11chevz71 Posted May 11, 2009 Author Share Posted May 11, 2009 You can find some sweet deal in the refurbished line. Keep in mind that not all refurbished laptops had a problem. If Dell ships out a laptop and it is refused delivery, then it is resold as refurbished. After seeing how a UPS depot works, I don't blame them! So i have a note to selve dont buy one over the internet look at it in person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krzdimond Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I also only buy gently used laptops too. I wouldn't buy a new one because they are way overpriced for what you get. I build my own desktops. MMMMMMMM Liquid cooled:drool::drool::drool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estecoca Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I agree with whoever said to stay away from HP. My last two laptops were from HP and I have had issues - which I attribute to poor design (IMO) - with the power supplies on both of them. That being said, I would go with (in order) Toshiba, Dell and Sony. The Sony is pricey, and Im not sure its worth it. If $ is not an object and you are set on a PC (not a Mac), I would go with Lenovo/IBM...even though they have had a dip in quality recently, they still use the best components and have clean design...IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superdutytd Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Dell, Sony, Toshiba, are my top 3. Sony does make a pretty good laptop but they are pricey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6spdg37s Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 After having many different window's PC's... due to peer pressure i crossed over into the mac world! i love it. you can order off their website and you get an education discount. I have one and my sister just ordered one yesterday. she paid 1189? shipped with tax with 120gb hard drive and 4gb ddr2 ram. I got this comp 2 yrs ago? and it still running great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjwvette Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I have 2 HP's with no problems...remember you get what you pay for;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krzdimond Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I bought a HP laptop as a desktop replacement (higher end) in December of '04 to take with me to Iraq. It survived 12 months of abuse, dust, heat, and CONSTANT use (only turned it off to move from one place to the next) and it survived brilliantly. I repaired more Gateways and Toshiba's than any other brand.... mostly for hard drives and power adapter issues. Please keep in mind that these laptops were of the more "cost effective" lines, and not of the higher end models. Mine finally gave up with a video failure (embedded in the motherboard) and was no longer worth saving. Lasted 4 years. 1 in the desert, and 3 as a desktop at the house and travel companion. Replaced 2 batteries ,2 wall adapters, CPU fan- was making noise, but worked fine- and 1 hard drive. Needless to say, I got my moneys worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
70'sChevyGirl Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I have 2 HP's with no problems...remember you get what you pay for;) I have had an HP Laptop for awhile running Vista and believe it or not...I have had not one issue with it. I do however clean out all the garbage and run the different softwares to help keep the junk out everytime before I shut the system down. Good Luck with whatever you decide on. And Jman..."Does it cover customer abuse? Things like using it to discipline your pet dinosaur? How about using it as a parking block when you're fixing a flat tire"? :lolsmack: Is that what you are doing with all your old towers?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewy Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 As AJ said, Really with ANY laptop or computer, you need to back up your items. I am an Apple guy and am actually looking at buying a new Mac Book. I have a Mac Book Pro at work and love it. Best of both worlds. I can run MS on it which I have loaded but 99% of the time I run the apple OS. I vowed a few years ago to NEVER buy another PC again... lol Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman2008 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 ...And Jman..."Does it cover customer abuse? Things like using it to discipline your pet dinosaur? How about using it as a parking block when you're fixing a flat tire"? :lolsmack: Is that what you are doing with all your old towers?? Nah, they get gutted and upgraded before they get old! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc2hill Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 We bought my son a laptop 3 years ago (in fact I'm using it to type this). We got him a cheap Toshiba Satellite A105. It looks the same on the outside as the more expensive ones, but the 'guts' are different. What you get with a cheap laptop is: less battery life (it will now only run for about 5 minutes on the battery), a smaller hard drive, and not much memory. I agree with Junkman that you should get a backup hard-drive for your laptop. Couple of reasons: HDD failure, and you have an extra copy of things you can take with you anywhere. Also, make note of where the power cable plugs in. We are on our 3rd power supply (2nd was a universal model - waste of money). The power connection is on the back and the plug & cord would get 'bent' when my son had the PC on his lap or on the bed. After I got the 3rd power adapter (OEM), we also got a cheap lapdesk (and put a piece of 'pleather' on the top to keep the laptop from slipping) and no more power cord problems. The only I don't like about our Toshiba is the keyboard setup. It does not have a Cntl key on the right side of the keyboard (I believe this is no longer the case). I work with IBM mainframe computers and that is the Enter key on that system! My neighbor recently purchased a 17" HP and it has a 10 keypad, which is nice, but something you may not use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
