May require a new laptop

"CB" (jrcb) 09/29/2014 at 20:04 • Filed to: Help, Off-Topic, Sony can choke on a big ol' bag of dicks

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Long story short, my laptop shat itself today. Hard. Like, it lost the OS completely hard, and might be a hard drive failure. This means I may be fucked for notes, but that's an issue for later.

Now, I'm looking to purchase a new laptop, because there is no way in hell I am trusting this old one, even if we can fix the hard drive. It frequently failed to find my account whenever I downloaded updates and the wifi didn't work too often. My question is, does anyone have any recommendations? I really only need it for notes for school, so I need something with good battery life (Five or six hours at least), a reliable brand, and I would prefer it to be under $900 CAD.

Here's an old truck for your time.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:08

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What are you using it for other than note taking? Gaming, movies, picture editing, video editing, rendering?

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:08

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Mac or not?

CB > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 09/29/2014 at 20:09

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No Macs, please.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:09

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ASUS makes really good quality stuff. The Microsoft Surface Pro is pretty expensive, but one of the best values for dollar you'll get in a laptop/tablet thing.

Avoid consumer-level Dell, HP, or Acer.

Lenovo is alright, but not quite on the level of ASUS. The Lenovo Yoga is a decent machine, but the cheaper ones have pretty terrible touchpads.

CB > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. 09/29/2014 at 20:10

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I have a gaming desktop (my heroine at the moment), so note taking and light gaming (think Mini Metro or FTL) would be the most I'd do with it.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:10

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...Annd I'm still using my $300 netbook I bought 5 years ago.

What brand and specs are for your current one?

A brand I'd suggest is ASUS, not sure if most of their higher end laptops fit your $900 budget.

deekster_caddy > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:11

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No matter what you choose, make a backup! There is a lot of decent backup software, some that comes with external hard drives, where all you need to do is plug in the external drive. This is a place where the Mac really shines - if you use their wireless base station called "Time Capsule", it does it all wirelessly for you. Hard drive quit? Restore from backup. It's way too easy.

Even if you get a cheap dell or DIY linux box, get an external hard drive and make backups.

CB > deekster_caddy 09/29/2014 at 20:13

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Yeah, I just neglected to make a backup for a while. Really beating myself up over it right now.

JGrabowMSt > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:13

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Where are you located?

Asus, Acer, Samsung, and Toshiba. Hell, get a damn Chromebook if all you need is the internet. You can use Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive/SkyDrive to get word processing and powerpoint and spreadsheets.

Chromebooks are far more capable than you think, I would give them a chance. That and they're actually pretty cheap. There are many different ones available too, so you aren't stuck with the 11" Samsung.

Avoid Dell entirely, and HP unless you're looking at the HP Chromebooks.

CB > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 09/29/2014 at 20:14

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ASUS sounds like the way to go right now, and my ASUS motherboard has been great. I was hoping for a Thinkpad, but they're way more expensive than I'm aiming for.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:14

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What do you think about this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc…

dogisbadob > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:15

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My old GX270 finally died, currently shopping for an Optiplex 980, and this time I am NOT getting a small form factor!!!!!!! The hard drive is fine, but the capacitors finally gave in (a common problem on these things)

I'm using a backup laptop for now

CB > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 09/29/2014 at 20:15

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Yeah, I wish I had something that could last that long.

Sony Vaio S Series, 15.6 inch screen, 1080p, Intel i7 processor, GT640M graphics card, six gigs of RAM, and a 750 gig hard drive.

As I already mentioned, ASUS seems to be the top recommendation right now.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 09/29/2014 at 20:15

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Oh yeah, the touch pads on the Lenovo Thinkpad Edge series just suck. They had them in at my college.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:16

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Thinkpads aren't quite the legendary durable workhorses they used to be. The keyboards are a bit more meh, the build quality isn't as solid, and the keyboard layout is questionable at best.

I find it telling that all of my engineering classes are a sea of Asus products, even moreso than Apple. I have actually seen more MS Surfaces than I have Apple Macbooks, which I find surprising due to the obscurity of one and ubiquity of the other.

CB > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. 09/29/2014 at 20:17

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Seems nice, but I don't think the local Futureshop or Best Buy will have it.

CB > dogisbadob 09/29/2014 at 20:19

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We're all in this together, friend.

George McNally > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:19

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I set a lot of new laptops up for clients (I have a side business fixing PC's)....I've been really happy with Lenovos lately. I've probably bought and set up at least a dozen of them in the past year. I've personally set up several of this model -pretty good bang for your buck in a mid-priced unit.

This one is also a nice one for a little bit more....hope that helps.

Not the flashiest specs out there, but it's decent value for the money and I like the way they are put together.

IMHO......stay away from HP, Compaq, most Acer's and Toshibas.

CB > JGrabowMSt 09/29/2014 at 20:19

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Currently Ottawa. And ASUS appears to be the top recommendation right now.

