My Laptop has died, it would seem the graphics card has gone and despite being a separate unit its not replaceable. So I've ordered a replacement one from Dell on the plus side it has more RAM and more storage then the old one, but surely a laptop should last longer then 19 months.
If you've been emailing me and I've not been responding you should now have just worked out why.
Comments
19 months is fairly rubbish... I certainly wouldn't buy from a company with that sort of reliability issue. Who did you get it from?
Dell.
(cue rant)
Well, I suppose it could be worse, he could be buying the from the same model family...
(waits for the inevitable response)
<insert generic comment about putting too much heat-producing hardware in a confined chassis here>
No other laptop would fair better, to be fair to Dell its lived a harsh life. I have order another Dell mainly cos they're cheap this time I bought a 4 year warrenty. I've dropped it a number of times. I could pay much more for an Apple machine only to have the same problems.
Where else would you buy a laptop from?
Well, I've got a second hand IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad that has spent 2 years with a field sales rep, and then with me for the last 3 years. Its survived being thrown in a rucksac, travelled over most of the country on the back of a bike, and taken more than its fair share of knocks (couple of big cracks in the case). Never once failed, including the times its spent several hours as a webcam server, and ripping about 300 CD's to mp3.
If it does ever die on me I'd be very tempted to get another...however I suspect that it will one of the only things to survive the apocalypse (apart from the cockroaches of course...)
//added. So 1st post "it should last longer than this". 2nd post "I've dropped it a lot, frankly 19 months is good going"?
I'd have loved an IBM but a simliarly specced Thinkpad would be around £300 more then the Dell machine.
I'd had a Thinkpad at Upperdeck and had no complaints about it.
Erm, I've had my IBM Thinkpad (original, not Lenovo although I admit the Lenovo ones seem to be identical except for the tag). I've had it since, erm 2003 and it was a reconditioned 2nd hand one. So it's probably about 7 years old. I've replaced the batter a couple of times and it's got loads of cracks over the casing where I've been not too careful with it. I'd imagine that my and Pete's laptops will be the only things to survive a nuclear holocaust.
It should last longer than 19 months. Unfortunately, not all electronic components are equal and some might just be faulty.
Slightly nervous about what'll happen to mine in 6 months now.
That is sucking news Mr Dwain.
The fault is with the graphics card, I had another issue where the soundcard had broken. It was an Insprion 9400. If anyone has a use for either 2gb or 5300 RAM (2x 1GB) or a 2ghz Duo Processor let me know before i put them on ebay.
I dropped it a fair bit.
I'd like the Ram. Need to check if I need 1 stick or to swap both, probably both thinking about it.
So how much are you spending on the new one?
I've just been having a look through reconditioned Thinkpads on eBay, and it looks like there are some good deals there (X41 for £350 for example...thats a tablet PC, and still under warranty).
I'm spending a total of £1100 including 3x 17 widescreen monitors the laptop is £735 including a 4 year warrenty.
320gb hd, 2gzh processor 3gb ram 8600m graphics card. XP.
Ouch. Sorry to hear that mate. It does sound like the highish end laptops tend to be a bit flakey, wheras the mid to low end workhorses are the ones that live forever - maybe because they have the same cooling and power delivery as the high end under less strain...
Sounds like a suitable replacement. Is this the work one?
Yeah its my work replacement my home purchasing list looks something like this:
LCD TV
New Gaming PC
Get a watercooled gaming PC ;)