atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Laptops

Wish I knew. My son has it at college.

Lucky kid!

It's been a while since there was discussion on this thread, but I didn't see much sense in starting a new one, when some of my questions have already been addressed here.

I have come to the point where I need another laptop. We are looking to only spend up to about $800. Dell has a pretty good deal on their Outlet site (refurbs), and with their current discount offers, I can get a 2.6ghz Celeron with 512 DDR Ram and a CDRW for about $775. One problem with this one is that it doesn't have a serial port.

It looks like there have been mixed results with the USB to serial adapters. I program mostly Comdial products, but also others. Some programs are DOS-like programs. Anyone have problems relating to these type of programs?

What do you all think of the Dell refurbs, pricing, features, etc. Any other suggestions?

We had previously had issues with some Toshiba and Compaq laptops when programming the Comdial DX80. Databases were getting corrupted. We had gotten some feedback from Comdial regarding how these manufacturer's laptops don't have true serial ports, and therefore can cause problems. Comdial never "officially" released anything along these lines. Others have had no issues. Since then, just to be on the safe side, we have stuck with Dell and IBM. What has been others' experiences with these laptops. I see that many people love their Toshibas. Has anyone else had similar issues?

[This message has been edited by 5years&counting (edited January 10, 2005).]

5years
i bought a lattitude 600 because it is used for more than programming. and of course the
serial port issue. iv,e had it over a year
now and no issues whatsoever. i also have an
old SWAN i bought from a customer for a back up.
m

Has anyone else used this site or company?
I've had pretty good luck.
https://www.usedlaptops.com/aboutus.htm
Thanks, Gem

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Don't get me started!

You can get a Dell refurbed Inspiron 600m for under a $1000. Great machine and has a serial port.

If you want to spend a few hundred bucks more, I can get you a brand new D600 with a 3 year complete care warranty. I have a few avenues for special pricing. The complete care is nice because is covers everything and is next day.

Has anyone looked at or used a HP Omnibook, specifically the VT6200? It has a P4M, 1.4GHz. This one includes a serial port. Refurbished for 799.00 (256MB ram) or 859.00 (512).

I'm on my 3rd Toshiba and went thru 2 HP's and a Dell since 1995. I'm rough on them ---- the Dell and 1 HP stolen. Anyway, the only reason for the 3 Toshibas was upgrading from Win 3.1 to Win 95 to Win 2000. Never had a bit of trouble out of the Toshibas. The HP and Dell would be last choice. Never once encountered serial or data corruption even using for remote programming. Just for your info 5 Yrs - the new F39 you must have a cable pinned out with RTS/CTS or will you never hook up

If I was going to go with a brand name, I'd go Toshiba or maybe IBM. My IBM is 4.5 years old and running fine (just a little slow), but I don't know if they still make them as good.
If battery life is important I'd go with Centrino. If the laptop is running on batteries the Celeron and Pentium 4 will have the same bus speed, so the difference would probably not be noticed. The P4 will ramp the bus speed back up when it is plugged in however for more power.

i got my a60 shiba for the holidays.....celeron with 512 ram and 60 gig hd.......i sit on my recliner with a cold beer in hand while my wireless router is in the other room.......i luv it............

nice screen and layout, although the sound could be a little louder......go with shiba.....