I got my laptop (HP ProBook 4515s) through my wife's company for half price. At the time HP had just launched it & did a special for staff. The company (American need I say! LOL) is the largest worldwide distributer of such products. Dell, Lenovo, HP, Asus etc, etc.

 

Woohoo MacBook!

 

I have never had a better laptop than my used IBM T42. It's a semi-rugged 1.7GHz Pentium M (The Pentium M seems to outperform the Pentium 4 clock-for-clock by FAR)
1GB PC2100, 32MB ATI Mobility Radeon graphics
CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Windows XP SP2 (The wireless freaks out with service pack three, lesson learned... never again!)
Intel Pro Wireless A/B/G 2100
1024X768 14.1 TFT screen
Parallel ATA (PATA) hard drive *Achilles heel b/c they are getting hard to find*

The T series screens are a little dark, but there are hi-res ones available. Battery life is phenomenal if you aren't crunching graphics calculations. I have not been able to slow this computer down, I have not yet run into something it can't run.
However, the T series are tough enough to go skydiving with, can't tell you how many times this has slammed into the dashboard because of a panic stop and it keeps going. If you want quality, the old Thinkpads are the way to go. Hope this helps you with your decision!

Regards,

Thomas

BTW, it you are actually able to repair a laptop with a soldering iron, I hope you are aware that the list of things you can't do will then officially become shorter than the list of things you can do. Oh, and thanks for being an awesome admin, your work does not go unnoticed!

 

Glad you went with my choice Kyle :P

 

I already have the donor power port desoldered from the CPi motherboard. Looks identical to the one in mine! I know that the cord plugs are the same so it should go right in. I have a new power pack on the way now. Time will tell! If all goes well, I'll have a $24 repair job - cost of the new power pack.

I think I'll be glad too. It was a much needed upgrade. My Inspiron couldn't really run photoshop too well... In the end, I hope to have both laptops functioning and keep the Inspiron out in the garage as my diagnostic PC.

I ordered the Lenovo IdeaPad Y550P last night.

Specs:

• Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Processor - Intel Core i7 720QM(1.6GHz)
• Screen - 15.6" LED back light 1366x768
• Memory - 4GB DDR3 1066Mhz
• Hard Disk - 500GB
• Optical Drive - DVD±R/RW
• Graphics Card - NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M w/ 1GB GDDR3

 

Nice specs, should last a year or two

 

Well, I am just waiting on a new cord for my I8200. I did not end up de-soldering the power port from the motherboard on the good laptop. The pin configuration wasn't the same so I would have had to re-do that... So I straightened up the hard traces on the port and re-molded the internal hard plastic out of some UL approved epoxy. This thing isn't coming off or apart again!

I made sure to keep the hard traces away from each other enough so they won't short out again. I then wrapped my CPi cord with some plastic wrap and pushed it into the power port. With a small syringe, I injected the mixed epoxy into the voids in the power port and let it set up. I then coated the entire outside of the power port with epoxy, making a hard shell around everything. Nothing on the port can move now without breaking it loose from the motherboard!

It charges on the CPi cord, but it won't run on it. Not enough juice flowing from that power pack... But hey, IT'S ALIVE!!!

Just in time to be replaced! Gotta let it charge up some before I can mess with it more, but it boots up just fine and acts as though there were no flamage! LMAO

 

not only are you a blazer savant, fire fighter, and a gentleman, you are also a computer doctor?
Sir, my hat is off to you.