New laptop help

[deepak]

My laptop of three years might not be of use any more

The charger pin is either loose or faulty since I have to wiggle the charger wire a lot in order for it to get a secure connection. It's got to the point where I have to fiddle with it for as much as a half an hour before it sticks, only for it to loosen up with the slightest movement. And since it was an OEM (Compal) I'm not exactly sure how to get it repaired...if any one has any ideas I'd appreciate it.

So I'm considering a new laptop. I paid $1300 for this one back in the day and I'm fed up paying so much for what's pretty much a two to three year disposable device (previous Dell lasted same amount of time).

So my budget is $500-700 max. Apple is out of the question since majority of the time I'm running patient software that works best on Windows.

Two Thinkpad configs with discount:

#1 ($650)

ThinkPad T61 Intel

[Salt Peanuts]

I'm with Reks on this one. Then take the difference and get more memory.

[spritzer]

Simple solution, open it up and resolder the DC connection. Cost 0$ but no new toy fever.

[deepak]

Yeah I've been leaning towards #1. GMA will play DoTA fine...

Simple solution, open it up and resolder the DC connection. Cost 0$ but no new toy fever.

I'm trying to find the service manual for it now. Compal CL56, pretty popular "gaming" laptop three years ago. The last thing I want to do is buy a new laptop, so hopefully I can fix it.

[riceboy]

#1 looks good as well. I've got a lot of folks that have Lenovo laptops for business and they are loving it. Only one failure on the hard drive, but the customer service/tech support helped resolve that person's issue quite quickly as well.

[Dominatrice]

Vista + 1gb of memory =

If you running vista, i would suggest NOTHING less then 3GB of ram...

I just got my Asus G1, really kick ass machine for the price. Similar specs, really nice built...I LOVE the hinges on this thing. First thing i look at when i get a laptop is the hinges on the screen.

[deepak]

Both instances I'd load XP Pro on it.

I'm still trying to find the service manual for my CL56. Google tells me it will be pretty easy to disassemble...

Look at that beautiful ATi Radeon 9700... still hella fast for all the games I play. Faster than most non-gaming laptops video cards out today...

I really hope it's just a loose pin and it's not corroded or anything.

[aardvark baguette]

Someone at [H] posted a dealer login for discount. I don't know if it would help you further, but I will PM it to you if I can locate it.

[deepak]

Someone at [H] posted a dealer login for discount. I don't know if it would help you further, but I will PM it to you if I can locate it.

Thanks I have a Lenovo employee discount access code already.

[spritzer]

I'm trying to find the service manual for it now. Compal CL56, pretty popular "gaming" laptop three years ago. The last thing I want to do is buy a new laptop, so hopefully I can fix it.

The DC sockets failing is a rather common fault on older laptops and since they are one of the few through hole components on the PCB they are easy to fix.

[Dusty Chalk]

Apple is out of the question since majority of the time I'm running patient software that works best on Windows.

Uh...no it's not, there's this thing they have, called Boot Camp.

Linux has something similar, I forget what it's called, though.

[krrm]

I dearly miss my previous Thinkpads, but whatever OS you choose more RAM would do you good. I would think those hi-res images is quite big in memory and compared to disk swapping every processor is fast.

[dc]

Linux has something similar, I forget what it's called, though.

WINE? VMWare?

[krrm]

WINE? VMWare?

If Bootcamp is a bootloader, then it would be LILO or GRUB.

[dc]

I see, I thought it was an emulator.

[deepak]

Uh...no it's not, there's this thing they have, called Boot Camp.

Linux has something similar, I forget what it's called, though.

I know about BootCamp, Parallels, VMWare, etc. I'm not buying an Apple only to run Windows on it all the time. And my friend has a 17" MBP and he has some problems running some games on Windows, he has gotten a few BSOD due to Nvidia video card drivers. We've tried every version including beta drivers and they still happen with WCIII and CoH.

[aardvark baguette]

I know about BootCamp, Parallels, VMWare, etc. I'm not buying an Apple only to run Windows on it all the time. And my friend has a 17" MBP and he has some problems running some games on Windows, he has gotten a few BSOD due to Nvidia video card drivers. We've tried every version including beta drivers and they still happen with WCIII and CoH.

Apple is great and all, but running windows through a simulator is never going to be as good as the real thing. I dont care what anyone says.

[Dusty Chalk]

I'm not buying an Apple only to run Windows on it all the time. And my friend ...has some problems running some games on Windows...

Yeah, I agree. If it was only one application, I wouldn't have any problem recommending something like that, but I would never run games on it.

It's a simuloader and a bootmulator (bootater?).

[Dusty Chalk]

all bootcamp does is give inferior operating systems a way to interact with the EFI version Apple uses.

'Bootater'.