Sad news today. My laptop fell, the screen is now half black. Took it back to Microcenter because I got a 3 year extended warrenty. I thought they would just replace it with a new one, but they told me that the plan I paid $100 for does not cover damages only manufacturing loss. Like if the video card goes bad. What a god damn rip off I said. What are the goddam chances that a capacitor inside the damn board wil go bad, almost zero. Most of the times, the darn thing goes bad because you drop it. Anyways, I am stuck with a shitty LCD that will cost me $650 to replace. Mind you that the laptop itself cost $750. What a freaking rip off. I highly recommend anyone stay away from those shitty service plans. Well, so I am hunting for a new lappy, if anyone sees something, new of course, within a good price, please post it here. Cheers. Microcenter sucks BTW.

Try here. They've got some nice stuff and some quailty deals.

Hey G, is there only one microcenter? If i were you since the lappy is no good to you now anyways, hook up a monitor to it, pull all your data from it wipe the HDD of any data, do a defrag, then take that puppy, open it up, short the friggin ship outta it so it wont start up. then take it to a different microcenter to get fixed. If it comes back with a bad screen, complain, as far as you know, the screen was working when the computer died!

I thought of that but you can clearly see the poped crystals of the LCD even with the lappy off.
I think that these services are a rip off. Why in the hell dont they inform customers when they purchase these service plans that they do not cover damages. I mean, lets get real, when was the last time a PC just went bad bc it felt so?

Do you have home owners insurance or rental insurance?

If you don't mind me asking, what do you plan to do with the broken laptop. I would be willing to fix it if you are wanting to part with it. Let me know

for a quality lappy, check out Alienware... yes, they do get kinda pricey, but for the parts you get, its definately worth it

http://www.alienware.com/Product_Pages/not...ll_default.aspx

How's the batter life on those -- I'm looking for a pretty light (before battery) Pentium M (centrino with a/b/g wifi) laptop which I can put in (hopefully) 2 batteries.

I will have the money for top-of-the-line, but I will want (1) decent weight and (2) extra-long battery life. Performance is less of an issue (since I have a desktop for heavy lifting)

i don't know since i don't have one... way out of my price range it's alienware though. they have a good reputation so i think they'd have average or better than average battery life. but then again, they use high end parts which require more power, so it's hard to say. maybe somebody else can help you with that.

I'm so glad you guys mentioned Alienware -- I always didn't consider them 'cause of their gaming reputation (and I don't want a gaming laptop), but their lightweigh notebook is awesome.

It would be out of my price-range, too, if it weren't for the fact that I (1) do many things (school, work, comm, etc) on the computer now and (2) I am getting more financial aid now because I'm going for my masters instead of just a teacher's certification.


The chart at Alienware Sentia vs. Dell Inspiron 700M vs. Apple Powerbook G4 12" shows the battery life.

I was considering that Dell and that Apple (as well as IBM/Lenovo), so it's good to see the chart.

I am not buying until I get my financial aid in August, but I'm now happy to know that of the 4 I'm considering I'll be more than happy with at least one of them.