My Rant for the Day - Brand Names You Can('t?) Trust

[Luke122]

I've always though tof HP as a pretty solid company that put out some good products. Wow, has my opinion of them ever changed in the last month.

Right at this exact moment, I have 3 HP's on the workbench, and I just took down 4 others! Is it just me, or has their quality "slipped a bit"? The DV9000 laptops are unbelievable.. I've never seen so many random failures in a single make/model before.

Hdd failures, keyboard controllers, DMA controllers, cpu failures, everything. If that wasnt enough, the build quality on them varies so much, it's unbelievable!

But wait! I'm going to pick on Dell now too! This week, I also had 5 Dells on the bench at the same time! Granted, one of them was an XPS M1730 (sexxxxxy!!!!) that was just in for a hdd and ram upgrade (320gb + 4gb ram). The owner was somewhat wealthy. :)

The most common failure for the Dells? Motherboards.

Anyone here want to share some horror stories about these two companies?

[xRyokenx]

My brother has this HP laptop that is total crap. It can barely run Vista due to its specs and they don't have drivers for anything else. The wireless card randomly craps out and I think the thing just died, lol. It makes a horrible long beeping noise whenever he tries to boot it up... or it might work but the keyboard doesn't (I can't remember).

We had some of these old Dell Inspirons that couldn't really do anything, either. Those laptops were the worst.

[progbuddy]

My mom has an HP laptop. It's about four years old, and has gone through four years of slow laggy hell. I think the drive is going bad, finally. A friend of mine's brother had an HP laptop that has errors in the RAM and the CPU (probably bad cache or something). However, I have an old ZV4000 from 6-7 years ago that is still rocking on its 2.8 GHz Celeron. It runs Ubuntu 8.10 fairly well, and does what I need it to.

My peeve is Toshiba laptops. After 6 months of use, my dad's Toshiba Satellite notebook went out completely. The motherboard was shot. We had it replaced, and now the wireless randomly craps out. Other than that, it is fast, but my dad paid a pretty penny for a laptop that should work and do its job well. Another friend of mine had a Toshiba laptop, and his is ridden with sound issues and wifi problems as well.

Dell laptops seem to have picked their asses off the floor recently. My AP biology teacher still uses his XPS laptop in the classroom (I saw him a few days ago when i dropped by the high school for a transcript) and it hasn't really had a problem.

However, my favorite laptop maker has to be Samsung. My dad just picked up a Samsung netbook, and it is one of the most amazing machines I have ever seen. It runs like no tomorrow on an Atom, and has DDR2 800 memory. Just hope it doesn't epic fail on him. :P

-Kevin

[Zephik]

Brand name computers suck so much because they try to produce a product for everyone instead of focusing on just a few good products. Just look at how many different models of laptops hp and dell have, it's no wonder they aren't as good as they should be. They're quality control gets divided with every product.

[TheGreatSatan]

The DV9000 laptops are unbelievable.. I've never seen so many random failures in a single make/model before.

That's funny to hear. Someone just told me today that they're being recalled for some PSU issue

My beef is with Sony. How much crap does one computer really need to be loaded down with? This is an actual screen shot of a new Vaio's 'Programs and Features'

http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/pp143/TheGreatSatan/vaio.jpg

[xRyokenx]

THAT is a lot of crap. ...and what's the difference between "Sony" and "Sony Corporation"?

[FuzzyPlushroom]

It amazes me that they get away with charging that much, yet still load on as much useless crap as, say, an average consumer Dell.

At least when Apple does it, the products are useful.

[CodyOdiOdi]

Gateway.
I think I said enough??

[BuzzKillington]

I have a chance to buy a dv9005us for 100 bucks from a friend. The story is the wires to the LCD got cut some how but I don't really believe that story. Either way, I can probably double that selling it as parts/repair on eBay.

[Omega]

I've never had any problems with HP but almost every Dell I've had or used has had some major issue that required to be mended before the computer could still be used.

Case in point, my school uses Dell machines. We used to have ~45 working, well running Dell machines.

We have about 16 now because we've needed to mend them with spare parts from each other.

[SKDgarbage]

I myself have two HP laptops. A DV9000 and a DV2000. The only problem I've had with them is the on screen display for the volume, bogs down the entire system just from showing the volume. WTF? Besides that not a single problem that wasn't my own stupid fault. I recently had an HP desktop on the bench with a blown PSU. Ran great after a quick swap. HP is fine to me, they're just weird. My buddy's alienware laptop is just having constant problems on the otherhand. BSODs, errors trying to install games, stuff like that. The only time I ever consider prebuilt systems is for laptops. But now that OCZ has these http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/diy_notebooks/ they'll be getting my money.

[TheGreatSatan]

All HP laptop owners need to check HP's site for a BIOS update that could prevent a serious issue later

[The boy 4rm oz]

My cousins boyfriend has a HP laptop and he couldn't be happier, probably due to him getting the $3000 lappy for $1100 but I'm not complaining, he is selling it to me for $900. The only problem he had with it was the number "1" key broke. HP replaced the whole keyboard and gave it back to him within a week.

Personally I have never had any problems with HP laptops but I have found their Desktops to be quite rubbish.

[Luke122]

I'll have to check into that HP power supply issue... I have another dv9000 here that I'm working on for a friend, and 3 more at the store to go onto the bench.. just too much of a coincidence for me. If the PSU was going nuts, that would totally explain all the random failures!

