What Notebook/Laptop Brand "Not" to Buy

[Pib]

Last Thursday night when turning off my 7 year old Toshiba laptop and saw a strange screen flash...I decided to turn it back on to ensure nothing was wrong. Well, it would not turn back on. The hard drive would start up for a second or two, you see a indicator light or two for a second or two, absolutely no screen display...not even the BIOS boot-up screen. Power adapter & battery still good...tried starting with and without the battery. Durn, some electronic component just died while turning off the computer. Sent the next 3 hours troubleshooting the laptop...hard drive is OK...RAM is OK...it just seemed something on the motherboard died. Same problem the next morning after trying to start the computer after completely cooling off overnight if it was a heat related issue. Yeap, all indications it's a motherboard problem....and of course I start thinking too expensive to repair but I do want to check out repair.

Next day/Friday at 11:30am I drop the laptop off at a recommended repair shop in the Bangkhai Mall in western Bangkok...the technician plays with it for about 10 minutes as I watch by removing the RAM, hard drive, etc. (same stuff I had tried but I didn't tell him that), agreed it's probably a motherboard problem, said they would open it up, do more troubleshooting, and give me a call late in the afternoon as the whether they can repair and the cost. I take my hard drive and battery out (they didn't need them and I didn't want to leave my hard drive with them anyway....they said I could even take out the 4GB of RAM if desired as they have the appropriate RAM)...also take my power adapter back with me. I do get the call in the afternoon, the technician says it a chipset problem (of course that could have probably meant any chip(s) on the motherboard), but they are sure they can repair, estimated cost Bt2500-3000, repair in 2 to 3 days, no charge if they cannot repair. I give the go ahead for repair. I get a call early Sunday morning the laptop is repaired....couple of chips on the motherboard replaced they said...total parts & labor cost Bt3000....from drop-off to repair a little less than 48 hours....not bad at all. And the computer has been working fine for the last 24 hours while running most of the time and being turned off & on numerous times. Hopefully it's got many more years of service ahead of it.

The only other repair it had had of the years was I personally replaced the keyboard (approx. $13 total Ebay cost including shipping for the keyboard) since the "s" key required more pressure than I like to get the "s" to display...so that really wasn't a needed repair...it's just I could easily replace the keyboard cheaply to fix the annoyance with the "s" key. Yeap, been a good laptop. And I also have another lower power CPU Toshiba laptop which is also approx. 7 years old (the wife use to use it) and it continues to work fine although its been used a lot less than my main Toshiba laptop.

But during those 2 days of my laptop being in the repair shop I started thinking seriously about getting a new laptop whether my Toshiba was repaired or not....had been thinking about new laptop for around 6 months now....got the urge for a new machine. When picking up my repaired laptop the Thai wife and I asked two technicians which computers they felt were the "most reliable"...they really didn't provide an answer to that question but both had no problem identifying the two computer brands that were "unreliable/broke a lot"....those two brands were Acer and Compaq. They pointed to the dozen or so repair laptops awaiting customer pickup and they said most of them were Acer and Compaq models.

Now, to get to my question to ThaiVisa folks. I'm not asking what computer you would recommend for me as everyone likes different things in a computer but what I am asking is based on your personal experience with laptops/notebooks you have owned, which brand would you "NOT" recommend due to reliability or other major problems you had with the computer? I want to try to avoid brands that seem to have a high failure rate....plus I've only seen one Toshiba model that really interests me and I'm not sure Toshiba's built "today" measure up to the reliability of my two Toshiba's built 7 years ago. Thanks.

[Digitalbanana]

Just follow the money. The cheaper budget models of Acer, HP, Lenova and Toshiba are all going to fail faster than a better built model. Some of these companies also make high end models as well. Compaq stopped making computers back in 2010 - they are all branded under the HP budget models now.

[Chicog]

I wouldn't touch Acer or Gateway.

[infinity11]

I still have an old acer laptop that works fine not sure why people do not like them.

Now HP that is scary shit, i would never buy an hp laptop again!!!

but i had few or little problems with dell and acer

i DO want to ask

what laptop SHOULD we buy???

who makes the best ones from low end to high?

[SpokaneAl]

After decades in the PC/Microsft world, I moved to all Apple a couple of years ago and have never looked back. So my less than impartial answer concerning what laptop not to buy would be a PC/Microsoft based machine.

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[Jack Mountain]

Don't buy an original notebook with only paper sheets ... :-)

[Slip]

After having owned 3 in a row, I will no longer buy HP. The first (a desktop) was excellent, the second (a higher end lap-top, 50k about 5 years ago), still pretty good but not without a number of issues at times, but the last one that we got for my other half (a cheaper 22k b model) has just been horrible.

(I got an Asus N56V to replace it and it's just great- a truly lovely piece of kit).

