[techtalk] Re: Look, I'll sort myself a laptop soon, honest...

  • From: Paul Ferguson <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: TechTalk <techtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 15:08:49 +0100

Hi Greg,

On 30-Dec-04, Greg Webb wrote:

> Not ideal but thanks. 

No it's not but it's an option :)

>  there's now a rather pleasant young lady so
> there's more chance of the machine being used on my lap from the
> sofa... 

Better be careful if
#http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/16/laptops_cause_infertility#
is to be believed ;)

> so increasing the need for portability and battery life, and
> being able to run away from a separate keyboard. Annoyingly, that
> creates a conflicting requirement in that the extra portability and
> battery life doesn't seem to be available with 17" TFTs which are what
> I need to get a numeric pad built in to a laptop from what I've seen
> so far... suspect the numeric pad will go, therefore, but you never
> know.

Sounds like you may have to come to a compromise WRT the features.

> Annoying. We've got one Dell with a retrofitted MSI CDRW but that's it
> as far as I know. 

Well, had Dell informed us of this incompatability, it could have been
avoided but there you go ;)

> I'm afraid I have a deep prejudice against all
> things compaq, though - told they make lovely servers but I've seen
> too many odd machines to want to use them.

Having worked with Compaqs for several years now, I too have a loathing
of them but unfortunately, I don't make the buying decisions so don't
have any choice in the matter.

> OK, don't actually want one anyway. Planning on going for extra 
> flexibility through a dongle.

IMHO a dongle would be just one more item that got left behind/fell down
the back of the sofa etc. The onboard one (in this case) is a far better
idea :)

> Whoops - still, ex colleague just had a near DOA Toshiba with similar
> so no-one's perfect...

I don't expect them to be 100% perfect but I do them to work as
advertised, which they didn't and a 66% failure rate on the first
delivery is ludicrous.

> In other words, though, problems with Dell are one faulty part on one 
> early batch of machines? OK you got a bunch of them but that's it and 
> they tracked down and fixed the issue?

The machines I received are the model and spec that has been chosen, 
at corporate level, to be the "weapon of choice" for our laptop users.
As a supplier to a global corp, Dell should be taking more care before
supplying duff equipment. 

Yes, they did get them fixed pretty sharpish (that part of the service I
was pleased with at least). Unfortunately, I work under pressure most
of the time and to have these delays in the installation process was
not a good way to introduce me to Dell's equipment :(

> Sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to undermine your argument, just 
> trying to get facts straight!

The facts are simple, the laptops were faulty and should not have
reached the customer in that state. Having spoken to their Support
people, it was abundantly clear that they were aware of this but were 
not doing anything pro-active to resolve it but simply sitting back and 
waiting for the customer(s) to complain.
-- 
Cheers,

*Paul*

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong. --Oscar Wilde

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