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Firstly. I live rural and have no computer shop within the district. Therefore cannot readily ask a knowledge human for understandable assistance in finding a replacement for my disintegrating laptop.

The disintegration began soon after I accidentally dropped it a week ago, a small hole 2x2mm appeared roughly 20mm down and 110mm in from the top left side of the screen. Each day the hole grows larger and it is presently 55x115mm wide.

My knowledge of the marvels that are now being discovered in space is extremely limited, but I would imagine that if such a thing as a 'black hole' actually exists in space. My computer could serve as a perfect example of how one works.

Behind or in the hole there is nothing but a deep impenetrable blackness. if I place my cursor over the hole it disappears, and anything on the screen crossing the hole disappears. However although fascinating to watch and play with, the hole is unlikely to stop growing, so I must take steps to find a replacement.

I have been into the web sites of Harvey Norman, Dick Smith, Leemings and a few other sites looking at replacements. Total confusion! There are too many makes and models for me to try and decide from a distance what I need. Therefore as I mainly use a computer for news, stamps, writing, and general usage I need the advice of some with knowledge of the better and more reliable makes and models that may fall within the range of a computer I can understand!

To put it another way...if you are computer knowledgeable, retired, have friends on email and skype through out the world. Read the various English editions of world newspapers on line, do a little writing now and again watch the odd movie. What make and model of a computer would you consider buying?

Huanga.

If you move around - buy a notebook (best you can afford, it won't go out of date so quickly)

If you don't go anywhere, buy a desktop (best you can afford & they are faster).

Dell, Compaq, Acer all make great Notebooks & PC's, you can buy then off the internet as well.

Darrin.

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Dropping a laptop and having the display crack is NOT the cleverest of things to have done - but you already know that now

A replacement display is probably as expensive as buying a brand new laptop (or near enough to) so a replacement screen is probably not going to be cost effective for you.

Laptop brands available in NZ that have good aftersales support history, in my opinion, would be Dell or Toshiba.

Dell sells directly via their website so check them out. http://www.dell.co.nz

or for Toshiba; I note that Dick Smith currently has these on sale. http://www.dicksmith.co.nz

Good luck.

Dave.

PS. I agree with DJM that a desktop would be better value for money however - if you do not need to be upwardly mobile

I recently bought a Dell XPS 17 laptop online and have been using it for a week or so now. It is simply the best computer I have ever used, bar none.

Specs are:

Screen = 17.3"
OS = Win 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Chip = Intel core i7 running at 2.2 GHz with turbo boost to 3 GHz
Ram = 8Gb
Hard disks = 2 X 750Gb
Video card type = Nvidia Geoforce GT550M with 3 Gb ram.

So basically a big screen, tons of grunt and unbelievably cheap for the specs.

This is currently reduced to AU$1,199 (incl. delivery in Australia, perhaps the same in NZ)

See here: http://www.dell.com/au/p/xps-l702x/pd?oc=u510306au&model_id=xps-l702x

Now I did have huge delivery problems a year or two ago with Dell when I bought a desktop for my son. Weeks of problems for not only me but another person at work who bought the same type of computer from Dell on the same day. It took 4 weeks until delivery finally happened and that was after numerous emails, phone calls (you only ever get an offshore call centre) and taking two days off work waiting for a delivery that never came. I even joined a throng of people on Dell's own blog site who were all complaining about delivery issues.

This delivery was another kettle of fish altogether. They emailed me straight after I had ordered it online, specified two weeks or better delivery. They emailed me a couple of days later and gave me an earlier delivery date (with an alternative date if that was unsuitable). They even specified they'd deliver between noon and 5:00pm. Well it arrived on the exact day and at 2:30pm (so right in the middle of their delivery time promise). Looks like they have massively picked up their game in that area (I think they use a different delivery company now).

Oh and if you pay by Amex, you get 2 points for every dollar spent.

So all in all I'd recommend this laptop for anyone.

P.S. That black hole in your 'puter sounds terminal.

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Tony

I don't know when the end of financial year is in NZ, but over here at the moment there are some great deals going on laptops due to the EOY and the soon to be release of WIN8.

