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sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42170
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 07 8:53 pm Post subject:
Apple's specifically. Once I actually got Apple to admit that it might be the problem which you'd suggested and had taken it to the Exeter Apple repair people everything was fine. the time wasting happened as a result of Apple's direct employees telling me that it was definitely a different problem and that what I needed to do was swap the hard drive.

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 07 9:01 pm Post subject:
Unfortunate in the extreme. And, in my experience fairly unusual. Their tech people are pretty good, but I'm not sure the front line call centre checklist drones are any better or worse than anyone else's. The UK marketing folk are just as ghastly as you might fear.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42170
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 07 9:04 pm Post subject:
Yup, if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have no luck at all...

Marionb

Joined: 27 Aug 2006
Posts: 5266
Location: Mid-Wales

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 07 9:07 pm Post subject:

I've got a Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop.... its about 18 months old but has only had any real use for this last 2-3 months since we had wireless broadband...

(now I use it all the time!!).

Had no problems with it so far but thats not really saying much.

We've got a Dell pc, before that we had a Gateway.... listed as bottom in the survey on P1....

yes, it was hopeless. Dell has been much better (touch wood).

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42170
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 07 9:10 pm Post subject:
Oh, if anyone wants a perfectly good 250GB SATA hard drive.....

mrutty

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1578

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 07 9:48 pm Post subject:

Marionb wrote:

I've got a Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop.... its about 18 months old but has only had any real use for this last 2-3 months since we had wireless broadband...

(now I use it all the time!!).

Had no problems with it so far but thats not really saying much.

We've got a Dell pc, before that we had a Gateway.... listed as bottom in the survey on P1....

yes, it was hopeless. Dell has been much better (touch wood).

Tosh are top notch

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 07 7:14 am Post subject:
We have two toshiba laptops in the house, and M200 and an M5L, both have performed faultlessly. I also buy toshiba and HP laptops in large numbers as part of my job, both manufacturers have proved to be very rekliable. As a random aside, avoid OKI printers at all costs.

Rosa

Joined: 10 Sep 2006
Posts: 387
Location: Hampshire

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 07 9:06 am Post subject:
I got one from Curry's at 399.99. I'm quite happy with it.

OP

Joined: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 4661
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 07 7:12 am Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

We have two toshiba laptops in the house, and M200 and an M5L, both have performed faultlessly.

Yes, the M200 is totally reliable here too, albeit slightly slow. We also use Dell, equally good - I would stick with Dell or Toshiba if buying a laptop. I wouldn't buy a laptop 2nd-hand, simply because of the reliability issues.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 27482
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 07 7:16 am Post subject:
Quick update, Dell replaced the part next day, no fuss at all aside from some idiotic stock emails asking stupid questions which I had already answered.

tigger

Joined: 13 Nov 2005
Posts: 725
Location: Bologna (Italy)

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 07 7:21 am Post subject:
I just had a quick look on here to see what's available https://www.laptopshop.co.uk/acer-laptops-n.htm Acer are popular over here and I've never had any trouble with mine - I've had it for almost 3 years now. (That's not quite true, I have had problems, but only because I'm technologically clueless and the computer is always right!!)

natty

Joined: 09 Dec 2006
Posts: 186
Location: London

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 07 1:02 pm Post subject:
So only Gervase has used ebay then? I'm in desperate need of buying a laptop too and was thinking of ebay since it seemd to be really cheap. I did get a home pc there which has been excellent but I'm not sure if there is more likely to be problems with second hand laptops.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 07 4:54 pm Post subject:
The joy of eBay is you can, to a degree, check out the person you're buying from, so have some recourse, but also, if it turns out to be unsuitable, resell it. If you're prepared to risk the hassle, may well be worth a punt.

christhetechie

Joined: 01 Apr 2007
Posts: 24

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 07 9:10 pm Post subject:

Don't buy a new one. They usually depreciate immediately and rather depressingly. Hence I bought a £899 Toshiba M50 and sold it for £350 6 months later. Lovely laptop though!

I now use a desktop, but would recommend an older (P3-750 ish) Dell Lattitude if you're going for a laptop. They are cheap (circa £90) and spares are readily available. Oh and you can get ones with warranties off ebay. Watch out for ones with US layout keyboards though.

Then again it depends what you want to do with it.

Apple stuff is sh1t. Had tons of problems with it. Looks nice, works badly. WArranties NOT honoured.

Maxwell Smart

Joined: 29 May 2005
Posts: 607
Location: London Town

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 07 9:32 am Post subject:

Due to work I've used lots of laptops and can report the following from my experience.

I would recommend to stay away from Sony and Apple. My Sony keyboard broke within 2 months and Sony UK wouldn't warranty it as "keyboards are not covered under the guarantee" - refused to show me where in the guarantee keyboards were excluded too.

Apple are also unreliable in my experience with three plus laptops - though I've only used Powerbooks not iBook. Harddrives going, processors failing etc.

Dell have been ok - but slow and not actually that cheap by the time you've worked it out. I've been very happy with Toshiba and IBM.

But from now on I will probably only buy HP/Compaq - reliable, powerful and value for money.

Try and get one with a three year warranty. A lot of the bigger names come with this as standard.

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