What laptop should I buy ?

**Gallowspole** · 07-09-2007, 10:03 AM

I bought a Compaq Presario V4000 nearly two years ago for the same reasons that MD has. I regularly re-install (every 3 months) and it's still running great. At the time I was looking at Acers as well but the speakers (Altec Lansing) and the wide screen on the Compaq knocked spots off the Acer. Against the Compaq was the 1 year warranty compared with the 2 years for the Acer, and the fact that replacement parts were apparently much cheaper for the Acer.

I've dropped it now 3 times, once I slipped at the top of the stairs and it cartwheeled all the way down. It was luckily in its bag and the only damage was to one of the hinges. The other 2 times were when the bag's shoulder strap snapped, so it dropped a couple of feet onto concrete, but no damage. (I've replaced the strap now with a real heavy duty one)

I'd prefer to come across as pro-Compaq rather than anti-Acer, however a couple of mates who bought Acers around the same time, and travelled with them all the time, have now replaced them. One had problems with the screen and the other got pissed off, among other things, having to re-install his wifi driver every time he wanted to connect to a new network. One now has a Toshiba and the other a Sony.

Edit - sorry one thing has has pissed me off was the battery - ! went for the the 3 1/2 hour battery - bullshit!! 2 hours max and now it only lasts about 50 minutes. I've been told since that I should have removed the battery once it had been fully charged and the computer was running on mains.

**Sir Burr** · 07-09-2007, 10:42 AM

I knew a Compaq area sales manager in the UK. He told me that Compaq were crap.

**mrsquirrel** · 07-09-2007, 10:56 AM

My last compaq did well, it took a lot of abuse but the newer ones don't feel as strong.

There is a huge difference between the build quality of my Thinkpads DVD drive compared to the missus's one on her compaq - hers is loose and plasticy. mine has metal slide rails and feels solid.

She does have lots of blue LED's on hers though and a touch volume control.

**Marmite the Dog** · 07-09-2007, 12:45 PM

I looked at a DELL 6 years ago, but they fucked up somewhere and their laptops didn't like XP.

Plonkers.

**Marmite the Dog** · 07-09-2007, 12:47 PM

I bought a second hand Presario (1.5Gb Pentium IV). Considering I only paid 8k for it, it's pretty damn good. I've only got 512Mb of RAM though, which sucks.

**lom** · 07-09-2007, 12:57 PM

^Buying it so cheap, there must be money left over for a memory upgrade..

**Frankenstein** · 07-09-2007, 12:59 PM

Marmers: "Hmm, I could buy another 512mb memory stick to improve my computer, or 3 pints of frothing ale to improve my mood...."

"Right, ale it is then."

**lom** · 07-09-2007, 01:00 PM

Hardware (memory in this case) is so cheap nowadays that no one should be forced to run Linux.

**Butterfly** · 07-09-2007, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

I've only got 512Mb of RAM though

jesus, you should be shot for that remark, you are just computer illiterate

**Looper** · 07-09-2007, 03:59 PM

Originally Posted by mad_dog

Can you plug laptops into digital plasma TVs?

If you are looking it at is part of an entertainment system you can get projectors for under $1000 AU ($800) that will hook up to the laptop for watching DVDs cinema style. No way will your laptop speakers cut it though. Need plug-in externals.

Expensive add-on but great if you've got a big lounge area.

**Mr Earl** · 07-09-2007, 08:37 PM

I just bought the new Apple MacBook. It's pretty sweet!
2.16 intel core duo, 2G ram( maxed), 120G hard drive. I bought the program called Parallels and a legal copy of windows xp. All for $1700.00 USD
With Parallels I can run windows and the mac OS side by side without having to partition the hardrive, but windows xp shows as a seperate drive! Slick!
My Mac powerbook was nearly 5 years old. I figured it was a good time to upgrade since I'm in the US now and they're much cheaper here than in Thailand. Also the MacBook is on it's third generation now which reduces the chances of reliability issues.

I can move all my old programs and user file over to the new Mac to make the transition to the new puter fairly seamless. The new one seems to have some cool new stuff to discover also.

**corvettelover** · 08-09-2007, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by corvettelover

It normally kills sectors in the boot of the drive so it wont open up and shows that wonderful "no operating system found "

That's what the problem with GoW's seems to be.

if you have Xp and you can get laptop to open
right click on my computer,go down to manage, click disk management, this displays drives choose drive right click on it and go to properties, then go to tools on the top then error checking select fix ststem files and fix bad sectors click start.
normally will fix bad clusters and sectors and block off faulty section of drive
good luck

**Goddess of Whatever** · 08-09-2007, 10:31 PM

My one can't even turn the laptop on.

I took that hard drive to work and asked a friend who's failure analysis engineer had a look, he said it's fucked due to it can't initial all heads which is about mechanical inside, it doesn't seem it can be fixed but I'm just curious what's wrong with it so he's continue working on it for me. I'll update the result on Monday.

**Marmite the Dog** · 10-09-2007, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by Frankenstein

Marmers: "Hmm, I could buy another 512mb memory stick to improve my computer, or 3 pints of frothing ale to improve my mood...."

"Right, ale it is then."

Aye. That'll be it.

Originally Posted by Frog Kunt

Quote:

Originally Posted by Me

I've only got 512Mb of RAM though

jesus, you should be shot for that remark, you are just computer illiterate

Stupid cock.

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