Re: Purchasing a laptop::Anyone fully satisfied with theirs?
> It does not have built in Ethernet, and it cost me $3400 last year ($200 of
> which was for RAM). Now it would be cheaper.
I have to admit I've seen very few models with built-in ethernet as yet, and
I'm personally dubious how much of an advantage that is -- in cost, some
vendors charge enough premium for the uncommon feature it might have been
cheaper to get a card, and I wonder if it would run cooler (though if that could
be shown, it IS a win - pcmcia that are used a lot can get quite toasty warm).
> Also this is the flagship Thinkpad, the 390 series is cheaper (and has both
> CD-ROM and floppy built in). But the 390 weighs >3Kg (the 600 weighs 2.5Kg).
>
> Currently my trackpoint has broken and I haven't had a chance to get it
> repaired. But as that's the only hardware failure in 2 years of using
> Thinkpads for >10 hours a day every day I think that's not so bad really. It
> remains to be seen how cooperative IBM are when it comes to warantee repairs.
When I needed warranty repair from them they were extremely freindly, offered
to send me a new shipping box with protective sling, and got the laptop back
to me with moderate speed.
But the damaged floppy controller that they repaired fried itself out again
in less than a month - when I sent it back again (with a long description of
minutae of symptoms, as well as the comment I wanted to call it a lemonpad)
they were really sorry, and they had a senior tech on it and all. It lasted
several months on return but blew again. To summarize, they're friendly,
they do it, expect your laptop to be out for a week or two - actually, the
first time was faster - but if the problem is really weird don't expect them
to be perfect.
It's now the house token Windows box - we don't even try to use its floppy
bay anymore. (I bought it a Imation pcmcia LS-120. Guess which OS does not
support this widget :( last I looked. Device wedge and more than average
difficulty getting to reboot due to interrupt blocking. Sigh. Visited
David Hinds' forum, no-one had ever heard of the thing. waaaah.)
I know they'll repair it - my husband keeps saying I ought to send it in,
definitely since I'm less dependent on it now - but I feel there's some sort
of jinx on that floppy, so it's not going back in unless anything else on it
breaks, or unless I get really bored and have nothing better to do. I'm
working on the assumption that if it gets so hosed I need to install a fresh
OS, I'm taking the drive out to do it anyway - so I don't need a floppy for
-that-.
Nothing else about the system has failed.
> I will not surrender my hard drive to any technician. Also I lack an
> official IBM receipt (purchased from Auction).
Ahh. I purchased through CDW, so I was on file as a purchaser via a clueful
Authorized Reseller.
> I expect that IBM will provide appropriate warantee support, it should just
> be an issue of how much time I have to spend argueing about it.
I don't know if they'll consider it warranty anyway, but you can probably
ask them to look up the device's serial number. And I feel confident that
they'd be willing to repair it for money if it's not under warranty.
Best of luck. I consider mine a worst case scenario, and if that is how they
handle worst cases, I am pleased with their customer service, though I could
wish for better hardware.
-* Heather * star@starshine.org *-
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