Well, my faithful Inspiron 8200 is now dead. Tonight at 8:56PM, it wrote it's last bit... The power feed in shorted out and burnt the motherboard pretty badly.

The stats (nothing impressive I know):I have abused this laptop for the last 7 years with regular up-times of >3 months between shutdowns; running basically 24-7. It has lived on the night stand next to my recliner for this entire period being lifted numerous times a night by the palm rest with the lid open.

I can honestly say that this laptop has exceeded my expectations for what I needed it for. It was with me through my masters degree and has been used to post +90% of all of my posts on this forum and the rest that I have contributed to in the last 7 years. Surprisingly enough, the keyboard made it through it all. You do have to know what letter is associated to what key though.. All of the home row keys are blank from wear!

In the 7 years of owning this laptop, I have needed to replace the hard drive once ($40), video card once ($60), and the fans twice ($15 each time). It was refurbished when I bought it from Dell costing $1100. Grand total of $1230 for 7 years worth of use. After this, I will likely be disappointed with any other laptop.

The crappiest part about all of this is that I do not have the money to replace it. It just isn't in the cards right now. I do have a perfectly functioning desktop in the basement that I built last year, but it is inconvenient to use since most of my time on the forums when I am home is spent comfortably resting in my recliner.

I will be trying to bridge the fried connections by soldering in some wiring to see if I can resurrect the laptop, but I am doubtful to say the least. Even then, I would probably relegate this one to the garage for diagnostic use only. That is if it can be saved...

One good thing is that I didn't keep any real important stuff on it...

Anyway, had to share my latest trials with everyone. It is a sad day.

And, if any of you have some suggestions on a good new laptop, let me know!

 

Yep, another reason why I'm a Dell man, they just simply work and work and work. Both my 'puters are Dells, and you know that's what you want to get to replace it. Unless you absolutley need particular featyre that require ordering directly from the factory, I recommend buying from Best Buy and saving some money.

 

Dell, in my opinion, sucks at everything except their monitors (I own a Dell U2410 which is great) and laptops. Their desktops....I've not been impressed with them. Don't get me started on Best Buy because it's run by Satan.


If you're going to buy a desktop, don't, build it yourself it isn't very hard and it's much cheaper.

 

I don't want to turn this into a "which laptop is crap" thread...but I have to say I've never owned a better computer then Dell. They are extremely reliable and I'll probably continue to buy them. I had nothing but problems with an HP I had (absolutely garbage it was) and now I LOVE my Dell Studio.
Kyle, take a look at the Dell website. You can get a pretty good deal on the Studio or Inspiron (if you're only looking for a base model) laptops. They finance too, so if you don't have $800 to drop on a laptop you can finance for around $30/mo depending on what you get in it. I chose to finance and I'm paying around $35/mo because I added a few extra things into my Studio 15. The good thing is too you can customize it however you want.

 

Agreed, I have only had Dell computers for the most part and never had a problem with them or anything that caused me to have to shell out hundreds of dollars for repairs. The few times I have had "brand x", I have had nothing but trouble and tons of repairs just to use them for basic functions.

Hey, swartlkk, have you looked into the computer auction type thing. Sorry, I don't remember the name but my buddy got his a few months ago that way - he paid $499.99 for his with a ton of options. Its a site where places get there inventory from the manufactures and auction factory recondition ones with full warranties. The only deal that we noticed looking for them is most are a few years old - basically the reconditions that they didn't sell from the past year.

I will try to get a hold of my buddy and find out the site today.

 

I am not too sure what I will be going with at this juncture. I did a lot of research when I first bought my Inspiron all that time ago. I can say that it will not be a netbook because my hands are way to large to comfortably type on those keyboards at a good speed.

My work laptop is a HP Elitebook 8730w which has a 17" screen. This thing is HUGE, but surprisingly, it weighs less than my Inspiron and gets MUCH better battery life.

Battery life and weight are going to be two factors in this new laptop when the time comes. I want to get something in the 15" to 16" size, but I really want it to have good screen resolution (1920x1200 would be great, but I do not think that any laptops come with that resolution and would fit into my price range).

Brett turned me on to the Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 with the Core i7 processor ($999 ouch), but it would basically be a pretty future proof laptop like what my old one was 7 years ago. We will see...

Any other suggestions in the under $1k category are definitely welcome.

 

Kyle, when my motherboard died on my HP laptop I was able to find the exact HP p/n motherboard on ebay and had a local computer shop install it. I think the total cost was around $200.00. Still a lot cheaper than a new laptop. The laptop has been working just like new for over a year now with the replacement motherboard. I also had a power cord that the tip had an open circuit. I purchased a Targus universal power adapter from Sam's club which works great. (If you are able to replace the mother board your self you could get by with just the cost of the motherboard.) You tube has video's of replaceing the mother board on a laptop.

 

Thats not a bad idea. I was thinking that an hour or so ago but figured he would most likely buy a new one instead.

 

lol I have a Compaq Laptop that is probably 6 Years old (been around longer than my wife lmao) and the Power Supply went out on it for the second time ..... but i can't stomach buying a new Power supply for $50 for a laptop that might be worth that lol

 

Really they are outdated and worth barely anything the day you buy them. Thats technology I guess though.