Grr. Toshiba. Grr.

rainbow_carnage · July 2009

I've had my Toshiba laptop since December. The charger just broke for the second time. After arguing over the warranty (Toshiba thinks I got the laptop in July 2008, despite the receipt clearly stating that it was December), they've agreed to fix it again free of charge. Fine. Except that I have to send away the entire laptop (useless without the charger, anyway) for at least a week. No laptop = no work. Fortunately, unaesthetic has his Mac, but he's using it to do his own work.

This is very frustrating, not to mention stupid. It will cost Toshiba more to ship the laptop back and forth than to just send me a new charger.

Has anyone had a positive experience with a laptop manufacturer? Once the warranty runs out, it'll be too expensive to pay for repairs. I'll have to buy a new laptop. No way in hell am I going with Toshiba again.

krappyrubsnif · July 2009

Just get a new charger from China on e-bay. Less than £20 and comes within a few days.....

tosscat · July 2009

I was thinking that.

rainbow_carnage · July 2009

I did buy a new charger on eBay for my last laptop, which was out of warranty. It took at least a week to get here. Either way, I can't use the laptop without a charger, so I might as well send it away and get the charger for free.

I'm just annoyed 'cause they could've sent out a new charger yesterday when I called them. It would've been here by now, and it would have cost less than DHL coming to pick up the laptop, then delivering it back. I would understand if it was some complicated problem, but a charger is a charger.

Next time I'm getting a Mac. Unaesthetic's G5 is four years old. It needs more RAM, but other than that, it runs as well as it did when we first bought it. The only reason I'm still using a PC is that I don't have a Mac version of FinalDraft, and it's bloody expensive to buy it.

andy · July 2009

I've just replaced my hard drive and my battery, as well as shell out for "specialist data recovery", which is as expensive as it sounds. Prior to this one I've had a iBook that had the motherboard fail and another one die. Macs ain't all that.

krappyrubsnif · July 2009

Dell every time

rainbow_carnage · July 2009

Dells are like bricks. I was comparing specs vs. weight for all of the major brands in my price range, and Dell laptops were much too heavy. That may make them less fragile, but I don't want a hunchback from carrying it around.

SimonB · July 2009

What kind of work are you using your laptop for?

I'm inclined to advise you to just get a cheap notebook and then work in the cloud ...

SimonB · July 2009

Out of interest ... I've just discovered that for *ALL* consumer electronics, the minimum warranty period is 2 years - regardless of what the little piece of paper that comes with your machine says.

Article 5 of the European Union Product Warranty Directive of 1999 says,

“The seller shall be held liable under Article 3 where the lack of conformity becomes apparent within two years as from delivery of the goods. If, under national legislation, the rights laid down in Article 3(2) are subject to a limitation period, that period shall not expire within a period of two years from the time of delivery.”

Plenty of people discussing this on the interweb if you want to Google around.

krappyrubsnif · July 2009

@# rainbow_carnage - but the after sales suport is good. Have just ordered a 12" laptop for Mrs K and I use a 13" XPS which is top class IMHO and very portable.

Colette · July 2009

My G5 mac is dying. It's only 4 years old. I'm depressed and unimpressed. And yes, it's the motherboard.

rainbow_carnage · July 2009

At 2kg, my Toshiba is a bit too heavy. I was looking for something under 1.5kg, but everything was either much too expensive or had terrible specs. I think the XPS is the lightest Dell. It's still over 2kg and, at the time, was significantly more expensive. It seems to have gone down in price since last year.

I mostly use the laptop to write, so it doesn't need to be massively powerful. But I also have no patience, so if it takes more than a minute to start up and doesn't launch programmes in seconds, I get annoyed with it. A netbook won't do.

Unaesthetic works from home a lot, too. I can't write when he has music on, so I go to a cafe. The laptop needs to be light enough for me to carry it around all day. And while 2kg doesn't sound like a lot, it's like carrying a bag of potatoes. It feels fine when I walk out the door, but 15 minutes later, my shoulder starts to hurt.

I know I'm quite picky. I wouldn't mind paying more for a laptop that won't break. Or if it does break, I want it fixed in a day or two, not a week. I don't think that's too unreasonable. So many people rely on their computers for work. When they break, everything stops. The same goes for broadband.

SimonB · July 2009

Samsung nc10 (small, under £250, only 1.3kg)
+
Google Docs (browser based, lightning quick)
+
Google Gears (allows you to use Google Docs when not connected to the Internet)

The point about using 'cloud' services like Google Docs is that if you computer breaks, or is stolen ... you can log on to your account from any other computer.

