My faith in HP laptops is going through a crisis of confidence due to a series of failures or faults experienced by the collection of laptops within the family as well as my top comparison gaming laptops. In the last few months, we have had:
- A DV2000 model whose motherboard expired (26 months old); this PC has been recycled.
- A DV6620 model whose motherboard has just expired after 22 months.
- A Pavilion DV5Z100 model that is 17 months old that heats up rapidly when in use and then shuts down after 30 minutes use; there are quite a few reports that this model has problems dealing with the heat generated by the CPU. My son solved the issue by building a small platform with books that has a space under the place where the CPU is located. He then puts a frozen fridge block under this space to keep the CPU cool. It’s a kludge, but it works.
Maybe we have been unlucky or maybe laptop PCs (from any vendor) have truly become disposable items. Maybe it’s something to do with the fact that all of these PCs were purchased in the U.S. when we lived there and have struggled to cope with the vagaries of Irish electricity since we returned. Whatever the reason, the members of this household have become very conscious about the importance of backups so some goodness has resulted.
The question now is how to replace the laptop whose motherboard has just failed. Should we go with HP again, try another PC vendor so that we all use the same O/S and applications, or make a blind leap of faith and buy the first Apple Mac to come into the house? Time for some thinking…
– Tony
Thoughtsofanidlemind's Blog 
Well you know my answer – buy a Mac!
(But to be honest they have issues too.)
I have to say that ever since I switched to the Thinkpad series I haven’t looked back. The screens are not as spectacular as the other brand but everything else makes up for it. The T410S is an all around nice model. I would say to def. take a look and actually feel it hands on. Even the support is great, when you need a replacement part they don’t haggle you to try all the Level1 steps.
Hi Tony,
Take a look at Vaio Z serie. It comes with 256 GB SSD and up to 8 GB Ram. I myself have a Vaio TT since I travel a bit. I am looking forward to read your new book!
Cheers,
Lars
I’m not really looking for laptops to use as a production heavy-duty PC as I am pretty happy with the HP Elitebook 8530w that I use for this purpose. It has been rock solid for the last two years. The problems we have had have all been with “consumer” laptops. There’s a world of difference between consumer and business laptops in terms of cost, components, and assembly. Business laptops seem to be between two and three times the cost of an equivalent consumer configuration; they use lower-cost and lower-quality components, and it certainly seems that less care and quality control is applied to assembly. Apple Macs are all in the “business” category when it comes to components and build and that leads to their cost profile. The Thinkpad has always been a business computer and I suspect that is why it has been so successful in terms of durability.
TR
Last time I used a Macbook the thing kicked out more heat than a pizza oven. Maybe they’ve fixed that though.
My NW8440 had a serious ehat problem which I mitigated with the horsehoe battery to put a layer between me and the laptop. The 8530 has been fine though.
My experience if you want to try another vendor is that the Dell business laptops cost pretty much the same as the consumer ones at least in the states. All my friends with Thinkpads swear by them too…
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