Inside Secrets On Brand Name Computers

[Broni]

I wonder, what do you have to say about THIS article from Lockergnome:

I work in IT for an “unnamed” company, and want to share with you and the people in the chat room some inside secrets in the pros and cons of certain brand name computers.

   1. Never, ever, ever buy an eMachine/Gateway computer. Why? I work on a lot of eMachines and Gateways and I would say that 70% of them all have the same problem. What happens is eMachines/Gateways, like most computer manufacturers, use very cheap power supplies. The problem is eMachine/Gateway also use very cheap motherboards. What happens? The PSU nukes the motherboard, so to speak. Think about that. 70%.
   2. HP/Compaq desktops are not as horrible as eMachines, but they’re most definitely not the best. The biggest problem with HP/Compaq computers is the hard drives fail. Now hard drives are very good at failing, but HP/Compaq’s like to fail more often than not. Who knows why? All I know is that they use Samsung hard drives and they downright suck. Newer HPs in the last year have fixed this problem — or so the company says.
   3. HP laptops. Okay, I’ll keep it simple. If you have an HP DV2000, 6000, or 9000 series with an AMD processor, you might have a problem. Why? Well if your built-in wireless receiver stops working (not even showing up in device manager), it’s not software, it’s the system board. Now HP is starting to address this by offering an extended one-year warranty on this specific problem.
   4. Acer desktops. They’re not bad machines, but if they’re going to fail, they’ll do so usually within the first week of use. Why do they fail in the first week? Not sure — most likely a burn-in failed. How do they fail? Usually the motherboard.
   5. Acer laptops. I like Acer laptops. I own one myself and have no issues with it. But the most common failure (not all that common, but it is the most common) is with the LCD screens. How? Yellow lines down the screen.
   6. Toshiba laptops. I love Toshiba laptops; they are hands-down, in my mind, the best laptops out there. The only complaints I have about them are that they tend to overheat (older ones, anyway).
   7. Cicero. Never heard of Cicero? Well they are GREAT desktop machines, but they don’t make them anymore. Why do I like them so much? They’re not normal, brand-name computers. Basically they are a bunch of spare parts put into a Cicero case — you will almost never find two of them alike. But why is that good? They use top of the line brand name parts to build the computers; there is no cheaping out with Cicero. If a friend offers you a Cicero computer, TAKE IT!

That’s about it. Hope I have shed some light on the brand name computer business.

[soybean]

I doubt it's accuracy.  For one thing, the 70% figure on eMachines and Gateways seems unbelievably high.  I haven't owned any eMachines or Gateways, but my mother has her second eMachines now.  Granted, that's not much to base an opinion on, but I haven't seen the kind of failure the article talks about.  I do recall GX1_MAN, formerly a very active member of this forum, saying eMachines are notorious for poor quality power supplies, but I don't recall him ever saying or implying that 70% of them will go bad.

I'm also skeptical of the comments in the article on HP/Compaq desktops disk drives.  I'd just like to see some solid empirical evidence, which I believe is lacking here.

[Broni]

Obviously, it's just one guy experience...
My daughter used to have emachine. Monitor went out after couple of days, but other, then that, it worked fine for a few years.
I own three Compaqs, one, 9 years old, hard drive went out after 2-3 years, no problem since. Another one, 5 months old, hard drive died after 6 weeks. No other problems, so far. Third one, laptop, 5 years old, never a problem.
Toshiba desktop, 10 years old, still in working condition, never had a problem.

[patio]

It's possible the OP sells Cicero's...

[diablo416]

about the hp/compaq desktops its true what he said about the hardrives,
i bought a hp pavillion with xp media center edition and a little after 2 months the first harddrive
stopped working, but i had a warranty .. and then it took 3 months after that for the new harddrive to stop working.. but i still had warranty, they dropped it on the floor during transportation and broke it .. so they offered me pavilion slimeline s7700n PC . i took it.. not only does it have more power.. but its slower, way slower.. vista sucks and the harddrive is about to die on this one too i think.. i feel like throwing it back at them

[lordvader781]

My sister's laptop which she's had for about half a year now had a hard drive failure about 3 months in.  She didn't drop her computer or anything, it just simply stopped working.  My family and I came back from a weekend trip and my sister went upstairs to turn on her computer.  The thing kept saying that Vista needed to be repaired.  I ran the repair wizard included on the partition, but it kept failing.  I did a hard drive test in the bios and it said 'failure'.  I got her a replacement drive and it started right up no problem.  We still have a gateway computer that is almost six years old and still runs fine without any problems.  We did have to replace the memory for it about 3 years in though.  My Compaq laptop that my mom uses while she watches TV at night still has a bad battery that started noticably failing about a year and half after buying it.  It's wear level was like 65% at the time.  I've yet to replace it as my mom just uses the adapter.  A full charge lasts at most a minute or two.  Our current HP laptop that we got on 2/07 so far hasn't had any hardware problems.  I just bought a 8600GT graphics card and 2GB of memory for it and have been happily enjoying UT3 as well as other games without a hitch.

