Comments on: Do ALL Computer Makers Suck?

By: John

John — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:57:17 +0000

JLP,

I know this is a little late, but I thought I might mention it for future use. Here’s a way to fix keys from a laptop. Don’t know if this one was broken the way yours was or not.

http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000277073803/

You’ll have to click on the link in the paragraph to get to the actual directions.

By: sam

sam — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 19:09:35 +0000

To answer your questions, no – not all computer makers suck. My current home desktop (a local “White Box” unit)has performed quite well for a couple of years now. The monitor and keyboard are from the previous PC (another white box), and still work great. My work PC is a Dell desktop and has been trouble free, but my wife’s work Dell laptop has been a near constant source of problems. Luckily, we have an IT guy to work on it, or it would have long since been chucked out a window – and her HP IPAQ as well.

By: nick

nick — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 17:51:51 +0000

IBM Thinkpad, always good. Ah, my latest one is Lenovo Thinkpad. Still good.

By: Brad

Brad — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 14:31:36 +0000

Short answer is – yes. Customer service seems to be a dying art.

Someone could make a killing if only they offered superior customer service.

By: Foobarista

Foobarista — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 05:18:31 +0000

I’m enough of a geek that I build my own computers, although this doesn’t mean that I don’t have issues when the motherboard arrives DOA, the CPU fan croaks two days after plugging it in, etc. But I don’t bother with phone support; the only time I ever called I had to tell the guy how to set up the clock speed jumper on his company’s own motherboard…

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 00:36:59 +0000

I’ve had the same laptop for the past few years without any problems. It’s just an old VPR Matrix back from when Best Buy had their own in-house brand. But then again I do tech for a living so I’m quite used to pulling them apart and fixing things. As for Dells, I’ve had nothing but good experience with them. However I always get the business grade systems and stay away from the cheaper ones as I have heard of problems with them.

By: Flexo

Flexo — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 21:32:55 +0000

For what it’s worth, I have a Fujitsu notebook computer (vintage 2001). The keys can easily be popped back on (but only come off when I pull them off — why I do that, I do not know).

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 20:41:24 +0000

The answer to your question is “Yes!” Customer service has been dead and buried for years, even at the supposedly superior Dell. Contrary to Vlad’s experience, I’ve had trouble with Dell desktops and laptops. I can handle glitches here and there but their customer service put me through Hell — multiple times. I had one issue with a laptop that NINE different techies couldn’t handle but the 10th one caught the problem immediately. It turned out to be changing a simple setting on my machine. I must have wasted 2 or 3 days total time finding someone at Dell who knew what he was doing — not counting the down time when I had to send it back once only to have the machine returned and told there was nothing wrong!

I’ll never buy another Dell. Hope you have better luck with HP.

By: Noel

Noel — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 19:16:27 +0000

Just buy a wireless usb keyboard for now. It’ll make you life easier at any rate. Other suggestion would be to get an old keyboard for you child to play with. They like to act like the adults anyway and it’ll keep ‘em occupied an away from your laptop keypad.

By: Financial Freedumb

Financial Freedumb — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 18:34:53 +0000

Ouch! Go to a store and buy an HP swap the keyboards…at least u’ll have a temporary fix.