Talk to me about laptop computers

[Cara]

I got the three year Best Buy warranty on both of mine, and it has been worth its weight in gold.

The Sony got in a bad bad car wreck, the cord was attacked by my rabbit, then they sent me the wrong replacement power adapter which broke the port on the laptop, then it needed cleaning twice as the fan was overheating, then it got dropped... They cover accidental damage as well as technical problems.

So far so good with this one.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
It's unfortunate you had that issue with HP however you cannot judge
or guage a company based on one experience.

As an IT guy in the 90's I've worked on hundreds of computers. I've had
bad experiences with all of them but cannot think of one company I
wouldn't feel comfortable buying a laptop from.

It's a question of value and no one makes a better $600 laptop than HP.

Oh, my last laptop was a Gateway. The motherboard had issues after
9 months and I ended up selling it on ebay for parts. I cannot go
1 day without it so sending it out for repair was not an option. I still
bought my wife a sweet Gateway laptop for this past Christmas. At the
time I was looking the Gateway gave me the most bang for the buck.

 

[chicknmania]

Dell has a lot of laptops on sale right now and they have excellent tech support; the best I have found ever, especially if you develop a virus issue. We are buying a Dell laptop this weekend. If you have a desktop, look and see what kind of hard drive space and memory it has, then you can kind of compare that to the capacity of the laptop you want to buy. Most companies will give you sales help, whether you order on line or of course you will have sales help if you buy from a store. Tell the sales rep what you want to do with it, and tney should guide you accordingly.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Quote:
I've dealt with Dell's tech support. It sucks! Our computer started up and died the very first time I pushed the button. The guy on the other end couldn't even understand english-not just a heavy accent. I won't be ordering another Dell good sale on or not.

 

[Mahonri]

I've had this Fujitzu LifeBook for over two years... I had one before it for 3 years, but I upgraded.

I love it. It has a 200 GB harddrive, with a 3.2 Gh processor and 2.0 Gig RAM.

It spends lots of time on my belly at night on BYC and all day at the office hooked up to my network.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I bought a Compaq this morning and have it up and running. It seems to be a real nice computer and will do just fine.

My question now is about wireless internet. I wouldn't be using it full time, just occasionally. Is there a something out there like the tracfones? Something where I can buy time/units type of thing? Or would I need a full plan?

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

I am currently on my Compaq laptop.
It has Vista, which I think is a PITA and I really do not like it.

All this thing needs to do is handle emails and some work programs(photo shop etc) It does that well enough. We got it because our main computer is a Mac(mini) and we needed a windows machine as well.
I would have preferred another Mac laptop myself. But at least I have something I can use while I sit out in the back yard watching chicken tv. Or on the front porch watching the neighborhood.

I had a old Mac laptop which I loved. The power button broke though and dh didnt want to bother getting it fixed since it was so old.

 

[Cara]

Quote:
You need to be within range of a wireless router. Some places charge for access (coffee shops, fast food restaurants, airports, some hotels), others offer it free of charge (colleges, other hotels, some libraries).

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Quote:
You need to be within range of a wireless router. Some places charge for access (coffee shops, fast food restaurants, airports, some hotels), others offer it free of charge (colleges, other hotels, some libraries).

Thank you. Like I said I'm new to this laptop thing. I'm looking into getting a wireless router at home for it too.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Like Cara mentioned you would need a wireless router for home but you
can also plug into your modem at home with a wire assuming you are not
on dial up.

The cellular companies have wireless internet cards that are sorta like a
cellphone you plug into your laptop. I have the AT&T version and love it
for when I'm not home however it costs me $80 per month.