[elxr06]

well i used to have a dell pentium 450 mhz processor and it worked well for 2 years

then I got a p3 950 mhz dell desktop... one of top of the line at that time which worked well for 7 years, which I gave to my dad still using it 'cuz he doesn't play video games like i do.

then I got a compaq laptop with amd64 3500+ processor (almost free cuz office depot f'd up my order but gave me free upgrades to make up... would have used the saved cash from lower end computer to do upgrades manually to make it good but not needed anymore)

So it's all ok with good brand name computers i think.

Dell apparently has a good track record for one.

[gator]

"two cents".............I have a five year old Presario, and at around four years old; I changed from an 80Gb to a 250Gb Seagate hard drive.  I had no failures, I simply wanted more hard drive.  I am no computer "guru", but I guess I do okay; my background is industrial environment computers and automation.  But, I do remember something my dad told me years ago, when I got my first car........."if you will keep the hood shut, it will last longer."  And in the computer arena, there are a lot of people, who are constantly changing and modifying to the point that what they end up with, is not as good as when they started.

I have a lot of respect for the members of this forum, because it is easy to recognize the talents of some of you.  But for the most of the general population, keeping it simple will always provide them a more dependable system.  But, yes there is some relevant truth to the shortcomings of the competition for the entry level market

gator

[homer]

there are a lot of people, who are constantly changing and modifying to the point that what they end up with, is not as good as when they started.

i dont agree, usually the only people who are constantly changing/modifying their computer have the know-how to do so and therefore will not downgrade their system.

i, for one, am almost always changing/modifying my computer and it is always for the better.

[Dias de verano]

I have got a little Shuttle mini PC, an ST62K or "Zen", which I built myself as a barebones kit. I got into an argument with a guy on a forum who said they were rubbish, don't buy one, the motherboard will fail, etc, etc. It has been running like a little champ for over 3 years now, it only gets switched off when I go on vacation. (Maybe that's it?) Before that I had a system built around an Abit KT7a mobo, I read loads of posts by so-called "web experts" who maintained that they were trash, mine ran for 4 years and the guy who bought it is still using it now 6 years since it was built.

You will always see stories about hardware failing. Just as doctors mainly see sick people, so people who work in PC tech tend to see the failures. In the story posted by the OP the guy who worked in a repair place said that "he would say" that 70% of his cases were HP/Gateway. That doesn't mean that 70% of HP machines are faulty!. Many people who post on forums as "experts" have very poor insight into logic and are prone to committing elementary statistical fallacies such as this one.

One thing I am surprised to not see in that story is the infamous Dell PSU / motherboard power connector thing.

For years, they may even be still doing it, on many consumer models Dell used a non-standard wiring scheme for their PSU to motherboard power connectors. They had their own motherboards made so that they would only work with a Dell PSU. The actual connectors look just the same as normal ones, (they are normal ones), they are just wired differently. That means that if you try to replace a failed Dell PSU with an ordinary ATX power supply, when you power up, you permanently fry (kill) the motherboard, and probably the PSU too. Likewise if you replace the motherboard and use the Dell PSU. They don't tell you about this! You can get adapters but if you don't know you need them...

[billjenkins]

Like Lockergnome, I work in IT too. I've experience with using the following:

Fujitsu notebooks: pros-> generally reliable. Cons-> tend to heat up a lot, so I can't place them directly on my lap even for a short while, though it's called a laptop. *grin*

HP tablets: pros-> generally affordable. Cons-> not compatible with certain types of DLP projectors.

HP desktops: pros-> generally reliable and affordable. Cons-> none yet, because it hasn't failed me for more than 2 years.

Dell desktops: pros-> generally reliable and affordable. Cons-> the power supply fan is louder than other desktops I've used.

Toshiba notebooks: pros-> generally  reliable and durable. Cons-> none that I know of...yet.

IBM notebooks (now become Lenovo): pros-> IBM notebooks are long-lasting. Cons-> significantly more expensive. I think prices of Lenovo notebooks are not as high.

Bill
-----------
http://www.TipsInfinity.com/technology/
FREE Computer Tips To Better Your Life

[gator]

homer, if you notice, I said the General Population.......I am not doubting the abilities of you or your peers.  But, in this business, we deal with the general public more than we do the more proficient.

[elxr06]

what's wrong with dell psu? MY computer i gave my dad before i got my new one was 7 year old dell working with a psu that isn't faulty.

[Dias de verano]

what's wrong with dell psu? MY computer i gave my dad before i got my new one was 7 year old dell working with a psu that isn't faulty.

Read my post again. Dell PSU fine. Dell motherboard fine. Together. Not work with other makers hardware.

[elxr06]

so you just meant that dell products are crap unless you use them strictly with other dell products/hardware configurations.