Hmm. Having had a lot of dells, I'd say they are average, with Lattitudes seemingly more solid than Inspirons. I also think that all manufacturing seems to go thru fazes when it comes to quality. There was a time when HPs Pavilions were great, and then I had a series of them that were truly a nightmare right around the PII-450 days, and then they got better again. For a while I'd get a series of them that would blue screen out of the box. I've had several Inspiron 8500 drives go bad lately too (we went thru a short faze of buying Inspirons for some reason). Though I think a lot of users have been leaving their laptops out in the car with 9 degree weather overnight, and then turning them on first thing in the morning. :-( Chris -----Original Message----- From: tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org [mailto:tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org] On Behalf Of Ken Fuchs Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 10:39 PM To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org Subject: Re: [TCLUG] Laptop advice >On Mon, 13 Dec 2004, Loren H. Burlingame wrote: >> I have a Latitude c640 and while it works just fine with linux I have >> had some serious overheating problems. >> >> The thing always seemed to get hotter than I would ever imagine could >> be normal (regularly runs at about 141 celsius with nothing else >> going) and sure enough less than a year after I bought it the >> motherboard died due to overheating. Looking at message boards, this >> would seem to be a very common problem with Dell laptops, to the >> point where there are a couple 3rd party fan utilities written >> specifically for them to keep their fans running at full tilt at all times. >> >> I spent a week with support trying to get my motherboard replaced, >> which did ultimately happen, but it was a hassle. Nate Carlson wrote: >We actually got Dell laptops specifically for the warranty they offer; >I've got a Latitude C840, and have had some wear+tear problems >(keyboard failing, battery latch falling off, small crack in the case >by the ethernet port, etc) and a few not wear+tear problems (cdrom and >fan going bad); every time I've called, they've had the parts to me the >next day, along with a tech (if I wanted one). CompleteCare rules! >From the above, is it fair to conclude that Dell laptops have poor MTBFs, or do the Dell laptops last a few years before they break? Despite the great Dell service, I think we'd all prefer a laptop that didn't fail due to faulty design, components or assembly! Sorry, "No failures rules!" Sincerely, Ken Fuchs <kfuchs at winternet.com> _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list