Caveat emptor
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| helios Jun 30, 2012 12:08 PM EDT |
Since 2005, and without any margin for error, 80 percent of the HP laptops we've received as a donation have been broken or have broken within the first 90 days of service. This includes several laptops that were 2-3 years old. If there is a commonality among these failures, it's been vidchips burning out and overheating MB's. Also common on the 3-5 year old machines is the power port where you plug your adapter into the machine. They are ridiculously delicate. They manufacture them black and glossy to capture the eye in the store but to my experience, they are flashy pieces of junk. We can't even come close to finding a manufacturer of laptops that has the mechanical failure rate of donated HP's. I am sure there are those quite content with them but when they come into our shop now, unless they are 2 years old or newer, we put them aside if we have others to give away and place the HP's only as a last resort. |
| jdixon Jun 30, 2012 12:56 PM EDT |
HP makes junk, Ken. That's not news to anyone who's been paying attention. Dell's are a mixed bag, but they're so much better than HP it's like night and day. I've even had better luck with Acer than HP. So, any guesses what the company I work for uses? :( Can anyone speak to whether Lenovo has maintained IBM's quality standards with their laptops? Other than IBM, I've had the best luck with Toshiba's. |
| mbaehrlxer Jun 30, 2012 1:10 PM EDT |
i don't have a comparison to the ibm branded thinkpads, but what i see from lenovo in the thinkpad series looks pretty good. lenovo does however also make different designs that don't follow the ibm heritage, but i have no idea about those. greetings, eMBee. |
| tuxchick Jun 30, 2012 4:07 PM EDT |
Thinkpads are still tough and reliable, and their warranty service is quite good. Lenovo always made Thinkpads, the only thing that changed was ownership and branding. I haven't had good luck with HP anything, except printers. Still have an old HP 6L that refuses to die. I bought an HP digital camera, and it sucked. Broke, got a warranty replacement, and it broke, and its replacement broke, and got a full refund by threatening to contest the charge on my credit card. I've never used an HP desktop or laptop that was worth bothering with. I quit using and recommending their color all-in-ones back in the late 1990s when their Windows printer software phoned home to print out full-color fax ads. It is mind-boggling how businesses survive. |
| gus3 Jun 30, 2012 4:38 PM EDT |
Interesting... My 5-year-old HP desktop is only just now having heat issues with the DIMM's, but in my apartment that's not surprising. Quite warm in summer, barely tolerably warm in the winter. Once I found the problem slot and de-populated it, it's doing just fine. The hard drives, never spinning down while powered, are still happily spinning. And it has to be the quietest PC I've ever owned. And the funny thing is, I got it at a discount. I don't go around recommending HP, but I guess getting lucky with them is good for a smile. |
| helios Jul 01, 2012 4:34 AM EDT |
I can speak to the older IBM Thinkpads as well as some of the older Lenovo Ideapads: Solid Gold. I have placed well over 3 dozen T-43 and R-51/T-61 Thinkpads throughout the last 5 years and except for two of them, (both HD failures), they are still in service. Many of our kids go on to be able to afford their own laptops and they return the ones we donated so they can be passed on. With little prep, we service them and put them right back out in the field with a new Reglue kid. Recently we were donated two identical Lenovo Ideapads, dual core 2.0's with 2 gigs of RAM and 160 gig hard drives. They are nothing more than stellar in performance. There is a trade-off in weight as they tend to be a bit heavier but as far as reliability, I think they are the laptop gold standard. I will agree with Gus though....their desktops seem to be OK, they tend to be a drag to work on....but no better or worse than most. Their glossy POS monitors should be avoided. We have the same batting average with their monitors as we have with their laptops. |
| Steven_Rosenber Jul 01, 2012 3:10 PM EDT |
I have a Lenovo (not Thinkpad) G555 laptop, which I don't think is such a stellar performer (poor touchpad, original LCD power inverter burned out), I acquired an old Thinkpad R32 which is doing quite well with Lubuntu, and I've just learned that my day job is moving from aging Dell gear to new Thinkpad laptops and ThinkCentre desktops. Our staff really beats up equipment (reporters and photographers in the field), so we'll know soon enough how good 2012-era Thinkpads really are. |
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