I'll hit it with the meter tomorrow and see what sort of output I'm getting. These poor folks are all out of warranty, so they might end up buying a universal PSU, but if that will solve their problems, SWEET.

[simon275]

Yeah HP's are pretty rubbish in the consumer space. Also I agree with TGS my Sony Vaio I got like 3 years ago came with so much bloatware I reinstalled windows on it.

When it comes to laptops I think Lenovo Thinkpads have the best build quality. No other brand even comes close.

Dell knocks out some decent desktops though.

[Luke122]

I have an XPS M1210 (the littlest XPS) and it's been great for me so far!

*edit* Just had ANOTHER DV9000 come to me for repairs.. hahaha

[TheGreatSatan]

When it comes to laptops I think Lenovo Thinkpads have the best build quality. No other brand even comes close.

I totally agree. That's why I bought a five year old one off ebay for like $200

[The boy 4rm oz]

My dad got a Lenovo Thinkpad from work and it is really solid from what I have seen while playing around with it. The Dells are also pretty good I think, haven't had a problem with them, their laptops anyway.

[Luke122]

I have this older Toshiba Satellite P30. It's huge, loud, and runs hella hot. It was free though, and it's actually pretty quick, so I'm not going to complain too much.

My Dell XPS M1210 is solid as can be. It's been dropped (wife), thrown on a table (wife), has had juice spilled on it (son), and keys torn off the keyboard (son). I just popped the keyboard out and put the keys back in, took it apart and dried out the juice, and it's still going strong!

My old Compaq on the other hand.. the screen hinges just shattered one day while opening it. Yeah, it's going into a picture frame sooner or later.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Case in point, my school uses Dell machines. We used to have ~45 working, well running Dell machines.

GX270/280s? Those were always a race to see whether the (cheap Chinese junk) capacitors in the PSU would die before the (bad batch from a good brand) caps on the motherboard. (A production run of Nichicon HM/HN caps were overfilled, and a fair number of mid-late P4 boards went to an early grave because the boards were cheaper to replace than to repair.) The slim Maxtor 30-40GB hard drives they installed were arguably the worst-quality drives since Conner and JTS went down years before.

Once the HDD was binned and the caps replaced (http://www.badcaps.net/), they were fine.

[Luke122]

Today's Rant: Gateway.

O.M.F.G... so I'm working on this laptop.. it's a Gateway w340ui. No wait, it's an Emachines MT3707. Wait, no, the lid says gateway.. but the bottom half says emachines..

Ok, so I go to Gateway's support site. In order to download drivers, you have to type in the serial number, rather than just the model number. Ok, 17 character serial is typed in, "Invalid Serial Number". So I look at their "find my serial number" help page.

"17 digit Serial: Refurbished model sold through retail store in International Market.* "

Hmm.. an asterix.. scroll to the bottom of the page, and find this:

"International serial numbers are invalid for our driver database." Translation: You aren't american so you are f*cked. <-- that asterix has different meaning.

Ok, live tech support chat. I tell the rep that the machine is a Gateway w340ui according to one label, and an emachines mt3707 according to another.

"Sorry sir, you need to contact Gateway support for this device." At the top of the window, plus in the URL for the chat window it says: support.gateway.com

*sigh*

Ok, go to the link he provides, click on live tech support, and get the exact same screen. Next rep: "Sorry sir, you need to go to Emachines support for that device."

me: (due to the content of this line, I wont reproduce it here)

Ok, back to Gateway's site.. I find an app that they offer to identify your hardware and suggest drivers.

"This program only runs on Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP."

This laptop has Vista.

FFFFUUUUUU....

Next I try the "Find my serial number" link, hoping that there's some sort of hole in the space time continuum, and that by proving that this model actually exists and was manufactured by Gateway, I can cause a paradox that will cause the company to implode. "This application is not supported in Windows Vista."

Everything is working except his onboard SD card reader, which locks the machine on startup everytime for 3-4 minutes until Vista disables it.

*sigh*

Any help?

[SXRguyinMA]

I dont even know how to respond to that story... :think: :?

[Luke122]

To the story, or the situation? If I didnt explain it clearly, I'll summate:

Both companys have their name on the device, neither company will support it. There is no record of either model number on either company's support site, and both of their tech supports told me to go see the other.

[SXRguyinMA]

yea I understand whats going on, I should have said situation lol

its rediculous :?

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Ask for both of their supervisors, maybe, and work with whichever seems more helpful. There's a reason I won't touch post-2002 Gateways with the end of a broom.

[Luke122]

I wont even waste anymore time trying to deal with them. I'm now downloading every gateway card reader driver I can find.. one of them will work. :)

[SXRguyinMA]

unless you need an emachines driver lol

[Luke122]

I got it! Went straight to Realtek and downloaded their USB card reader driver, and it worked. That was only the second one I tried, so I'm pretty happy.

The moral of the story is "Don't Buy Emachines or Gateways."

[The boy 4rm oz]

As an Australia I have had many problems finding drivers for certain items cos they don't care about us down here :(.

[chaksq]

Personally I have not had an issue with my Gateway laptop. I have even stood on it with my full weight by accident and nothing happened. Emachines however is another story, I sometimes use an emachine laptop at work and the display flickers when i adjust the screen angle, a laptop should be way more durable than that.

[nevermind1534]

The moral of the story is "Don't Buy Emachines or Gateways."

That's what I've been saying for the last few years about emachines, at least.