I have good news, and bad news.
Feb. 19th, 2010 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sraunBut nothing awful - this is all computer related stuff.
For the Twin Cities locals, the bad news is we're not happy with Que Computers - we aren't unhappy, but we won't be recommending them as someplace to go buy a computer.
Last Friday,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
iraunink declared that she had reached the 'it's time to replace my laptop' point. I did some research, then we went to Que Computers and MicroCenter to do some in-person shopping. iraunink's needs are pretty basic - basic word-processing (writing), moderately complex spread-sheets (household budgeting), and web browsing. The big requirement is a keyboard she'll be comfortable typing on for extended periods of time.
We ended up buying a IBM Thinkpad T43 w/ a 2Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, and a 40MB hard-drive. We took it home, I installed OpenOffice, AVG Anti-Virus, Moraff's MahJongg, and Firefox on it. I give it toiraunink, and then run to the grocery store. A minute or two after I left, it locked up - cursor wouldn't move, ignored Ctl-Alt-Del. She let it sit until I got back about 30 minutes later. And it was still locked up (yes, that was expected). We rebooted it, and she used it some more. It ended up freezing after no more than 15 minutes of use - a couple of times during boot, while she was working in OpenOffice Writer, or while she was playing Freecell. We took it back to Que early Saturday afternoon, they did some software stuff, we brought it home, it locked up within 5 minutes, we took it back and left it for their hardware tech to look at.
iraunink got a call late Monday morning, she went and picked it up early Monday afternoon, got it home - and it locked up again. While playing Freecell, within 15 minutes. At this point, we declared the laptop to be a lemon.
Wednesday afternoon, we took it back. They tried to force us to take store credit. I said, "We've been here four times. We want a straight-up swap of an equivalent laptop - we chose the Thinkpad because of its durability. The next most durable laptops that you're carrying are Dell Latitudes - I want an equivalent processor, 1 gig of RAM, and at least 40MB hard-drive." He'd already told us he didn't have any equivalent Thinkpads. He tried to push some $350-400 Latitudes at us - we invoked Warranty of Merchantibility, and were holding out for the straight swap. We finally got a refund - which we were, at that point, actually happier with.
So, we're back toiraunink needing a new laptop. It's time for Plan B - which we actually already had. Buy a netbook and new laptop hard-drive, I get the netbook, and I build a brand-new install on the new hard-drive for my Dell Latitude D400. For my needs, the small netbook keyboard is not a problem, and the smaller size is nice. And she's comfortable with the keyboard, and it has one of the eraser mouse equivalents between the G, H & B keys, which she likes.
First try - an open box that MicroCenter has claimed available for the past week. I order it, the order gets canceled in ten minutes - 'product not available'.
I do more research, more poking at the internet, and end up ordering stuff from Newegg.
The good news is Newegg is shipping us an ASUS EEE 1001 - 1GB/160GB, and an 80MB Western Digital drive.
...
I just checked - looks like they're shipping as two boxes, economy shipping from Memphis, TN, turned over the the shipper late today. No ETA yet, I'm guessing Wed-Fri.
For the Twin Cities locals, the bad news is we're not happy with Que Computers - we aren't unhappy, but we won't be recommending them as someplace to go buy a computer.
Last Friday,
iraunink declared that she had reached the 'it's time to replace my laptop' point. I did some research, then we went to Que Computers and MicroCenter to do some in-person shopping. iraunink's needs are pretty basic - basic word-processing (writing), moderately complex spread-sheets (household budgeting), and web browsing. The big requirement is a keyboard she'll be comfortable typing on for extended periods of time.We ended up buying a IBM Thinkpad T43 w/ a 2Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, and a 40MB hard-drive. We took it home, I installed OpenOffice, AVG Anti-Virus, Moraff's MahJongg, and Firefox on it. I give it to
iraunink, and then run to the grocery store. A minute or two after I left, it locked up - cursor wouldn't move, ignored Ctl-Alt-Del. She let it sit until I got back about 30 minutes later. And it was still locked up (yes, that was expected). We rebooted it, and she used it some more. It ended up freezing after no more than 15 minutes of use - a couple of times during boot, while she was working in OpenOffice Writer, or while she was playing Freecell. We took it back to Que early Saturday afternoon, they did some software stuff, we brought it home, it locked up within 5 minutes, we took it back and left it for their hardware tech to look at.iraunink got a call late Monday morning, she went and picked it up early Monday afternoon, got it home - and it locked up again. While playing Freecell, within 15 minutes. At this point, we declared the laptop to be a lemon.Wednesday afternoon, we took it back. They tried to force us to take store credit. I said, "We've been here four times. We want a straight-up swap of an equivalent laptop - we chose the Thinkpad because of its durability. The next most durable laptops that you're carrying are Dell Latitudes - I want an equivalent processor, 1 gig of RAM, and at least 40MB hard-drive." He'd already told us he didn't have any equivalent Thinkpads. He tried to push some $350-400 Latitudes at us - we invoked Warranty of Merchantibility, and were holding out for the straight swap. We finally got a refund - which we were, at that point, actually happier with.
So, we're back to
iraunink needing a new laptop. It's time for Plan B - which we actually already had. Buy a netbook and new laptop hard-drive, I get the netbook, and I build a brand-new install on the new hard-drive for my Dell Latitude D400. For my needs, the small netbook keyboard is not a problem, and the smaller size is nice. And she's comfortable with the keyboard, and it has one of the eraser mouse equivalents between the G, H & B keys, which she likes.First try - an open box that MicroCenter has claimed available for the past week. I order it, the order gets canceled in ten minutes - 'product not available'.
I do more research, more poking at the internet, and end up ordering stuff from Newegg.
The good news is Newegg is shipping us an ASUS EEE 1001 - 1GB/160GB, and an 80MB Western Digital drive.
...
I just checked - looks like they're shipping as two boxes, economy shipping from Memphis, TN, turned over the the shipper late today. No ETA yet, I'm guessing Wed-Fri.
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