About-Face & Walking Backwards

[tirlasutaa]

Recently the question of why I don't want to be a computer geek anymore has again surfaced. The tech where I took dad's laptop recently got me to thinking about reversing my position on the matter. Good luck.

Sitting next to me is my father's (relatively new) Fujitsu Lifebook T4020D, a large paperweight. Thus far the screen "went out" & after

Comments

[zebe]

If anyone has a suggestion on what I should try next

http://www.apple.com/macbook/

[tirlasutaa]

Have a tablet/laptop etc. yet? Plus, the real estate software he uses (& that he must use locally) requires ms internet explorer on a windows machine. If a mac can do that w/o issue, maybe... & only maybe.

[zebe]

The latest Macs use Intel cpus and can dual-boot OS X and Windows, or you can run a virtualizer like Parallels or vmware to run Windows software at nearly full speed within Mac OS X.

[tirlasutaa]

My beef with that is that not only does one shell out the money for the system & mac software, but on top of it there's the cost of windows & the software needed for it (versus just a pc & windows & related software). Plus, like I said, no tablet/laptop combos yet. I don't see the advantage of a dual-boot or virtualizer environment for an end-non-power-user yet. Why would a normal person want to deal with two operating systems?

[moonwick]

Well, my first guess is that the memory has gone bad. But, since you've had so much other trouble with the machine, I'd just call Fujitsu and demand that they replace the stinking lemon of a machine...

[tirlasutaa]

Already called Fujitsu & got an RMA number to send it back for repairs. I was leaning more towards a motherboard issue than the RAM per se (or perhaps motherboard & RAM)... I seem to have problems with laptops.

[sylverangel81]

Maybe it is something with the motherboard? Although perhaps not something as generic, I don't know. When my laptop was not booting, (it would go into the Windows boot-up screen and err out about halfway through the time it takes) I kept trying different safe modes and stuff, and then tried the Dell diagnostics cd-- finally figured out it was the built-in networking card that wasn't working (wired, not wireless). Disabled that, booted fine

[tirlasutaa]

I turned off nearly everything onboard (nic, wireless, usb, hyper-threading, etc. each individually & in combinations) that I could while trying to troubleshoot it. I'm just grateful I reached an intelligent support person. Dad & I are just pissed that it'll take about ten days total before it's back.