08G8V8 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Also, make note of where the power cable plugs in. We are on our 3rd power supply (2nd was a universal model - waste of money). The power connection is on the back and the plug & cord would get 'bent' when my son had the PC on his lap or on the bed. I have had (2) Compaqs in the past, and they both had power supply issues. These laptops both had straight-in connectors, where the power supply attaches to the laptop. This causes the cord to bend and apply stress to the connector inside the laptop, and eventually it looses connection or you damage the cord itself. Look for a laptop with a 90 degree connection where it attaches to the laptop. This allows the cord to just hang down, rather than bend down. I have an ASUS laptop currently. It's great, but definitely more money than most laptops you will find at BestBuy or Office Depot. I wanted a ultra-high resolution screen, and I wanted a docking station for my desk at home. The ASUS also came with a 2 year warranty, when most others all come with a 1 year warranty. Like the Junkman, I like to build my own desktop computers. I have a desktop in the office, but also a laptop, even though I rarely leave the house with it. The thing I like about a laptop is I can pour myself a beer from the keg, plop my butt down in the recliner in the living room, turn on the 52" LCD and watch TV while reading my Adam's Forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman2008 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 (edited) We bought my son a laptop 3 years ago (in fact I'm using it to type this). We got him a cheap Toshiba Satellite A105. It looks the same on the outside as the more expensive ones, but the 'guts' are different. What you get with a cheap laptop is: less battery life (it will now only run for about 5 minutes on the battery), a smaller hard drive, and not much memory... Actually, you are partially right on the battery issue. The battery life is shorter on a cheap laptop (regardless of brand), but the reason your battery only last for 5 minutes now is because you left the power cord plugged up after the battery was fully charged for an extended amount of time. On a laptop once the battery is fully charged, you should immediately unplug the power and allow the battery to fully discharge. The computer will warn you when it is time to plug the power back in. If you don't do this, your battery will overcharge and loose its ability to maintain a charge. After a few months of doing this, the battery will practically hold no charge at all. This is a common mistake that laptop users make all the time and are constantly filling up landfills with laptop batteries. This is also why there is such a market for laptop batteries on the web. I have had (2) Compaqs in the past, and they both had power supply issues. These laptops both had straight-in connectors, where the power supply attaches to the laptop. This causes the cord to bend and apply stress to the connector inside the laptop, and eventually it looses connection or you damage the cord itself. Look for a laptop with a 90 degree connection where it attaches to the laptop. This allows the cord to just hang down, rather than bend down.... The main reason these cord get damaged is actually not when they are being used, it is when people put their laptops away. They wrap the power cable up tightly, putting stress on the part of the cable that enters the power supply transformer. This strain causes breaks internally inside the cable which renders it useless. The end of the cable that goes into the laptop is not prone to the breakage that you are talking about, it is the actual connector on the motherboard that usually breaks (especially on a crappy laptop like Compaq's). Those things are not worth fixing. Since you get both parts of a power supply when you buy a replacement, the connector end often gets misdiagnosed as the problem when it is actually the part of the cable that I explained above. Never wind your power supply cable tightly and put a strain of the end that comes out of the transformer. Edited May 11, 2009 by Junkman2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewy Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Apples cord is held on magnetically eliminating these issues. It just has pins that contact when attached. It's a great break away if you have kids or dogs running around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman2008 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Apples cord is held on magnetically eliminating these issues. It just has pins that contact when attached. It's a great break away if you have kids or dogs running around. That's an ingenious idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MustangBrother Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 As AJ said, Really with ANY laptop or computer, you need to back up your items. I am an Apple guy and am actually looking at buying a new Mac Book. I have a Mac Book Pro at work and love it. Best of both worlds. I can run MS on it which I have loaded but 99% of the time I run the apple OS. I vowed a few years ago to NEVER buy another PC again... lol Chris I'm with you, YES Macs are expensive, but they definitely pay off by not causes you stress and freezing up. Sorry, I know you've ruled out a Mac but I had to state my case as I help fix other peoples PCs and work on a PC at work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman2008 