Which laptop? slightly boaty?

[Quandary]

The wife's ( I refuse to use the favourite acronym) laptop has packed in, It has been suggested by others that this is because I use it on the boat for chartwork, e,mail and weather so I have to find a replacement. It runs for about 1-2 mins before going blue with varying codes. My son in law has hinted that its demise may have been due to overheating when it sits on the foam pad I use to reduce shock, though I do have a cut out under the vent, or else the seas motion has knackered the hard drive. It is a four year old Dell and he says that this is about average lifespan. I am tempted to go with Dell again because I understand their specs and they let you customize the purchase, they do seem good value (cheap) However I notice that if you buy one of their Latitude models mainly sold for business an option is a 'fall sensor' hard drive, which I presume may be more durable? but this package adds up to about £200 more to the price against a higher spec Insiron when you add vat and carriage. However the Latitude screen resolution does not go as high meaning smaller areas of chart coverage on screen.
Are laptops available with side vents.
She uses it for e,mail news etc. so durabilty and ruggedness are more important than speed but I would like plenty of pixels. A Toughbook is more than twice the price so not economic.
Anyone who can give me any recommendations or advice?

 

[NUTMEG]

Applemac

I have used a MacBook for four years with no probs. Dual core thingy that runs mac OS and windows. Seems more robust, and crash proof than any of the Windows PC's. Might not run all nav software though.

 

[Plevier]

Can you hear the cooling fan running? Could have seized resulting in CPU overheating. If it was that it should be worth repairing.
Obviously many other possibilities but try the simple first!

 

[EastCoastChris]

"Blue screen with various codes" sounds like windows failing to start not necessarily a hardware fault.

But at 4yrs old you may as well get a new one especially if it's a bit battered. The cost of fixing may be a poor investment.

Chris

 

[2Tizwoz]

Or even if the fan is running it may simply have become clogged with fluff and needs to be blown clean.

The technique which frequently works is to blow hard into the outlet and this encourages the internal fan to disturb the accumulated dust and blow it clear.

Don't breath in before removing self from air outlet.

 

[snowwolf]

format it

If all you use it for is emails and wen at sea, just format the pc back to factory and it will run for another 4 years

 

[fuss]

My son in law has hinted that its demise may have been due to overheating when it sits on the foam pad I use to reduce shock, though I do have a cut out under the vent, or else the seas motion has knackered the hard drive. It is a four year old Dell and he says that this is about average lifespan. I am tempted to go with Dell again because I understand their specs and they let you customize the purchase, they do seem good value (cheap)

My IBM thinkpad has so far lasted 10 years and is still going

 

[james24goddard]

If you can't get your laptop working again, try looking at a notebook, they are smaller than laptops and cheaper. I've got a Samsung NC110, 8-9 hours battery life plus only weighs 1.2kg. Price£250 ish. The screen is 10" which would be fine for chartwork. Plus it is loaded with Windows (don't know if thats a good thing!!) and all the usual computer software.
The only small disadvantage would be that it doesn't have a cd drive but you can buy one for under £40.
Most of the Laptop companies do a version of notebook, plus if you spend a bit extra you can get a solid state hard drive ie no moving parts always a good thing on a boat .
Hope that helps
James

 

[mbailey]

I think the previous poster means 'netbook', not notebook. They are basically lower powered notebooks that are usually around a 10" screen, and without CD-ROM drive fitted. Fine for basic word process and web browsing, but will struggle with much more. Should be OK for chart plotting and you can get some (with extended batteries) that will run for the best part of a working day.

But having said that I agree with previous posters in that reinstalling Windows will probably sort out the problem unless there is a physical hardware fault that is causing the 'BSOD' (blue screen of death).

 

[Fire99]

Don't be too quick to throw it away. If it does all that you need why change it?

I'm guessing maybe a fan issue. You can download free software which runs on windows that ll show the temperatures you're running. (if you can keep it running long enough to install it of course)
Give a good blow through the vents as the fan may have stuck with fluff or other debrit.