I got a very nice Acer (I like Acer) 15.6" laptop with quad core and blu ray DVD - all the bells and whistles for $700. That was half price.

Acer, Toshiba, Dell, HP etc all very good.
I like the Acer keyboard feel and that it has the numerical keypad on the side like a traditional desktop keyboard.

Just decide on a price first, all the brands have comparable laptops for the same prices. I haven't really seen a bad one in years.

Extra price will be for quad core instead of dual core (but dual core is fine for you), extra GB memory RAM - 4/8/12, 4 will be fine for you, HDD 250/500/750GB - 500GB is normal and should be plenty.


If your laptop that broke is over 2 years old, don't even bother about trying to fix the broken screen.
The 'black hole' is like a cracked windscreen on your car, it's only going to get worse.

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Member of the S.T.A.M.P Club for Slightly Twisted And Mad Philatelists - Motto: "Bring back the lick!"

It seems you have a bunch of dead pixels.

I recently killed my notebook keyboard by sharing a drink with it.

Replacement keyboard was cheap and easy to find on the internet, just need the computer make and model to do a search.

Biggest problem is to figure out how to unclip it to put in the new one ... I totally demolished mine ... THEN I found the little clip ... so simple after that. Find the clip(s) FIRST.

Cheap in China, and only a little bit dearer in Australia. Got it locally to save time.

I now keep a USB keyboard handy, but also keep the drinks away. It might be possible to pick up a plug in screen to use as a standby.

Or change your screen settings to exclude the dead pixels.

For a replacement ... like Allanswood, I have an ACER ... never any trouble (except for sharing the drink).

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

If portability is not an issue and you have a spare monitor in the house why not use it, at least until a replacement has been arranged.

Most laptops have an auxiliary output on the back for external monitors or even TV.

Remember as NZ GST is now 15%, consider buying it .. leaving the country with it for a weekend and getting the GST back as it was 'exported'.

Bring it back and your airfares here are paid for when you buy a couple litres spirits duty free on the way back in, which adds another $50 or more gain especially if you add ciggies too.

A neighbour did that last month on a $1500 computer and paid for the airfares that way.

To all above. Thank you for the advice.
You have given me a starting point and I'm sure I can find a friendly computer from your suggestions. I'm overdue for a visit to see an old Aussie mate in Toowoomba, and by acting on the combined information you have given, I can fit in a holiday as well.

Regards,
Huanga.

ps. .....and a thank you to machaggis52, below.

It is Dell that we used to use at work. After the first year, they began to fail at the rate of about one a week. After a 100 or so had died, the remainder were removed and replaced with Toshibas. They are still going strong six years later.

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With kind regards, Jim

Jim,

I think you'll find the Dell of 6 years ago is different today and one of the reasons for that is their computers are made in China now. China is now producing electronics that are equal to the best the Japanese make (and far cheaper).

Totally agree with this, the XPS system is very lovely especially with the 1920x1200 resolution screen for all that fine detail.

However, there is an even better laptop from Dell - the Alienware 17xR3, this goes way beyond any normal laptop in terms of performance, but they're not cheap. I use one for all my activities and have the XPS just in case something bad happens (along with two external hardrives for back-ups).

It's one thing using a laptop for leisure, but it's completely different when it's your primary source of income

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huanga hi

I know how frustrating problems with pc's of any shape or size can be. Lots of helpful comments here. One further point before the picture goes altogether is your data. Computers can be replaced but its often hard to replace the data on them. Have you got a recent back-up. If not try and do so asap before other parts of the computer fail!

huanga,

Take the advice that everyone has given you and go into a computer shop. See what they have and what would suit you. Desktop, laptop, screen size, etc...

From a basic viewpoint, many computers now have a built in backup on the second internal hard drive or on a second partition. At least if the primary disk or partition goes you can then recover your data.

However, as stated in a couple of the posts above, there is NO SUBSTITUTE for doing a regular backup to an external disk drive. I do a daily automatic backup of everything on a 1Tb external drive.

If anyone with a computer doesn't back up important data such as family photos, finances, and other critical things (like scans of stamps and covers ), particularly now that external hard drives are ridiculously cheap, they have only themselves to blame when a crash comes.

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Tony