David · July 2009

Tis true. I've a Dell Mini 9 running lovely, though that NC10 has a much better keyboard - which becomes quite key when they're such small things. The atom processors also give you a good 8-10 hours on the road. I'm running win7 with Office, Photoshop (7 only due to later versions resolution restrictions), even Reason and Ableton Live and all are fast. Downside though is that I wouldn't want to work on one all the time, too small. That FinalDraft doesn't look heavy duty, r-c?

rainbow_carnage · August 2009

FinalDraft isn't heavy-duty at all. Also, I only use the formatting features, so I could downgrade to something simpler (and cheaper). But Google Docs ain't it.

I have been thinking about getting a netbook as backup for days like this. The Dell Mini is too small, though. I want something light, but big enough to write. The display on the Dell is less than 9". That's great for checking e-mail and Facebook, but I can't work on something that small. It's like writing on an iPhone.

I do like the Samsung. I've looked at it before. It's slightly bigger than the Dell, but still very light.

On an unrelated note, why do they have to be so damned shiny? The Toshiba is shiny, too. Or it was, before it was covered in scratches and fingerprints. It's not very practical.

andy · August 2009

Try scrivener if you're thinking about moving to a mac: <http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html>;

rainbow_carnage · August 2009

A couple of my friends use Scrivener. It's brilliant. Cheap. Cheerful. Does everything I need it to do. Plus, it's compatible with FD files. I'm sure I'll end up using it at some point.

N4mality · August 2009

Have you tried looking at TrustedReviews ?
They normally have impartial and informative reviews on all things Tech

Never bought a dud product yet when I've read their reviews first.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/

N4mality · August 2009

The only thing I can recommend is try and steer clear from Sony Laptops.

They seem to break all the time and every one I know who had one had to send it in for repairs at least once.

Shame as the brand Sony used to be be synonymous with Quality Build ...

rainbow_carnage · August 2009

I read lots of reviews before buying the Toshiba. One of the reasons I chose them is that they have a comprehensive international warranty. I actually bought the laptop in the States. Some other brands don't have an international warranty at all (e.g. Canon). Others want you to prove that you're just visiting a foreign country, not living there. Otherwise the warranty is void.

rainbow_carnage · August 2009

Apple, btw, is also very good in terms of international warranty. I'm currently typing on a Mac that we bought in the States. The warranty expired a while ago, but up until then, it was fully covered.

matt · August 2009

You could buy a replacement PSU on Tottenham Court Road, in a shop or at one of the computer fairs (every Saturday) http://www.londoncomputerfairs.com http://www.britishcomputerfairs.com/cgi-bin/floorplan?vnu_id=18 Also, as I've mentioned to Colette, after 4/5 years you're probably due a new machine anyway. A four year old computer is probably a dinosaur, especially with Macs as that puts them prior to the Intel transition. And Mac OS 10.6, due September, is Intel only. No better time to upgrade, really. Of course there will be exceptions. ps: this thread should be in the Lair.

underscore_cue · August 2009

@andy - have you tried the freezer/cool box technique for recovering data from a crashed HD? I thought I would need specialist data recovery, but in the end it worked for me.

andy · August 2009

@u_c - I've never heard of it and am now the wrong side of several hundred quid. So now would be a great time to learn about it. What is it?

underscore_cue · August 2009

basically you wrap up the HD in a few layers of freezer bags (and I put some kitchen paper round it to soak up any moisture just in case - though think that was overkill) then after a couple of hours you take it out and try to use it - mine went from didnt get recognised by the bios to working just as it did before it crashed. Then it stops working after a few minutes as obv the temperature rises very quickly once its spinning, but then to copy over the data you freeze it again and this time you connect the IDE/sata and the power and then wrap it up in bags of frozen peas and put that in a cool box. I had about 40 gigs of important stuff to copy and it stayed cold long enough to get it all in one go. Its fiddly and I had to have the motherboard loose on the table to make everything reach okay, but def worth it.

tosscat · August 2009

Oy vey!

matt · August 2009

A friend of mine uses this: [http://celtx.com/screens.html](http://celtx.com/screens.html)

David · August 2009

That looks pretty good. It seems a no-brainer that if you're writing collaborative software its gotta be fully cross-platform, no?

rainbow_carnage · August 2009

I got Scrivener. Can't get it to open FD files. WTF? Maybe I just didn't read the instructions properly. It said I can export files to FD. I took that to mean that I can import them, as well. Apparently not. It doesn't recognise it at all.

Will have to take some time to sort this out. Meh.

phantom_user · August 2009

@r_c if you can save your FD files in .fdx (if you have version 8) or .fdr (if you have version 7) Scrivener should import these. If it's more complicated then you could try the forum (assuming you haven't already): <http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6294&p=50737&hilit=import+fd+import+from+final+draft#p50737>;

Pete · August 2009

Take the Ice-T approach

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