Laptop advice wanted

[profgreg]

So I'm probably going to be getting me a new laptop soon, and I wanted to pick anyone's brain what's willing to be picked. If you have no advice on the subject, or are not inclined to share what advice you have, you can probably just skip

Comments

[willworker]

You don't know me (randomly surfed over here-- a number of your students are friends of mine), but I'll put in my $0.02 on laptops anyway (in case it's not too late).

I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 that's a bit over a year and a half old. I've had quite a few problems with it, all of them hardware. Shortly after I got it, the power supply stopped working right (wouldn't charge the battery in the normal battery slot, but would in the "accessory" slot). Now I've spent ~4 months fighting with their rather stupid, formulaic repair depot trying to get a video problem fixed. Talked about it in LJ some:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/willworker/60743.html (Me being extremely frustrated about stupid policies.)

http://www.livejournal.com/users/willworker/61740.html (Me deciding Dell is annoying, and asking similar questions to you.)

http://www.livejournal.com/users/willworker/62667.html (Apparently even if they turn the computer on, they can't, say, see the file on the desktop reading "Repair Technicians-- README," and call asking me to "clarify" the problem. The README had a fairly elaborate (nearly 2 pages) description of everything that had ever happened to the laptop. I've learned to give good patient histories, being an EMT, and so did so for my laptop.)

http://www.livejournal.com/users/willworker/62736.html (It's finally back.)

HTH
Steve (AKA "PomonaSteve")