JGrabowMSt > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:24

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Hm, well, I'm down in NJ. I work in a repair shop.

What are the general symptoms of the computer, and what makes you think the hard drive failed?

CB > JGrabowMSt 09/29/2014 at 20:31

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When I boot, it brings up a menu saying that window failed to start, which then leads to it saying "Status: 0xc0000185 Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible." When I put in the install disc in order to fix it, it failed to find a Windows partition on the hard drive.

Assuming the hard drive failed is good because it gets all the panic out of my system, because if it is the issue, then I'm already mentally ready, and if it isn't, then everything is better.

deekster_caddy > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:32

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Don't be too hard on yourself about it. Replacing a hard drive is easy, and if you use an SSD it will be like a whole new machine! Do you have "recovery media", or is there some built into the system?

CB > deekster_caddy 09/29/2014 at 20:33

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Don't think so.

deekster_caddy > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:44

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I have a couple friends with 17" ASUS machines, they are pretty nice. I wouldn't have a problem recommending a decent one. (but I still say stay away from the cheapest system you can find)

There are little differences with a machine you can get off the shelf at Best Buy and one you order from Newegg... sometimes the Best Buy system will be that little bit cheaper, but because they chose to spec it with less video RAM, or a smaller L2 Cache, or something most people wouldn't notice until they tried to do some work. The "visible specs" are the same, ie they are both 2.3 GHz i5, but one has a smaller cache, or one has on-board video with no RAM, vs one that has dedicated video RAM... stuff like that. The devil is in the details.

If you are desperate for a machine, do what you gotta do. But if you have some time and want to search out something that will last, pay attention to the details. Go look up the specific processor model # and see why the two processors are different even though they have the same "speed", etc.

deekster_caddy > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. 09/29/2014 at 20:52

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That looks like a pretty decent machine!

JGrabowMSt > CB 09/29/2014 at 20:55

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Oddly enough, I have a laptop in with that exact problem. Yes, it has to do with the hard drive. That said, it is not out of the realm of possibility to recover the data from the drive.

You're definitely looking at an issue where timing is everything. If you've got a few dollars to spare, order yourself something like this . Could be any brand really, but something along those lines. You can plug the drive into another computer, and see if 1) it connects and you can browse through the file structure to your data, or 2) you're able to mount the file system forcefully, and get to your data.

The drive may want to run through check disk or some other file structure verifying sweep, the most important thing to do is prevent it from doing that unless it refuses to mount the drive without a disk check. Letting the drive run through a check process can basically let it die. My coworker just did this to a job, and I've spent several days trying to get as much data as possible off the drive (238gb of music total, I've recovered all of 64gb so far. Not good).

It's something best left to someone with the experience of giving it a shot. If you were closer, I'd offer to stop by and take a look, but Canuckistan is a haul for me at the moment (no offense). Given that it's a pretty fragile situation, I would also advise against shipping the drive anywhere. Unfortunately, finding a shop with the proper experience to deal with that kind of situation is tough, so I have trouble recommending you go somewhere with that.

So in the end, if you aren't really willing to go through any trouble, you can effectively consider the drive dead, in that you aren't going to be able to use it any longer. If you're willing to muscle through it, it's entirely possible you will be able to recover at least some of your data.

I strongly recommend you look at Chromebooks before looking at any other laptop. You will never have a problem like this with a Chromebook.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > CB 09/29/2014 at 21:00

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Need any suggestions on what store to buy your next computer from?

And also, if you ever want a custom laptop, I just remembered Eurocom allows for custom builds. They are also based in Ottawa, so they're local.

CB > JGrabowMSt 09/29/2014 at 21:01

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Thanks for the advice. My roommate has a hard drive reader, so him and I are going to have a go at it when he gets home, warranty be damned.

JGrabowMSt > CB 09/29/2014 at 21:07

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Hard drive reader? Like a dock, or something else?

If he's got a western digital external drive, don't take it apart thinking you can use that, you'll have a world of hurt with western digital external drives. They're great until they stop working, then you just outright replace them.

If it's a dock, you're fine. Unless the laptop is less than 1 year old, you've got nothing to worry about. Even at that, in most cases, the hard drive is considered "user serviceable" on most laptops, so you can do anything you want with it and the laptop would still have a warranty.

In your case however, I would suggest just replacing the hard drive in your laptop over getting a new laptop entirely (unless you really hate the laptop). You have the windows install disk, you have a product key on the bottom of the laptop, you're set. New drive, fresh install, it's like a new machine.

If you really hate the laptop, then I'm going to say it again (because saying things in threes helps), at least take a long hard look at Chromebooks. I absolutely love my Chromebook, and it does a lot of things better than my MacBook Pro does. Says a lot for a $300 laptop that only goes on the internet.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > deekster_caddy 09/29/2014 at 21:07

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It's on sale too. Are you in the US?

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > CB 09/29/2014 at 21:08

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Are you in Canada?

CB > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. 09/29/2014 at 21:09

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Yup. And I need a laptop for classes.