[sirchai]

Keep your hands off Acer, the cheapest crap money can buy. Toshiba or Dell seems to be the better choice.-

Edited October 28, 2013 by sirchai

[dave_boo]

I've tried a lot of brands. Don't go MSI or Compal. Both get you decent components in a crappy engineered laptop. Sager gets you a bit better. Acers I have seen seem ok if you don't mind the cheap plastic. The Lenovo Y500 I am currently using seems to be ok but still waiting for more time under its belt. Asus just is awesome. My road warrior, the UL80VT, has literally been around the world several times in its 4 years of life, been dropped, abused, etc and keeps on ticking.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Pib]

I've tried a lot of brands. Don't go MSI or Compal. Both get you decent components in a crappy engineered laptop. Sager gets you a bit better. Acers I have seen seem ok if you don't mind the cheap plastic. The Lenovo Y500 I am currently using seems to be ok but still waiting for more time under its belt. Asus just is awesome. My road warrior, the UL80VT, has literally been around the world several times in its 4 years of life, been dropped, abused, etc and keeps on ticking.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

The Lenova Y500 just happens to be one I have under serious consideration at this millisecond in time. If you can share anymore pros or cons it would be appreciated.

And just today I decided I'm going to give Asus a serious look over the coming days. Tomorrow I'm going to a couple more Bangkok computer stores (large and small) to continue my hunt. I might even drop into a couple computer repair shops to glance at the laptops they are working on to get more of feel of what brands like the repair shop too much. I sure hope my repaired Toshiba I writing this post on can't read posts...but it shouldn't worry as I plan on keeping and using it if I do get another laptop.

[Shurup]

Stay away from HP! I own one and would never ever ever touch one of them ever again! On the other end of the stick is ASUS for me, highly recommend.

[straycat911]

I will agree with just about what others say about notebooks, asus is best, acer can be problematic, hp does not last long, compaq breaks easily

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[denby45]

Stay away from HP! I own one and would never ever ever touch one of them ever again! On the other end of the stick is ASUS for me, highly recommend.

Agree 100% HP pile of crap. They have never been any good since they lumped in with Compaq. HP was not the worst I have owned that would be head and shoulders above the rest. ACER. I canno believe I wasted so much time on this thing before finally launching it out of my window right into the dumpster. Then I remembered I had a lot of info on that machine so had to run downstairs to retrieve it. I had a DELL Latitude top of the range. Not good at all. The best machie I have had to date is my old Toshiba machine which is about 10 years old. I gave it to the girlfriend when I bought the new HP. What a mistake to make. I think you said it all when you said you have had your Toshiba for 7 years. I don't know about Lenovo but in the earl days I had an IBM machine and it was very good. I believe Lenovo is IBM in disguise so should be a good buy.

Den

[Chicog]

I still have an old acer laptop that works fine not sure why people do not like them.

In my case it's because I remember when they decided they could save a couple of bucks a PC by writing their own BIOS which was a massive disaster for us when we took delivery of a couple of hundred defective machines, compounded by them refusing to acknowledge it for 6 months.

We ditched Acer and I've never considered them since.

They're a bunch of cheapskates.

[sms747]

Bought an Acer top model a few years back at 35k baht, it was still a pile of crap that lasted two years with faults along the way, and the service is poor.

Edited October 28, 2013 by sms747

[Pib]

Gosh, what the repair shop guy said about Acer seems to be abundantly confirmed so far by several posts above. I will definitely avoid Acer at all costs.

Edited October 28, 2013 by Pib

[lopburi3]

We have two Toshiba laptops of about that age and still going fine but recommend fan base as they do get rather hot without.

[sotsira]

I still have an old acer laptop that works fine not sure why people do not like them.

Now HP that is scary shit, i would never buy an hp laptop again!!!

but i had few or little problems with dell and acer

i DO want to ask

what laptop SHOULD we buy???

who makes the best ones from low end to high?

Best low end Asus

Best high end MacBook Pro

Avoid, HP, Acer & Samsung.

[cacruden]

Even if you want to stick with Windows, I would get an Apple laptop and add Windows to it.... it tends to be the best Windows machine out there and the build quality is very good.

Acer avoid....

[moradave]

I bought a 50,000 b HP laptop about 5 years ago. Nothing but problems. Ran very hot. All USB ports went out. DVD drive went out. Needed new motherboard.

Finally dumped it and bought a 25,000 b Lenovo mid-range with 17" screen, HDMI port and bluetooth. No problems in 16 months. Runs very cool. I recommend Lenovo. Avoid HP.

[DogNo1]

My last three Notebooks/laptops have been Sony VAIOs. Good build quality and good wireless and Bluetooth. I build all of my desktops from scratch so they are as good as their components. If you're going to buy a Windows machine, I recommend going with Windows 7 and Office 2010. Windows 8 and Office 2013 I find confusing and clumsy to use. Actually,unless it's for Production, an Android 4.3 or later tablet is probably the easiest and most enjoyable machine to use. Be sure to pay enough to get a good reliable machine. I use 15 inch VAIOs and a Nexus 10. 15 inch Android tablets are becoming increasingly available and they can be paired with Bluetooth keyboards. Android is a fine OS - sleek, intuitive to use and extremely easy to manage. Apple machines are nice but the most expensive. Why not try out Android? You may come to love it!

