I’m glad to see someone else that has issues with most of the computers out there. It seems that there’s more bad or marginal ones than there are good ones.

I remember several years ago when Chris, and several other Lockergnomies all had Dell laptops, and they all exhibited the same few problems. Getting Dell to ‘own up’ to the problem took several months, and getting them to do something about it took longer still. It was only when one of his readers, who was also a Dell employee, stepped in and put him in touch with the right folks, that all their problems were addressed. But a single individual was still screwed.

I have to use Dell where I work. Inspiron laptops are built for the consumer market, so their configuration can change every six months or so. Latitude laptops are built for the business market, so they try to hold a particular configuration stable for about a year. But, on the first Dell laptop that I got, I went through three power supplies in twenty-four months. On the current Dell laptop, I’ve been through two power supplies in eighteen months.

We also have a number of Lenovo laptops here. The ‘jury’s still’ as to whether they’re worth a darn or not.

Gateway bought e-machines several years ago. Yep, I’d have to agree that the e-machines line is crap. I had pretty good luck with Gateways with mine, several friends, and the ones that we bought at work. I used to recommend them for their support. But I haven’t had to deal with them in a few years, so I don’t know if Gateway’s support climate has changed or not. HP customer support absolutely sucks, and Compaq isn’t much better. HP makes great printers, but little else.

I’m not trying to start or fuel a religious argument, as discussions of OSs, applications, brands, and lots of other things in this realm seem to evolve into, just relating my personal experience. Yeah, it’s just one opinion, and your mileage may vary, of course.

>1. Never, ever, ever buy an eMachine/Gateway computer. Why? I
>work on a lot of eMachines and Gateways and I would say that
>70% of them all have the same problem. What happens is
>eMachines/Gateways, like most computer manufacturers, use
>very cheap power supplies. The problem is eMachine/Gateway
>also use very cheap motherboards. What happens? The PSU
>nukes the motherboard, so to speak. Think about that. 70%.

I know of two from 1999 and one from 2001. Back then their warranty process was in name only, and some state that has been improved [very few warrantee systems are worth a darn IMHO]. Early PSU were crappy, but you can buy better for a few tens of dollars and screw them in yourself. The CPU fan was noisy on one unit, a $15 Thermaltake upgrade. As far as the MOBO, one of the 1999 units failed MOBO after 6 years of heavy daily use, possibly a cracked trace. The other units are still plugging along. 0% failed after five years of daily usage. Think about that. 0%

>2. HP/Compaq desktops are not as horrible as eMachines, but
>they’re most definitely not the best. The biggest problem
>with HP/Compaq computers is the hard drives fail. Now hard
>drives are very good at failing, but HP/Compaq’s like to
>fail more often than not. Who knows why? All I know is that
>they use Samsung hard drives and they downright suck. Newer
>HPs in the last year have fixed this problem — or so the
>company says.

My HP/Compaq desktop from 2005 uses Seagate hard drive. My emachine from 1999 came with a Samsung, which never had an uncorrectable error in tens of thousands of hours of running–still runs. My reading about Samsung is they have a sterling reputation for reliability, compared to the majors.

>3. HP laptops. Okay, I’ll keep it simple. If you have an HP
>DV2000, 6000, or 9000 series with an AMD processor, you
>might have a problem. Why? Well if your built-in wireless
>receiver stops working (not even showing up in device
>manager), it’s not software, it’s the system board. Now HP
>is starting to address this by offering an extended one-year
>warranty on this specific problem.

Yes. You cannot easily put a receiver card in a portable computer.

>4. Acer desktops. They’re not bad machines, but if they’re
>going to fail, they’ll do so usually within the first week
>of use. Why do they fail in the first week? Not sure — most
>likely a burn-in failed. How do they fail? Usually the
>motherboard.

Ever heard about burnin? In the old days [very old days] I read the manufacturer or the assembler did the 30 day burnin–now they “save money” by assembling parts and sending it off. Even non-IT experts know computer hardware reliability generally follows a “bathtub” curve. If you buy any new computer, you owe it to yourself to burnin for 30 days. Free software abounds or at least turn it on and run a video clip looped.

>5. Acer laptops. I like Acer laptops. I own one myself and have
>no issues with it. But the most common failure (not all that
>common, but it is the most common) is with the LCD screens.
>How? Yellow lines down the screen.

OK, maybe. Also there is some bad LCD news about a certain Mac product.

