[ltp] IBM to sell its PC business

Winsley von Spee linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Wed, 08 Dec 2004 18:35:48 +0100


Am Mittwoch, den 08.12.2004, 18:19 +0100 schrieb Patrick Huber:
> Sounds familiar...
> 
> 1 year warranty for my inspiron 4100. All the time, the mouse would 
> occasionally move withouth me doing anything. On the last day of this 1 year, 
> one key on the keyboard died and I got a new keyboard, mouse stick included - 
> mouse problems solved.
> 
> Another year later, one of the hinges broke. A friend with the same model had 
> the same hinge broken. We tried hard but dell refused to give us the required 
> parts to repair the hinge. That's when I finally decided to never buy a dell 
> again. I kept on working with the dell, with the hinge 'fixed' with a cable 
> zip. When the harddisk died (about the 2nd or 3rd time in that inspiron in 
> total) I had a look around and a few friends had (still have) a T20 and T30 
> so my decision was easy... T41p :-)
> 
> Currently, around 10% to 20% (really rough estimate by looking around the 
> classroom) are T40 or X40...
> 
> Am Mittwoch, 08. Dezember 2004 15.55 schrieb Joel Ebel:
> > I've got some more statistics for you.  I worked for a university
> > department that purchased about 25 Dell laptops.  Not one of them
> > escaped the need for repair.  They weren't all the same model or
> > purchased at the same time either.  Granted they weren't the best cared
> > for laptops, but they had things break that never should have been a
> > problem.  The most common was keys not working on the keyboard.  Other
> > problems included mouse buttons breaking (They have trackpoint like
> > pointing devices, but apparently the buttons under them weren't meant to
> > be actually used.  If you use them, they break.), screens going bad,
> > parts breaking off for no good reason, hard drives failing.  They were
> > just poorly designed.  The keyboard had been a problem for years and
> > Dell took forever to fix it.  The screens were made of more flimsy
> > material that allowed the screen to be pressed against the keys and
> > pointing stick leaving an imprint and usually several bad pixels.
> > Maintaining those computers was a pain, and when I left I got a thinkpad
> > T40.  I couldn't be happier.  Those were inspirons, and I I've heard
> > that the latitudes are built better, but after my experiences, I just
> > wasn't keen on Dell laptops anymore.  Now I don't know what I'll do when
> > I need a new laptop.  I guess I'll have to wait and see.  My T40 still
> > has plenty of life in it.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > Richard Harding wrote:
> > >>> .
> > >>
> > >> You ever had a Dell machine in your hand ??? From technical aspects Dell
> > >> Laptops aren't bad but the quality from the body is a shame. A friend
> > >> of mine had a dell 8600 and after a while the screen hinges are
> > >> so lax that a breeze would tip the screen backwards.
> > >>
> > >> Greetz
> > >
> > > I have to agree. I had three friends buy dells at school. Two of them
> > > had dead lcds inside of 1.5 years and the third was sent in twice for
> > > cd-rom problems. I know it's not very statistical, but I know Dell
> > > laptops are just not an option to me.
> > >
> > > Rick

Now I definitly know why I spended the 500¤ extra compared to an 8600
from Dell *gg

Greetz