[DogNo1]

Incidentally, the Nexus 10 Android tablet has a beautiful screen and a micro HDMI port so you can watch all of your videos on your big screen and yes, mini HDMI does incorporate sound. My picture on my Panasonic 50 inch plasma is crisp and clear and the sound signal is very strong so I have to turn my volume below its usual setting. Good luck in your search!

Edited October 28, 2013 by DogNo1

[Familyonthemove]

We use mainly Dell and Asus in the office. Dell has a good on site repair service - but that's because they get plenty of practice .... always going wrong. Asus just seem to be more reliable and the Asus laptops we're good value compared to Dell.

Only get Windows 8 if getting touch screen .... it sucks without touch screen. Again Asus are good value for touch screen laptops.

My personal Sony laptop also seems good and it travels more than my Dell work one - but it was not cheap.

[Thai at Heart]

6 years of Acer netbook. Email, Word, PowerPoint and chrome. Great bit of kit.

What more does it have to do?

[Saan]

A report I recently read showed HP as the most often repaired computer in first 2 years of life. Number 2 was Acer. The least often repaired were Asus and Toshiba.

[sms747]

My mate bought his mrs a cheap asus in the uk before I came out here 7 years ago, she never had a problem with it. Since then I have had three laptops, acer was the worst, this one is a cheap samsung on all the time for 2 years no problems so far. I would get a mac book pro next time.

[guru]

If u need portability get a MacBook Air. Best bit of kit ever bought. U can install windows alongside the Mac OS and it runs both like a dream.

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[manarak]

After 7 years, a laptop is hopelessly outdated.

Also, it doesn't make much sense to repair it, since working units can probably be bought for less than the repair cost. Let's see... 7 year old laptop... about 200 USD assuming it was really high end? Or 50 to 100 if not.

About what laptops to buy - I would advise against all brands which use proprietary technology in their laptops, such as:

- GPUs with special serial number causing the GPU to not be recognized by drivers other than the laptop manufacturer's

- software bound to hardware, i.e. windows will refuse to run after a harddisk replacement

- etc.

as a rule, any proprietary technology will lead to headaches

I had both of the above happen to me with a very high end Sony Vaio (Bluray writer, dual RAID 1 harddisks, 1920x1200 screen, etc.), in addition of being forced to use the very expensive Sony repair service (which in the end I didn't).

So I learned my lesson.

My strategy now is:

- if buying a laptop for basic needs, I go for a cheapo machine with extra RAM that will be discardable without second thoughts after 4-5 years of use.

- if buying a high end laptop, I will now avoid all the major brands unless one can convince me that it is using "open technology". I will rather go for a laptop from Origin:

http://www.originpc.com/

another thing I will do when buying a high end laptop is always get RAID 1 mirrored harddisks, because harddisks are a laptop's weakest point and the data is the most precious on it.

Edited October 29, 2013 by manarak

[lopburi3]

One post removed as quoted text was oversize to page allowed line length.

[dave_boo]

Sorry Lopburi3...if anyone is interested in lsusb, lspci and cpuinfo pm me and I'll send.

In reply to the OP's request, here's my thoughts on the Y500.

Cons:

-Windows 8...but everybody has that now; doesn't make it right.

-No touch screen making Win8 even more horrible.

-Weight. After a CULV 14" this thing is ridiculously heavy; but it's not intended to be use like I used my old one.

-No Displayport. Has HDMI and VGA though.

-Wonky arrow key/number pad. This is a personal preference as the number pads I am used to have a double wide 0 and on the Y500 I am constantly hitting the right arrow key.

-No DVD/Blu-ray (?). I got the SLI model (further increasing the weight as the PSU for it is bigger) and don't really use use discs so no big problem. Any discs get ripped to a NAS and transcoded...and somewhere I have an USB Blu-ray drive.

-UEFI. Only because when I got it Linux was a bit of a pain to install; the situation has been rectified.

-Fairly crappy touchpad that needs to have its settings adjusted to be usable.

Pros:

-Discreet lines; until you turn on the key backlight nobody would think anything about such an unassuming machine,

-Absolutely beautiful screen.

-Good webcam.

-Decent keyboard IMHO for a laptop.

-Nice two stage key backlighting (that unfortunately doesn't turn on/off automatically).

-Discreet indicator lighting (power/charge/battery/caps lock).

-2x USB 3.0 ports for speedy data transfers.

-Single USB 2.0 which charges phones when the machine is off.

-Really good loud speakers.

-SPDIF out.

-SLI (!). I have the GT 650M version, but the 750M is just an overclocked 650M.

-Good cooling performance.

-Easy access to the internals for upgrades.

-MSATA for SSD caching.

Mine came with the 3630QM, 12 GB RAM, SLI and 16 GB MSATA SSD. The first thing I did was take out a few screws, pop off the whole bottom and replace that SSD with a 256 GB Corsair. Installed Linux and was off to the races. All in all it seems like a good laptop, but as stated earlier I want to see the longevity before I give it my fullest recommendation (at which time it will be obsoleted.,,sorry).