It could be windows has become corrupted though, if you can email me some of the messages your getting (just read the main message off the screen) I should be able to point you in the right direction.

rgds,

Nick

 

[Quandary]

Laptop problem

Thanks for all the responses. This is my wifes laptop and she likes to work with music photos etc, she expects to have a laptop with large format and good screen resolution so I will not get away with anything inferior to what she has now. I had already reinstalled Windows XP after deleting the old partiton that the system had been in but the problems continued and it went blue faster and faster. Part of the problem is that 4 years ago when Dell sold her the box they explained that they would not be supplying any system discs but she could create her own if she wanted to, they suggested if problems arose they could be sorted on their website but how do you get there with a duff computer. The CDs thus made were useless so I was using the system disc from my newer desktop, this is media centre edition but still XP, we have got Vista but never installed it on either computer.
However yesterday befor binning it, I gave it a really good blow through as suggested, I then booted from my XP cd and ran the testing program again which took all morning and which claimed to check everything, it certainly checked the fan at different speeds. The system was then installed on the remaining unused partition on the hard disc. Since then the laptop has been running fine all yesterday afternoon and today and I am really beginning to believe it is cured. I am still not sure if the problem lay with the hardware or software, can it be as simple as the fan or is the corruption on the hard disc isolated in the old system partition or do I not understand these things at all? As the male in this household I am certainly expected to!
The fingers are well crossed but meantime, thanks guys, I may be £600 better off?

 

[Razorfish]

Referb Toughbook

I have just bought a referb'd Toughbook from a chap on Ebay for use on the boat and in open boats for work (marine biologist). I spoke to the guy on the phone and arranged a limited warrenty and so far so good.

It is a Centrino based machine and runs XP just fine - I use it for recording video from an underwater camera and to provide nav back up with a bluetooth GPS.

It was about £400 - OK its not new, it is probably a tad slower than a new dual core but it is certainly bomb proof and importantly water proof for the same price or there abouts.

Just thought I'd add grist to the mill....

Cheers,

Andy

 

[haydude]

The wife's ( I refuse to use the favourite acronym) laptop has packed in

Blue screen does not necessarily mean broken. Try a fresh operating system install reformatting the hard disk, if it works, then it prooves some software you installed is causing the problem (caught a virus?). In any case sea motion hardly effects an hard drive. Dell have flimsy build quality and are subject to overheating. Next in line to look at and replace are memories, usually located where they get little cooling so they can be more subject to failure.

 

[Obi]

I second that - get a toughbook if you are looking for a replacement. Otherwise, one of the ones the AA/RAC or Army use - however they will cost alot more than a toughbook.

OBi

 

[Quandary]

Tough book

My wife says 'what do I need with a Toughbook'

 

[dmmbruce]

If yours dies again, try an Acer. (Dells have always given me trouble after a while.)

I have just got myself an Acer Aspire 5810T for boat use. Good, fast, though not blindingly so, vista and upgrade W7. I have always found vista to be excellent, not at all what the techies say. You needn't avoid it, and we shall all be rail-roaded onto Win7 in a month or more. At least it sounds to be good, smaller and fast.The Acer has a genuine 7.5 to 8 hrs on low power battery and I am pleased about that. (I have no connection with Acer or the trade!!! )

I looked at several netbooks. Too slow, poor graphics, jerky zoom etc etc. Don't recommend for more than email.

Had good HP lap before, but dreadful battery life.

Hope this helps.

Mike

 

[grumpy_o_g]

I've just bought an Acer from Tesco's - 15.something" wide screen, 3GB RAM, 160GB or 250 GB hard drive(can't remember which). 4 x USB2.0 ports, web-cam, Bluetooth, WiFi and an SD Card slot. Core2 Duo Processor and Windows 7 upgrade voucher. £350 quid and it looks very tasty according to the money-pit that's got it in Uni at the moment.

 

[oldharry]

...can it be as simple as the fan....

Yes. I had a PC that would Blue screen after about 20 minutes. Cleverclogs son took a look, (well he has got a PHD in computer sciences) and advised a larger fan. 5 Years on it still runs perfectly. Most CPUs will cut out if they go above a certain temperature, causing BSOD.

 

[Playtime]

You don't need the latest go faster, power hungry laptop on a boat. I am using a 266MHz Dell Latitude (circa 1999 at a guess) that I bought on eBay for less than a hundred quid a couple of years ago. It has a 20GB disc, 512KB of RAM and runs Maptech and an AIS display programme (at the same time!) without problem under Win2000. The main advantage of an old machine is the serial input - it takes NMEA without a converter. I have used a converter with a more modern (USB only) laptop and find they are a bit 'temperamental' to set up so prefer to feed GPS straight in.
The Dell also has MS Office loaded and does eMail and surfing as well as the other Office things. You can even preview your digital photos, although long term storage is on the desktop PC at home.
It is only the second laptop I have had on the boat in over 10 years of electronic navigation. The first was a Siemens 'brick' with a 66MHz processor and even that ran Maptech without problem. It eventually died with a display problem a couple of years ago.

 

[wizzard]

first of all i would bin the foam as it sounds like an overheating problem what you could do with is a laptop cooling stand which your laptop sits on and a fan keeps it cool and if so wished you could place peices of foam or other antishock material at intervals on the stand (ie a smalish square on each corner )so you would get the cushioning effect without blocking the airways