Saturday, October 02, 2010

Struggling on..

The laptop lid is now being a real nightmare! If I put it down, the lid can now drop easily forwards or backwards - not only making it a pain, but also causing more damage each time.

Looked at new laptop prices earlier - and I won't be replacing it for some time yet! I thought the prices were under £300 now, but seems not. Plus of course, it is very difficult to get a decent spec laptop which doesn't run Windows - and the hassle of reclaiming the "Windows Tax" back can be either easy (see examples of Dell for instance who will refund no problem) or hard/impossible (see examples of Acer UK claiming that they will refund 30 odd quid, but you need to send the laptop to their "service" centre to have the HDD formatted for 50 odd quid plus VAT!)

As a technician, oddly enough, I can just about manage to format a hard drive! I certainly wouldn't pay 50 odd notes for the task to some half witted Acer employee!

So stuck with the knackered lappie for now at least.... Luckily, I do still have my desktop machine and my little EeePC - but the desktop is upstairs and it gets chilly there in winter and the EeePC is a little too small for day to day use. A lovely machine for what I use it for (connecting my webcam to my telescope and videoing planets etc) but not ideal for heavy day to day use - plus of course, only a 4Gb flash drive isn't great for some of the things I do.

Friday, October 01, 2010

Build quality and laptop hinges

My current laptop - an Acer - has had a crack in the lid near the hinge since almost day one. Last night, it finally gave up and a big chunk broke off. Luckily, the laptop is still functioning - although closing the lid is pretty noisy and I am going to simply leave it open! However, the main point of this entry is to highlight the awful build quality of laptops - and particularly the hinges on them.
My previous laptop, a cheap (well, actually very expensive, but cheap for a laptop at the time!) IPC machine also suffered the cracked lid by the hinge problem. Likewise, one of my friends also bought an Acer - slightly later model than mine - and his lid has cracked in just the same way as mine.
The issue seems to be tightness in the hinge causing the plastic to flex and crack as the lid is closed down.
OK, so I have had this laptop for 4 or 5 years now, so I can say that I have had my moneys worth, but the crack appeared quite soon after purchase. I don't use the laptop as a table or to swat flies - I treat it with care and avoid placing things on top of it. As a technician, I know that these machines are very susceptible to having weights plonked on them or being dropped.

Oh, and I am not the only person with an Acer who had cracks develop in the exact same spot within weeks of purchase! If Acer wish to contact me, I am happy to provide details of the issue.
No? Didn't think so. Guess what my next laptop WON'T be?