I’m thinking of getting a notebook to use as my main computer which will be on 14 hrs/day. Can notebook/laptops withstand that type of usage and not break quickly? WHich brand and shop do you reccomend for a durable medium speed notebook?
I used to work for a large firm with thousands of notebooks. They were all Toshibas and IBMs because they were considered more durable.
A lithium-ion battery would be essential, because nickel batteries can’t take being on continual charge.
I have a dell laptop I keep it on for about 20 hours a day without any problems.
Make sure to go for a brand name with atleast 3 year coverage, Laptop work good for the first year most of the problems start in the second year.
If you don’t have to use Windows I would recommend checking out an Apple iBook. As far as laptops go they are incredibly trouble free and if you need to do presentations I cannot think of a better choice. I recently replaced my old laptop with a Powerbook (abit more expensive than an iBook) and it has been on continuously for the past month. I never turn it off.
Anyway, I think they have a number of valuable features that are worth investigating.
Also used IBM notebooks (Thinkpad) in my former company, incl. for service (field) engineers - not many probs I recall. Now using an Acer, seems to be pretty good, too.
I have a Compaq presario, 3 yrs old, and I’ll never buy another product from those bastards as long as I live. The thing is a heap of crap.
eg Customer service (USA) informed me that the reason I couldn’t stay online was that they had supplied it with a defective modem driver. Their solution was to go to their website and download the patch. You just try downloading any bloody thing when your modem drops the line every two minutes. No, they wouldn’t send me a CD.
I found the patch eventually, after learning - and this was genuinely posted by their tech staff - that Compaq’s are specific to the GEOLOGICAL area in which they are to be used. Must be the granite sub-strata that reduced my battery life to five minutes within a month of buying it!
Also, more generally, I’ve replaced several drives due to my stupidly using my notebook like they do in the adverts. ie anywhere except a sterile office where nothing gets moved.
I saw a very sexy little Asus laptop - all the numbers looked impressive - with the CD and Floppy in a separate box. Fine for home/office scenario, and great if you’re moving but not using those drives while away from your base. NT$42000 included a wireless GPRS modem, plus it had all the usual ports.
Since damaging sectors on my HDD I’ve bought a little (20Gb) HDD which is powered from the USB. I backup everything against the day when I drop the Compaq - or get frustrated and throw it out of the window. It’s really a pain in the ****
Lastly, I just bought a Sony PDA, with Palm OS. Couldn’t get the damn things to work together reliably, even though my HDD and Sony Camera both function fine from the same USB port. No problems with my desktop machine though.
I am told that it’s a common problem with many laptops - manufacturers fiddle with software, or add their own stuff, and Hey Presto! The standard stuff doesn’t work any more.
When you make your choice pls post it here for the benefit of the rest of us??
Thanks
Yeah, I should have mentioned that we used Compaq before the IBMs and they were a pain in the ass …
My computer-geek friends always said buy the best computer you can afford, so it’s not obsolete six months later.
I’ve got a Toshiba Satellite 335CDS… my second one, probably about 4 years old and still working okay. I tried backing up onto a Zip drive but it takes foorrrreeevvvveeerrrrr so I just stopped backing stuff up… big No-No, I know, and the day that this thing dies, I’m going to cry. 
J.
My computer-geek friends always said buy the best computer you can afford, so it’s not obsolete six months later.
I am afraid no matter how much you spend it will become obsolete anyway. Maybe not after 6 month but after 12 … especially laptops as they usually can’t be upgraded.
That said it may depend on the type of application(s) you are running, a 386 (anyone remember?) may still be good enough to write a letter once in a while but may not support the latest software / operating system (not enough memory or harddisk capacity).
I have a Mitac 6133 (pretty ancient) I use as my server - It has been on continuously for 6 months - some initial problems that I put down to heat - so it now stands on extra 6mm feet. It crashes about once or twice a month - usually at night - maybe it gets bored.
Just something new I learned about laptops (and I find it on latest desktops) - If it crashes completely - hold the on/off switch for about 5 seconds (and release)- it boots just like you removed battery and unplugged the power and started all over. It was in the manual of my latest one about “why no reset button” - I tried it on the two older ones and it worked (nothing in the manuals). Also same with wife’s desktop at work. No need to pull the power plug.