>6. Toshiba laptops. I love Toshiba laptops; they are hands-
>down, in my mind, the best laptops out there. The only
>complaints I have about them are that they tend to overheat
>(older ones, anyway).

Yeah. Toshiba laptops have gotten good press for many years. One good [obvious] tip from the writer.

>7. Cicero. Never heard of Cicero? Well they are GREAT desktop
>machines, but they don’t make them anymore. Why do I like
>them so much? They’re not normal, brand-name computers.
>Basically they are a bunch of spare parts put into a Cicero
>case — you will almost never find two of them alike. But why
>is that good? They use top of the line brand name parts to
>build the computers; there is no cheaping out with Cicero.
>If a friend offers you a Cicero computer, TAKE IT!

Same thing could be said of home built computers or those assembled by Mom and Pop stores, or assembled to your parts list [assuming you or whomever has intelligence, good advice, or luck].

On the other hand, these units do not exist new so cannot be warranted. Should we recommend used computers? In many cases they are like used cars–the seller knows the flaws, they buyer inherits them. Often they do not sell at enough of a discount from recent product to compensate for the unknown risks.

=====

So, of the 7 points I give Berbs an obvious 1 for Toshiba laptops.

One can always find something good or bad to say about a given hard drive, product, whatever. Fill up on opinions courtesy of google–most are worth what you paid.

I’ll add–an “inside secret”–>for a desktop, consider building your own, or having a trusted local store assemble you one–from reliable and compatible components. This advice based on my not working IT for any company.

Go to Karenware.com and download showstopper. It can create various shortcuts to Logoff, Reboot, Hibernate, etc. One click on the created shortcut and your problem is solved.

It’s too bad we don’t know who Berbs is or what makes them an expert to give the above information. Without this information we cannot make an informed assessment of the above. A Gnomie could be anyone. Is the information peer reviewed before published? You do a disservice passing information that may not be accurate and is only opinion.

Chris,

Ok. Good article on desktops and what not to buy. Now how about one on WHAT to buy.

Thanks

Gerry D.

I own a Compaq Presario M2000 and never had a HDD problem.

Like much on the net, stuff you read in chatrooms should be taken with a pinch of salt, not to mention some reservation, a bit of cynicism, and maybe even a smidgeon of suspicion.

Berbs may be offering his opinion based on years of scientifically-gathered data that is statistically sound - but probably not.

Unfortunately, instead of leaving these comments in the chatroom to be read in context, Chris displays them prominently in his column, under his byline yet. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was using these as space fillers.

Hey Chris! Given your well earned and deserved reputation in the market/trade, I think this stuff should be left where it is, or at least give it with a disclaimer. Any comments?

One brand that I’ve seen get many repeat good reviews from PC Magazine is Polywell. But, I’ve never seen, or remembered to look for, a review on them from anyone else. They’re only available for order. I’ve had doubts about PCMag’s ‘integrity’ for years, though. If I recall correctly, Polywell is also made from select-brand components.. But I’ve no first-hand knowledge either way. Anyone know anything about Polywell?

Thanks ISH. That is what I was trying to get across. You said it so much better than I did. Chris has done this before. By doing that it is not serving the novice community well.

I agree, except…
I’ve always liked Toshiba laptops but after getting one for my son for christmas we cannot get the wireless to work. It is a 64 bit system that they don’t provide any drivers for. Toshiba only supports 32 bit Os on it. That’s like buying a nice car with an eight cylinder engine and finding that four of the cylinders were disabled at the factory. Definitely terrible support!

Cicero was the ‘in-house’ brand for Future Shop computers (I’m not sure if they still offer it). Future Shop is a Canadian chain akin to Best Buy or Circuit City that tried expanding to the U.S. several years ago and got their butt handed to them on a platter such that Best Buy bought them out before the chain went bankrupt.

One of my very first PC’s was an Acer. Actually it was one of the first group they made. I liked the Acer very much, except in the first week, the memory blew. I asked a friend of mine who got it for me to return it and have them fix it. I also asked him to find out if they benchmarked it, and they said no, because they thought I wanted it right away. They replaced the memory, and I never had another bit of trouble with it. Since then I’ve mainly had Dell computers or Compaq. I do not like Compaq, because they do use HD with ‘bad sectors’. I don’t like Dell, because they are a kinky computer. Fix a problem, it’s back within a week. try to get specific information, sometimes almost impossible, and have to pay for customer service. Yes, I know, HP bought Dell and Compaq. They now use each other’s parts. The computer I liked best was the Commodore…too bad they had to wreck the company.