The HP Pavilion dv5:
This is a laptop for you if you want:
-keyboard fallaing off (amazing trick)
-overheating (nice on a cold winter day)
-short battery life (increases employee performance)
-confusing "help" enter advice (great for learning Cantonese)
-keeeys stick

It seems that these fun issues are common on most of the HP laptops now.

It never was a problem when they were made here in CA a few years ago according to one of the PC magazines.

I wonder if Carly will treat CA like this?

-Vic

Hubby's HP from work is not so spiffy either. He lost his screen.
All the color and icons/graphics. It was 2 months before warranty expiration, so work had a HP tech come in and fix it.
His battery is totally gone, as of last year after one year of use!
And work won't replace it.

But his friends have had all sorts of mechanical problems too.
Keys breaking, CD drive dying, etc.

My Dell inspiron fried the HD, but we replaced it. (son did it).
The rest still works fine. Over 4 yrs old. We keep two backups going all the time now. (one down here on my desktop and one for the laptops upstairs!)

I find myself using this desktop mostly. We replaced the Dell HD here too, BEFORE it died. My son didn't like it, said it sounded funny, so we put in a new one. Dell seems to have Hard Drive issues! I don't go many places online anymore.. being very conservative.

Wow, I've got an older refurbished Gateway laptop - {02/05?} but we mainly use as a spare when desktop is being used by another family member.
or if I want to take it outside.

The battery was new when we got it but I mostly use it plugged in - so battery is removed & I haven't bothered to keep it charged up.

I formatted the HD & installed a Linux OS to lighten the cpu/resources load

works great but it will over heat if used for hours so I prop it up with cd cases to get more airflow under it.
and make sure fan area is clear

My confession:

I personally don't like laptops!

We are now propping up our two... with my art pencils. (they are flat on two sides, and provide a good 1/4 inch air space.

My refurbished Dell laptop serves a purpose upNorth. We have a backup Battery we bought from Woot...it is an Energizer thingy which runs a multitude of electrical things. (we have no electricity up there).

I think laptop batteries are a crock... designed to fail and cost a bundle!

I have the HP model dm3-1040US that works great but I admit I don't use it a lot. It's a spare computer for when we go out of town or when I need to take one to work with me.

It was a great buy last Christmas, under $500 and loaded with memory, processor, good screen, etc...

I did a lot of research on Amazon before getting it. So far it's been great but the battery does need to be charged a lot. My son repairs computers so if I ever need anything replaced I'm lucky to have him to do it.

He also has an HP laptop, a good one but I forget the model number. He's had his for over a year and no problems yet.

I used to buy Dells and had good luck with them if I bought a fancier model. We bought some low end models for the business and they were junk, everything on them was failing and/or breaking.

We also tried a high end IBM desktop and it was junk, had to have the hard drive replaced twice and also the motherboard twice. I'll never buy another IBM.

What about Acer, Alienware, or even a Mac.
If one were to buy a laptop, which one of those is the best?

Thanks mel

I have a Toshiba Satellite and have never had an issue with it since early 2007.

I would buy another one.