My Laptop died....

[dodge boy]

So my laptop died last night. I pulled the hard drive and threw the rest of it in the garbage, I probably should have kept the charger or battery (incase I get something that uses the same type) but , eh. What should I get to replace it? Any Ideas? Should I wait until Windows 7 is out so I get it preloaded on it?

It will have to work with DirecTv2PC and also ESPN360. Those are my 2 major concerns for it because other than that it will be a web-surfing email machine.

thanks.

[phat78boy]

From everything I've seen in my dealings, laptops are a personal choice. I recommend hitting a big box store up to see what you like. Check out style, keyboard type, display, etc... then see if you can get a better price direct or through an online company.

[Stuart Sweet]

I agree. Go to a store where you can touch them. Also be aware that more cities and states are putting in e-waste recycling fees and you may not be able to toss your next laptop in the trash.

[dodge boy]

I agree. Go to a store where you can touch them. Also be aware that more cities and states are putting in e-waste recycling fees and you may not be able to toss your next laptop in the trash.

Never heard of that... But I should probably get it out of the garbage can and take it somewhere but where? Does Best buy take old dead laptops for recycling? How do I know it won't end up on 20/20 or 60 minutes in indonesia?I am seriously asking here because,well I don't know...

[Stuart Sweet]

I know here in California Best Buy will take your old electronics, I think they are required to by law. We now pay a disposal fee for everything we buy.

[dodge boy]

I will be looking into disposing of my laptop correctly when I get home from work, thanks Stu... Being from here in Ohio we don't have alot of those services yet, my area still does not smog test cars, which IMO is a good thing to not do, too expensive for the car owner :)

[Ken S]

We really like the ThinkPad T series line of laptops, but they're not really graphics/home machines more oriented toward a work environment. That being said they seem to last for years, take a beating and when something does go like a fan or keyboard pretty easy to replace.

A friend of mine just bought an HP from Costco with a nice 17" inch screen. I was pretty impressed...it was well under $1,000.

[The Merg]

What exactly was wrong with your laptop? Most laptops don't just die unless some component gets fried. You can usually replace a part that has become faulty. Your laptop may not truely be dead yet and can always function as an extra web browsing device.

- Merg

[dennisj00]

I bought the on-sale Dell <$500 at BB about a month ago - Dell 1545, put Windows 7 on it after a bad Vista Ultimate upgrade and am very pleased with it . . particularly that it runs Directv2PC flawlessly (with a $35 N upgrade.)

The 4-5 year old HP lost the backlight (and I botched the $9 replacement!) - and wouldn't run D2PC.

[dodge boy]

What exactly was wrong with your laptop? Most laptops don't just die unless some component gets fried. You can usually replace a part that has become faulty. Your laptop may not truely be dead yet and can always function as an extra web browsing device.

- Merg

It turns on but theonly for about 10 seconds then it shuts right back off again. The screen never even comes on.

[shedberg]

What exactly was wrong with your laptop? Most laptops don't just die unless some component gets fried. You can usually replace a part that has become faulty. Your laptop may not truely be dead yet and can always function as an extra web browsing device.

- Merg

Mine just died one day and $120 later found out it was the motherboard - I was hoping it was just a power issue but no luck. Also, I did not have one bit of a problem prior to it dying. Of course it was one month out of warranty! I now have an MacBook Pro and don't plan to go back to a PC. My other laptop, when it goes will be replaced by a desktop.

[CoriBright]

It turns on but theonly for about 10 seconds then it shuts right back off again. The screen never even comes on.

Sounds like the graphic chipset fan is gone.

[houskamp]

I went with asus for my last one.. one of the coolest running laptops I have ever seen..

[Movieman]

I went with ACER. Good quality and they tend to give a lot more for the money on their laptops.

[Supramom2000]

I bought an e-machine from TigerDirect. I had an HP I bought from Fred Meyer with a great rebate, and it died in 2 years. After that, I decided "name brand" was not as important.

[naijai]

I'd say wait for Windows 7 and get a laptop with one already installed or you can see if best buy is trying to get rid of their vista laptops for lower and you can still get an upgrade for Windows 7

[dodge boy]

Thanks for all you suggestion guys and gals.. I wet to BB lastnight and talked to sales man he said come back in 8 days when 7 comes out, if there are any vista machines left they will be cheap......

BTW the one that died was an ACER Extensa 4420 and was only just over a year old...

[dpeters11]

I will be looking into disposing of my laptop correctly when I get home from work, thanks Stu... Being from here in Ohio we don't have alot of those services yet, my area still does not smog test cars, which IMO is a good thing to not do, too expensive for the car owner :)

In my area, the county does a hazardous waste disposal. There are also companies that will take broken systems, then give them to groups, schools or sell them cheap to low income families. Hamilton County is a bit far for you though :)

[davemayo]

Being from here in Ohio we don't have alot of those services yet, my area still does not smog test cars, which IMO is a good thing to not do, too expensive for the car owner :)

Don't you have e-check??

[Hansen]

Thanks for all you suggestion guys and gals.. I wet to BB lastnight and talked to sales man he said come back in 8 days when 7 comes out, if there are any vista machines left they will be cheap......

BTW the one that died was an ACER Extensa 4420 and was only just over a year old...

Did you buy the Acer with a credit card? If so, many credit cards, like American Express, extend the warranty by the same amount of time as the original warranty. So, if the Acer had a 1 year mfr warranty and you paid with a credit card having that little known benefit, then it may still be warranted by your credit card company.

[dpeters11]

Don't you have e-check??

He's fortunate to be one county over from e-check land.

[davemayo]

He's fortunate to be one county over from e-check land.

Hmm, I thought it was state-wide. Lucky him.

[dpeters11]

Hmm, I thought it was state-wide. Lucky him.

Nope, Cuyahoga County and the ones immediately bordering it. We used to have it in Hamilton, but they got rid of it several years ago.

[Ira Lacher]

It turns on but theonly for about 10 seconds then it shuts right back off again. The screen never even comes on.My daughter's laptop had a similar problem -- box wouldn't recognize the fact that it was plugged into an AC outlet and consequently the battery couldn't charge. Local store ran some tests on the AC adapter and found no juice running thru it. Replaced it ($25) and everything works fine.

[itguy05]

I now have an MacBook Pro and don't plan to go back to a PC.

Best advice. There is no reason to buy a Windows PC. Period, end of story. A Mac can dual boot to Windows and run it through Virtualization for that occasion you need to go to Windows.

Not to mention Win 7 is an almost blatant rip off of Mac OS X.

[CoriBright]

Personally I don't think there's any need to pay twice the price for a MacPro notebook when you can get a decent Windows 7 notebook at half the price and dual boot Win 7 and OSX!

It's the Mac that's the rip off.......

A friend of mine in the UK had his system board go in his Mac and was quoted GBP 1500 for a new board alone. For $3000 I could get almost the best Windows notebook available and with a year's guarantee (usually extendable for a further 2 years) and a whole load of software as well. And enough change to keep me and hubby in Blu Ray disks for the foreseeable future.