Last year, I posted here about how my brother and I went to the dump, and I had a ball just hucking old computer stuff on the recycle piles of obsolete computer junk.

Tonight, my laptop decided it was time to die - the hard drive actually. This machine has been a pretty big headache the last couple years, mainly due to the wireless being flaky and the machine locking up now and then. I thought "I can fix this no problem. I'll run over to the store, get a new drive and start nice and fresh."

Except the hard drive in this Hewlett-Packard piece of garbage is a proprietary make.

I looked up a replacement drive, thinking they will want 200 bucks for one. Wrong - try 384 bucks!

*snap*

I took that machine and slammed it shut numerous times. I dropped it onto a metal chair several times, and tossed it across the basement. Soon, I'm going to take it out to a field and beat it to shreds with an 8-pound sledge, a la the copy machine on Office Space! I plan to record this too. Hopefully the person holding the camera will be very entertained. I will never own another HP machine the rest of my life!

I shopped online for a bit, and see that Dell is my other main option for a new laptop. I'm not crazy about using Windows Vista, but with the possiblity of loading XP myself, I'll chance it.

Andy

Looking forward to the Youtube.

If you haven't bought the new machine yet... and if you want to avoid proprietary hardware i'd recommend staying well away from Dell

Thats yer random computer tip fer the day.

I am certainly open to suggestions, other than Mac.

I personally recommend Toshiba notebooks to clients who ask me for purchase advice. Reason being is that Toshiba has decent quality hardware and nothing is proprietary.

In addition to that, when you do a clean 'install' on a Toshiba machine, all that is installed is Windows, and a few hardware/functionality software packages (which are quite minimal by the way) and thats it. No extra crap lying around to uninstall.

The only other brands that I have worked with that do as good a job of the software are ACER and SONY but ACER has really cheap crappy hardware and SONY tends to be overpriced hardware that is nothing special enough to justify the (usually double) price tag they come with off the shelf..

The only saving grace that Dell has in my books, is that the hardware they do make is top notch and the chances of having a major issue are significantly less than the other big 3 (HP, Compaq and Gateway). If and when you do have a problem though, expect it to be pure hell. HP/Compaq support lines were a disaster when I worked there and I'd imagine they are only worse now. Dell can be decent for support but there isn't much they can do without you having to put your laptop in the box and send it away.

On that note, and Toshiba usually works with local merchants and repair shops so that when you do have an issue they try to meet you somewhere locally and if the issue cannot be fixed onsite then they will send it far & away. At least thats how they do it in Canada.

Anywho good luck
~Bri

I caa certainly understand how you feel, Andy. Once I tossed a Pioneer SuperTuner out of the window of a semi while I was driving on the freeway because it had eaten one of my favorite tapes. I decided that it was the last tape that it was going to eat.

My wife says that older Toshiba laptops run a bit warm sometimes and she has had problems with hers when it gets too hot. My mid-price Acer Aspire 5000 is still going 5 years later, and my old Sony Viao is still working well at almost 10 years of age. Even my 15 year-old nephew has an ongoing distrust of Dell.

At least where you live the HP/Compaq factory is nearby if need be. They can even build one to your specs.

Just think: All new laptops are coming with Vista these days!!!

My wife will be home tomorrow night if you want her advice.

Good luck,

Mark

Yes, I am not too keen on getting Vista, but I don't know how much choice I have.

Have you seen the commercials that attempt to hawk Vista to the public by calling it Windows Mojave? C'mon guys! Who do they think they are kidding?

A

the thing about vista is that; while they do have it working reasonably well now... you can have a smoking fast machine that runs vista kinda slow-ish... but XP on that same machine and you have a smoking good computer.

then there is all the annoyances. as computers get easier to use for those who know nothing about computers, they get more tedious and annoying to use by computer technicians.

similarly to when XP was released, it takes some time to 'get used' to how it all works. once you're a little more familiar with it its not quite as bad.

if I were buying a new machine today, I'd probably accept a vista machine and just roll with it. A year ago it was a different story though, Vista was still ... ugh. just hideous.

The mojave thing is hilarious. In my mind that's microsofts way of saying "yeah, we screwed up really bad, but we've finally made the product good enough to actually market again"

I'll second Brian's suggestion of getting a Toshiba. I've been pounding on my Toshiba laptop for a bit over four years using it for my graphic design work, my education and as my personal computer. I love it!! (And I'm a UNIX and Mac person at heart.)

I worked for two companies that had Toshiba laptops which is why I looked at them when I went to buy. I carry this thing with me in my backpack with my books and binders on my bike everywhere and it still keeps chugging along...

Good luck with the laptop hunt!

Michael

Notify posting as "Mac"-tose intolerant?