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I'm with you, YES Macs are expensive, but they definitely pay off by not causes you stress and freezing up. Sorry, I know you've ruled out a Mac but I had to state my case as I help fix other peoples PCs and work on a PC at work. A lot of the problems that PC's have is not exactly a software issue, it's more of a user issue. PC users are constantly being confronted with bad software, which a uninformed user will mistakenly install. The rest is downhill. I have used PC's all my computer life and after becoming educated in what not to do, have not had any problems except for an occasional hardware failure. If the Mac OS was attacked as vengefully as Windows, Mac's would be plague by some of the same issues. I will say that because the Mac OS is not open source that it does cut down on a lot of issues. At the same time, that limits the Mac world to a whole bunch of cool software that PC users get to enjoy. The amount of good free software for the PC is phenomenal. I would use both if I wanted to burn the cash but the cost of Mac's compared to what I can build for the same money in PC's keeps me from going the way of the Mac. If the prices ever equal out, I'd buy a Mac in a heartbeat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MustangBrother Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 A lot of the problems that PC's have is not exactly a software issue, it's more of a user issue. PC users are constantly being confronted with bad software, which a uninformed user will mistakenly install. The rest is downhill. I have used PC's all my computer life and after becoming educated in what not to do, have not had any problems except for an occasional hardware failure. If the Mac OS was attacked as vengefully as Windows, Mac's would be plague by some of the same issues. I will say that because the Mac OS is not open source that it does cut down on a lot of issues. At the same time, that limits the Mac world to a whole bunch of cool software that PC users get to enjoy. The amount of good free software for the PC is phenomenal. I would use both if I wanted to burn the cash but the cost of Mac's compared to what I can build for the same money in PC's keeps me from going the way of the Mac. If the prices ever equal out, I'd buy a Mac in a heartbeat. Yea I agree, a lot of problems do stem from the user, but at least with my experiences you have to be very knowledgeable of PCs if you don't want something to fail. I also agree with you that is Macs were attacked as equally they both would be equal. However for my needs I have no issues with software that I want on my Mac that is PC only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
08G8V8 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 If the Mac OS was attacked as vengefully as Windows, Mac's would be plague by some of the same issues. I will say that because the Mac OS is not open source that it does cut down on a lot of issues. I totally agree. A LOT of Bill Gates haters out there.....who don't use Windows as their operating system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill-V8V Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I would use both if I wanted to burn the cash but the cost of Mac's compared to what I can build for the same money in PC's keeps me from going the way of the Mac. If the prices ever equal out, I'd buy a Mac in a heartbeat. I work on PC's and servers all day long and it is nice when I get home knowing the only thing I have to do to my MAC is use it :D:D:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerryC Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 (edited) I've got Windows XP x64 on my main machine (built myself as well), and my MacBook dual-boots OSX Leopard and Vista Ultimate I like variety Rarely do I have a problem using Windows, but like what has been said, it's down to the user. I've made thousands of dollars worth of tech support calls on my parent's PC and the nice son I am I don't even charge them If you have the know-how, you can save a LOT of money by building a desktop yourself. I buy all of my components from newegg.com and saved at least 40% off the cost of a comparable machine from a retail store. Plus you get to pick the exact system specifications, and you can get creative without worrying about voiding any warranties: (my second pride and joy) My parents have a Dell Inspiron now and so far it has been very reliable. Their past two machines were Compaqs and I found the build quality to be poor Edited May 12, 2009 by GerryC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman2008 Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 I work on PC's and servers all day long and it is nice when I get home knowing the only thing I have to do to my MAC is use it :D:D:D Let me see if I can fix that grin on your face with a little APC Bill.... :lolsmack: ... Their past two machines were Compaqs and I found the build quality to be poor Hell, poor is putting nicely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerryC Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 Well there were a few other 4-letter words I could use to describe them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman2008 Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 Well there were a few other 4-letter words I could use to describe them Been there, done that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerryC Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 When I opened them up to either clean out dust, add more memory, or swap a hard drive, I lost count of how many times I said out loud "what the f were they thinking???" Some scary stuff inside those old compaq boxes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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