CB > JGrabowMSt 09/29/2014 at 21:11

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It's a toaster, so we should be good.

Hard drive replace is probably the go-to, but I am really hating this laptop because of the amount of issues.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > CB 09/29/2014 at 21:12

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Here's something completely different that may suit your needs: http://www.futureshop.ca/en-ca/product/…

JGrabowMSt > CB 09/29/2014 at 21:13

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Ah, yes, with a dock like a toaster you should be able to find out what you can/can't get pretty quickly.

What are the other issues with it? I might be able to steer you in the direction of fixing those.

CB > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. 09/29/2014 at 21:16

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No more Vaios for me. Out of the four we have in the family, all of them have had issues.

CB > JGrabowMSt 09/29/2014 at 21:18

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The repeated updates losing my profile and incredibly temperamental wifi. As well as shutting off randomly when the external battery is attached.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > CB 09/29/2014 at 21:20

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This one is completely different from the rest of the Vaio line, but if you're serious, here's another: http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/…

CB > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. 09/29/2014 at 21:21

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Possibiliness. I do like the keyboards on HPs.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > CB 09/29/2014 at 21:24

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I've heard good things about this one from my friend. Just do a complete system reinstall when you get it to remove all the HP software.

deekster_caddy > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. 09/29/2014 at 21:53

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Yes, why do they not ship across borders?

deekster_caddy > dogisbadob 09/29/2014 at 21:55

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never had that problem with their small form factor systems. Actually been using the ultra small form factor optiplexes at work and they do very well. If you get the mounting bracket they hang up behind the monitor quite nicely!

dogisbadob > deekster_caddy 09/29/2014 at 22:13

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Yeah but they have zero upgrade-ability! Proprietary shit on those lil things vs the standard ATX/BTX shit on their towers.

Most GX270's made from April 2003 to March 2004 have the issue, regardless of form factor. Every company the Nichicon supplied capacitors to, at the time, not just Dell, suffered. The problem arose because a copycat in Taiwan copied the formula wrong. Capacitor Plague was a real thing!

JGrabowMSt > CB 09/29/2014 at 23:01

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Sounds like an HP DV6000 to me. Those things were all trouble. Just heaps of incompatible hardware all stuffed together.

Losing your profile and the Wifi issues sound like issues with driver updates and windows updates. Nothing really special for any specific machine, I see trouble like that often. Replacing the offending wifi card when possible, recovering a user account is very simple.

The shutting down issue is a much bigger one, and reminds of an issue that many HP's had, where the microchip that regulates the power between the AC adapter and battery would fail. There is no fix really, and the problems took a very long time to manifest so most machines were out of warranty by the time it was discovered just how widespread the issue ended up being. There's a handful of Dells with the same issue. Most computers from 2010 on are much better.

Worst tech support nightmares I've heard of are from Toshiba and Lenovo. Best computers I've seen are from Asus, Acer, Toshiba and Samsung. There are certainly computers with problems, but the ones that don't have problems work very well. Unfortunately, they don't make them like they used to. My old Thinkpad T22 still works great, replaced that with a PowerBook G4 that had the power input board go bad, and just wasn't worth throwing $50 at. Replaced that with a first generation MacBook Pro, and that laptop has the best keyboard I've ever had on a laptop. Replaced that with a 2011 MacBook Pro because at the time I was required to have both OS X and Windows handy for tech support. I alternate between a first generation white Chromebook and the '11 MBP depending on what I need to do. While I tend to carry my MBP around most, I have a Toshiba netbook with Linux on it that is my backup work machine. I have a tablet, I hardly ever touch it, I really can't justify it because it's not full featured enough for what I need to do on a regular basis. My desktop is a complete animal (built for blu-ray video editing), but I don't typically use it unless I'm plowing through photos or audio/video work. Just keeps it fresh for when I have a project to work on, I don't want to have any crap on it.

If all I need is internet, Chromebook all the way. If I need photos on the go, MBP. If I need video editing, desktop. My other laptops sit around and collect dust at this point because there are a ton of them. Getting ready to sell a few because I just don't need them sitting around anymore, but who knows.

I also have a Raspberry Pi. That thing is fun to play with. Way more capable than most people would expect. I'm going to be putting one into a resto-mod Cadillac Limo this winter for a project I think. I'll post more about that when I start that project.

All I can say now is that it's the only Cadillac of it's kind to be registered for street use at this time.

CB > JGrabowMSt 09/29/2014 at 23:18

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Sounds like a pretty sweet project. And we weren't able to get anything from the drive. Apparently the "File Record Segment" was unreadable.

deekster_caddy > dogisbadob 09/30/2014 at 06:45

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Oh, I wonder if those were the same caps used on the power supplies in the big plasma TV I fixed a couple of. Damn, I'm trying to remember what bramd it was.

Upgradability is overrated, at leastat work. For home, absolutely. You can still replace HD and RAM, all I might ever do on a work machine.