2009/1/1 Kamaraju S Kusumanchi <raju.mailingli...@gmail.com>: >> I'm happy with my Dell Inspiron E1505. My roommate is happy with his more >> recent laptop purchase from Dell. My other roommate likes his Thinkpad, >> but it is a much older system, so I can't say that reflects the quality of >> current Thinkpads. > > I own a Dell Inspiron E1505. I do not recommend it. Get something else > (preferably non-Dell). > > I always have problems with their batteries, video card. No matter how many > times I replace the batteries, they seem to go bad after some time. I > replaced the battery 3 times. After 3-4 months the battery life will be > reduced to less than 1 hour and then after some time, they just don't work. >
I have not experienced the issue, but I can add that the standard six-cell battery is good for no more than an hour and a half of usage with Compiz and Wifi enabled. > As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there > will be a "blue screen memory map" error after some time. FWIW, the movies > work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video > cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. > Which video card do you have? The ATI x1400 in this card was a pain in the beginning, but now that ATI supports Linux it is great. I am very happy with the video performance. > In general, I think Dell's hardware is unreliable. They work fine initially. > But after 1 year or so, things start to fall apart. This is if you plan to > use laptop intensively (say 8-10 hours a day). But if you just use it for > 1-2 hours a day, then it's life might be more. > I use the laptop at _least_ eight hours a day! I can confirm that things do fall apart: I have had to tighten the clamshell screws several times, there is a dead vertical vector on the LCD matrix, the rubber shoes were all falling out after only a month, and other little things that add up. The CD-ROM drive, fan, and hard drive are very noisy. Oh, and on battery the hard drive spin up and spin down cycles are maddening. -- Dotan Cohen http://what-is-what.com http://gibberish.co.il א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת ا-ب-ت-ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش-ص-ض-ط-ظ-ع-غ-ف-ق-ك-ل-م-ن-ه-و-ي А-Б-В-Г-Д-Е-Ё-Ж-З-И-Й-К-Л-М-Н-О-П-Р-С-Т-У-Ф-Х-Ц-Ч-Ш-Щ-Ъ-Ы-Ь-Э-Ю-Я а-б-в-г-д-е-ё-ж-з-и-й-к-л-м-н-о-п-р-с-т-у-ф-х-ц-ч-ш-щ-ъ-ы-ь-э-ю-я ä-ö-ü-ß-Ä-Ö-Ü