

[jerry]

Im certainly no pc genius but -due to a combination of lack of space and user requirements-weve always opted for laptops over traditional tower pc units. Theyre certainly not as robust as the tower units so over the years weve had a few visits to the local repair shops and they always say that ,for "home" use , avoid HP and go for Toshiba or even Acers as in their experience they have fewer problems. Certainly our old HP one wasnt too hot! Currently weve got a Packard Bell which has been fine, though its hardly what Id call "robust" in terms of construction.

[TheBoy]

yeah, avoid HP. They are absolute. total. utter. crap. shite build! It stays locked away too, its not as if its carted around a lot.

I'd go Dell if you limited on budget 

circa 3+ years old

Think there is problem, few years ago, HP made solid kit. We have loads of their old docking stations (again around 3 years old) Solid, heavy, work well.

The new ones they are producing are kak, feel so flimsy. You dock my current HP, thud, its docked. New ones feel hollow, slide around when docking. Same with next gen laptops too.

Just took delivery of my new MacBook Pro which (hopefully) is its replacement!

I have a brand new HP Elitebook 8440p for work. Solid, feels robust enough, reliability is too early to say.

I still have my previous HP nc6400, again, robust, reliable machine over the last 3yrs (did have a replacement keyboard after an incident with my fist ). The previous HP nc6220 was a robust, decent machine, until our local 3rd party pc hardware support went to change a hard disk but attacked it with inappropriate tools, and wrecked it. Muppets.

I also have half a dozen or so 6520 which I look after which are used as onsite server build laptops, and by their nature get thrown around a lot. Then seem pretty robust and most of them have been good as gold. 1 currently won't boot though.


I have already mentioned my home laptop. Mrs TB has a 6820s, like mine, has been trouble free.


So, generally, I'd say HP (Business) laptops made in the last 5yrs are pretty good for reliability, and I'm basing that on a lot of personal experience, not just an experience with a single machine . Hence I would buy another (and frequently do).


For Dell laptops, I have a pile of Lattitudes that we use as spares to keep other Lattitudes going. Inspirons, well, we don't bother to fix, we bin them


Sadly, we only have a handful of Tosh laptops, all quite old, but happily sit powered on 24/7 for years at a time (even though they do run Windows ). Batteries are long shot, but otherwise good as gold.  My last own personal Tosh I had to retire around 3.5yrs ago, the poor thing had fallen in the bath once too often, plus I once left it on a member's sunroof, when they drove off

[Vamps]

I have no real knowledge on this subject by my acer AspireS630 is about 5 years old and not a problem, replaced the battery once.
It could do with a clean / sort out as can be slow but other than that....

I know those techie people out there will say it is a crappy make, but speak as you find, mind I will NEVER buy anything from PC World, their after sales, in my experience is appalling.....

[TheBoy]

mind I will NEVER buy anything from PC World, their after sales, in my experience is appalling.....

Its luck of the draw.  I have met some reasonably useful people in their Tech Guys section - even had one come to work with us 1 day a week for server experience a while back - but the majority are thick morons.

If you get a good one, then they are fine. Bad one, they are poor.  Same as anywhere else really


After sales is where most tech companies fall over, be it Dell, HP, Tosh, PC World or virtually any other.

[Vamps]

mind I will NEVER buy anything from PC World, their after sales, in my experience is appalling.....

Its luck of the draw.  I have met some reasonably useful people in their Tech Guys section - even had one come to work with us 1 day a week for server experience a while back - but the majority are thick morons.

If you get a good one, then they are fine. Bad one, they are poor.  Same as anywhere else really


After sales is where most tech companies fall over, be it Dell, HP, Tosh, PC World or virtually any other.

[/highlight]

That may well be so, I can only go off my one experience.... I found myself in a long que and being battered to and from different people, still in the que I phoned Trading Standards, rather loudly, for advice, it was not long before I was taken aside and my problem was resolved..... :-/ :-/ The advice I got from Trading Standards was no particularly helpful, but they did not know that....

[Broomies Mate]

I'm with TB here.

HP/Compaq are exceptional machines 'for the money'.

Remember, nothing nowadays is built to last.

My old NEC i-Select 5210 which I acquired 2 years ago for £20 is built better than anything on the market today..... of course, it doesn't match up in performance, but it's great for carrying in the boot (hearing it thud against the sides on every roundabout) for emergency Opel diagnostics 

What annoys me nowadays (it's always been a problem, but much more prolific now) is the way these companies put on software to control EVERYTHING!  I never change my screen resolution, so why is there a shortcut for it?  I never want my speakers to sound like i'm sat near a swimming pool, so why is there a shortcut for that?

I like nice clean computers!


Wow, I went off on a tangent there!

[cleggy]

We purchased a refurbished Dell Latitude D620 with a good spec re RAM, and Hard Drive for £250, with a one year warranty from these people:-

http://www.portableuniverse.co.uk/Refurbished+Laptops.htm?gclid=CJulrZrsyakCFYpA4QodizANMg

Good service, quick delivery,  in fact the DVD Drive was a CD write , they sent one out to us delivered the next day.