I had a Toshiba laptop as well, and 1 week outside of the warranty the motherboard took a dump. Toshiba pretty much told me to pound sand!

 

Thats a good point. Wasnt too long ago laptops were made better. Cost was $3k and most (if not all) had a three year warranty. Now, cost is (1k of less) and the warrantys are a year (or less). I guess if you buy cheap, youre gonna get cheap. Problems is, Im CHEAP plus its hard to find the better stuff in my neck of the woods.

 

I disagree. I have been using laptops since 1996 or so, and I have found that with time, they continue to get better and better. Like I said earlier, I have a ThinkPad that I beat to death and it's always in situations with lots of shock and vibration from vehicles and trucks yet it continues to survive. It wasn't too long ago that the only way you could get a laptop to survive that was to buy a toughbook. I would LOVE to have a TouchBook29 but I'm fairly happy with what I'm using now. The quality of the screen on the ThinkPad is much better than the Dells and other brands I've used in the past.

 

I guess that is correct to a certain point. The newer technology is much better, but lots of "newer" things, whether its laptops, TV's, cell phones, appliances or whatever just seem to be more cheaply made. Maybe its just me?

Ive had a computer for many years now but this is my first laptop (still dont need a laptop)....hopefully it will give me good service.

 

It wasn't so much they where made better but just simpler in design. The density level in todays notebook is unbelievable, with all the feature sets. And also dealing with the thermals. Now with the lead free (RoHS) solder requirement is another curve ball we have to deal with.
And don't get me started on batteries.......

MikeyB

 

I've got a Satellite Pro SD-8 on order to replace the HP that I want to place under the rear tire of the truck. I've heard nothing but good about the Pro series. Oh well, maybe it'll be alright, maybe it won't. Anything has got to be better than HP laptops.

 

Festus,
Which HP model do you have?

MikeyB

 

HP Pavilion DV8000. The exact number is dv8013cl. It was nearly top of the line for HP's apparently when I bought it in April. I'm finding that the installed HP software doesn't like to play well will anything that's not HP (eg. printers, cameras, bluetooth dongle for my Canon IP90 printer, etc.). Also, the put in such a cheap video card that it doesn't have a fast enough refresh rate for maps and high resolution graphics - even Excel and Word documents the screen goes fuzzy often when scrolling. I'm constantly rebooting. Of course, HP, has it's own driver running things, so it's impossible to download drivers from the card manufacturer. And HP support is crap on the subject. Also, when in use for awhile, man does that thing get hot above the keys.

Now I don't pretend to know alot about these things and may have termed some things wrong. Set me straight if I did. What I do know, is I need one that works with no hassles. So, I have my computer guy taking this on trade, with the addition of more funds of course, for a Toshiba Sat. Pro SD-8. It's fairly new on the market apparently, and upon speaking to a few coworkers and consultants that have them, they have nothing but good things to say.

 

Festus,
Can't help you much other than have you upgrade the BIOS, AMD processor and video capture card drivers for your unit.
Go here for the latest updates. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...lang=en&os=228

As for heat the AMD Turon is one hot running puppy, and that's why you're feeling it through the keyboard.


MikeyB

 

Thanks a bunch. Maybe I'll at least get to pull it out of the case and get some use from it before the new comes in.

 

not sure where you ordered your projector from, but the lamp hour can be reset on many lcd/dlp projectors [toshiba included].. so if it was a demo unit somewhere [they can be packaged again and you would never know it was a demo] and had 2,000 hours on the bulb already, and reset the lamp hour meter...?

i use to work at an electronics store... i've seen it done before [and i was their #1 delevery/install guy..]

 

It was a demo unit. When I got it it said 75 hrs.