51–58 of 58 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do for corporate customers.
correct me if i'm wrong, but I thought "the Dell Guy" that comes is a 3rd party company? They'll come to your office and fix your machine, but I'm not sure that guy is a Dell employee...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dell contracts out the bodies that go onsite to service their warranties. I once did a few of these contracts. When you get onsite you're just supposed to call and do everything you're told. You're literally just their eyes and hands. If you try to figure things out on your own you'll just be ignored and if you persist the contract will be canceled and you wont be paid. I was looking at the PC of one of these poor cu…
My friend switched to the Mac mostly because of my example (though I shy away from advocacy) and his iMac had multiple, far more invasive repairs including at least two motherboard replacements. Eventually my Mac expertise helped because I picked up on forums that 3 major repairs was usually enough to argue for a replacement (or similar, the details are hazy with time). A rough introduction, but he's now the proud ow…
All PC makers are buying from the same place so of course one isn't going to be much better than the other. The difference is in customer service and extras (e.g. that fantastic touchpad on the mac book line).
Just an example of how Apple has changed the build of their equipment for ease of maintenance: I had someone give me an broken iBook G4 and ask "Can you see about getting the data off the drive?". Here are takeapart instructions for it: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iBook-G4-14-In... 14 pages, 60 screws. Compare to a recent MacBook: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Unibod... 3 pag…
Thinkpads have done this since about 1995.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do have different batteries but you can remove the new one by unscrewing three screws and disconnecting a cable [+]. The battery has even a pull tab which allows you to easily lift it out of the case. That’s a little more involved than previously when you only had to open a latch and pull out the battery but it’s pretty much exactly as hard as replacing the hard drive. [+] Here is iFixit’s guide: http://www.ifix…
It was my understanding that parts that are officially consumer replaceable parts need to be more structurally sound for safety compliance (e.g. in case it is dropped when it is outside the machine), and that this extra battery casing takes up significant space—space that could otherwise be used for more battery. Aha, here we go: "With the MacBook Pro, Apple engineers went further. To make the lithium-polymer battery…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"3 pages. 3 screws. That's progress." I wanted poke around inside my new Thinkpad X100e. Might be four screws I had to twist, and they were designed to not fall out; they loosen up but stay in the cover hole, so no more concerns over lost screws. Very nice touch.
It may well be progress, but as this guy describes Thinkpads are unreasonably friendly to disassembly. They have little graphics on the underside to show you what size screw goes in what hole on my X61, and the hard drive comes out with just one screw
is this really that different from, say, Dell? I imagine their tech support also has a database or two.
I bought a Dell server 3 years ago, its power supply is now damaged (because of a power outage and failure of the surge protector). It is unclear whether there is more damage, but the first thing to do is to try using a new power supply. I called Dell to order a new power supply. They didn't have it in stock, but promised to get back to me by the next Monday. They never got back to me. A week after that Monday, I cal…
Should it break, I'm not responsible for packing and hauling all 25 kilos of it back and forth to a "Genius." Instead a technician will come to me because the basic warranty is next business day on site.
I didn't have to pay $300 extra to have warranty coverage which matched the machines depreciation schedule, because three year coverage is standard.
One year depot service is fine for consumer electronics. But my computer is vital to my business.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the point? How often do you disassemble your computer? I'm pretty happy to go and look up some instructions (or, y'know, just undo all the screws) rather than having ugly stickers all over my laptop.
They aren't stickers, they are simple icons printed directly next to each screw hole with a table under the battery. It's very slick. Not vital as you say, but very nice. Especially if your manual is a pdf, the task is 20 pages long, and your only computer is the laptop. Thinkpads have a lot of nice little touches like that. Mine even has drain holes for the keyboard in case of beverage. How often have i spilled? Nev…
They've all been as easy as piss to change RAM/HDD. Though I'm not sure if this is what you mean by 'service'