All posts by Smooth_J

UPDATE 2: Laptop search continues, or has it ended?

Well, this has been a rough ride so far with the Apple 🙁

I should of known something was wrong when one pixel kept on flashing white/red for the first few minutes of the machine first power on. However I thought that was only a one time thing and it wouldn’t do it again…but I was wrong.

A couple days after I noticed a bunch of pixels turning weird colors, I thought it was a program I was running so I rebooted and all went away. Next I saw a dead sub-pixel. I tried everything to bring it back to live, but nothing worked. Then the other “bunch” decided to join in and started to have issues again. Unfortunately, it is intermittent so I can’t get a nice shot of it, but it does happen.

I am still speaking to Amazon and Apple about this issue – and I hope to get it resolved shortly.

UPDATE: Laptop search continues, or has it ended?

Well, I returned the Dell. I called up customer care and told them my reasons and they basically said “no problem we’ll take it back”.

Now I have my new 15in MacBook and I also picked up complete care to go along with it. Now I know the Apple doesn’t have accident protection (which really stinks by the way), and some other really cool features of the E4300, but I have to admit it sure looks good.

My only problem right now is finding a good case since I don’t want anything to get scratched. Oh well, thats the least of my worries for now. I have other more important things on my mind – job, paying bills, and etc.

On another note, I have been using a MacBook at work for nearly 2+ years now and it hasn’t failed me yet *knock on wood*. Lets hope this one has the same reliability… 🙂

Laptop search continues, or has it ended?

Well, I did pick up a Dell e4300 and I have to say its a very nice machine. It has the CPU power, a nice backlight, and may other nice features. However I just feel it was missing something. I dunno what it was, and I tried to put my finger on it, but I just couldn’t.

So after loading Windows 7 on the e4300 I continued to look around for a laptop (within my 21 days). I was looking at the Mac and I was like, “OK, cool” but I didn’t really give it a second thought. However something just snapped, and I started looking into it more and more. I told myself that the extra price tag isn’t worth it since the specs are older than the Dell except the video card.

I had posts on many of the forums cause I felt I was so indecisive on making my decision. So in short, I went to the Apple store and took a look at the new Macs and asked the “specialists” about them as well. I was looking at the 13in model and even know the e4300 has quite a bit more features, I felt more “drawn” to it. I spent around an hour in the store talking to all the specialists and options.

I considered everything between the Mac and the e4300; price, warranty, features, and etc. I was comparing specs down to the processor level and chipset. Heck, I was even considering a bigger screen – a 15in instead of the 13in model. I hate being this way…

So quite honestly, I may send my Dell back and purchase the MBP 15. I know what I would loose, but I believe this is for the best. I will let everyone know my decision soon enough!

New laptop?

Well, after my old IBM x31 kicked the bucket I bought a D410 for very cheap. However now that I gave that one to my brother (needed something light and portable) I may purchase another one. I am currently looking a portable laptop, around a 13″ display and pretty decent specs. After looking around on Dells site, I found the E4300. It has the power and the screen size I was looking for and it looks like a pretty decent machine. However like anything else, I did my research.

Well, as it turned out, people had issues with this laptop freezing. A nice long thread can testify to that. Also, here is nice article with comments.

I am going to keep on looking, but this looks promising now that the bugs are out of the system (hopefully).