I have had two HP DV9000 laptops that both had the motherboard crap out... I'd stay away from that brand. I now have an ASUS (UL30VT-A1) that is great... light, small, quick enough, and the battery lasts a long time. ASUS puts really high quality parts in their laptops so I'd suggest them unless you are hung up on brand names. I bought a Toshiba for $500 that has been solid and dependable. I agree with the Thinkpad suggestion as well (same qualities as the Toshiba). Funny enough, my younger daughter just asked for a new laptop to replace a really old/entry level Acer. She nixed the following brands from her list: Acer (she soured on Acer due to the cheap model she has), HP (saw how the two DV9000s died), and Toshiba (she thinks her sister's laptop is ugly). He criteria were looks, battery life, and size, so I got her a Dell Inspiron 14 for $500. We'll see how that one works... btw, Best Buy has a Gateway with i3, Blueray, and reasonable specs for $550. But I'd also agree with folks above suggesting Asus, Toshiba, Thinkpad, and Acer (despite my youngest's bad experience).
wow I wish I had read this thread much sooner... I bought an hp g60 a year ago... i hope it doesn't break down anytime soon. (it's a great laptop though aside from the fact that i don't get to play any hardcore games on it)
Get a Toshiba or a Lenovo..... <<< thats it, any of those two brands and you will be fine.... I fix computers and the ones that give most problem are the HP's and Dell's..... When I opened the HP laptops to repair the motherboards I found out why they are so prone to failure.... Problem here is heat, small heat sink, plus a weak fan and a bad design to cool down the gpu and cpu.... Hp have many failures, they start with wifi going out or a blank screen, no boot or sometimes the touch panels on the top give out.... Early signs that motherboard failure is coming ......... Toshiba and Lenovo by far is your best bet, 400-500 range is enough to get a good laptop... I have a Toshiba with a Turion 64X2, 3 gb ram, 180 gb hd that cost me 499.... Plus tax 550 ish if I can remember right.. With it I run my homestudio, and I also do light video editing but everything in high def... I have had no problems with it at all.... Get a Toshiba<<<< Also, to all who have broken HP Laptops/Motherboards<<<<< Let me fix them for cheap and make emm better .......
Exactly what happened... the wireless failed, and the fan would go crazy trying to cool down the MB to the point that it was always running (which I sure added to probs). Got to the point I simply quit trying to use the wireless and instead used a cheap Linksys USB wireless stick. But the MB probs continued, and if you had to reboot for any reason it may have taken 10-12 times before the computer would come to life. Odd thing, I used to work at pre-merger Compaq and Compaq R&D prided itself on designing in proper airflow (eg avoiding HW and cabling in the way of airflow). HP apparently didn't show the same concern (and btw, this is a large 17" laptop... I would be shocked if their smaller formfactors didn't have more probs). HP knew about the deign flaw, of course denied, then stalled, then admitted it on the DV9000. They agreed to repair if I shipped back, but I was lazy plus didn't want to be without my laptop (I was job hunting) so I put up with the prob. I would have avoided Dell for my daughter, but she was pretty determined about her brand and appearance criteria. I can tell its cheaply made, and would have gone with Toshiba or Lenova (or better, ASUS... my 13" is quiet and cool to the touch). My hope would be it lasts her through JR high and maybe even HS. Are the MB's easy to get your hands on? I would seriously think of taking you up on it... I have two DV9000s that would be worth fixing as desktop replacements.
dell inspirons are the cheapest of dell's consumer line. i have a 4 year old inspiron. it still runs, and runs quiet, but the casing creaks, the dvd drive quit on me maybe 2 years ago, one of the hinge is loose, some keyboard keys keep popping out. i can still use it perfectly well, but it definitely looks worn. one reason is i keep accidentally knocking it off of bed. so far, every fall hasnt killed it, which really surprised me.
Hard drives have nothing to do with the laptop manufacturers. HP, Dell, Apple, and Lenovo all buy them from the same places.
Not at all, the MB are actually easy to get..... But for the money ($150) is not worth it, reason is that its the same MB and will fail again.... Instead of replacing the MB what I do is take the Laptop apart and resauder the GPU, clean everything inside and do a couple of upgrades to provide better cooling.... this is a low risk move because you dont spend much and the results are in your case two laptops coming back to life that can either be used or put up for sale... Now, does this fix work for long? The one I did most recently on this specific fix has been working for two months now and no problems... The guy went from having to spend 400-500 bucks on a laptop to saving most of that on what I did to his broken one.. Like I told him, if your laptop is useless and serving no purpose then give me your permission to take it apart and attempt to repair the MB... Worked like a charm and his laptop was revived. In my opinion the end results were better than the crap HP put together, I would not be amazed if the life of the laptop is better than when it came new.... So if you want lets do the same thing, I will take them apart and do my best to repair the MB's and bring them back to life... If your laptops work again then Ill give you a great cf price .... If not then no harm done and no money lost. Lets face it, this is a Morey move... Low risk with a possible Big payoff... If you have any questions just reply to me here or send me your email/ number thru the rep..
No but they seem to suffer from the same darn overheating problems... Your laptop can be saved thou... There is a similar procedure to the one on top^^ that can be done to your MB in order to prevent it but its all up to you.. I would use it untill it breaks down lol... More questions? Let me know....
Asus is the way to go if you want a netbook with the price range. But I don't know why people would waste their money on an atom machine. It's freaking terribly slow. Just spend another $200 and get a decent desktop system because the $500 netbook range is already outdated and a waste of money.
Save another $399 and get a macbook pro from microcenter. Trust me, the macbook will pay off when your friends continually get viruses while you don't.
I didn't want to post a thread about this but can anyone help: How can i have my desktop wallpaper change occasionally without me having to manually do it? Like in windows 7. I have Vista though.
If your friends are constantly getting viruses then your friends are idiots and shouldn't' be trying to use a computer.
