Comments for It's That Time of Year Again

Comment from Eli Coten on 2006-11-25

2006-11-25T20:11:03Z

I don't know what they are like in the USA, but Dell UK is certainly not the place to get computers from. Their customer support is known to be abysmal, and they have a nasty record of delivering faulty machines and then claiming that its the user's fault, which means that the repair somehow 'isn't covered under warranty'.

Other brand-name makes in the UK can also be problematic. I find that the best place to get computers from here in the UK is the smaller companies that custom build the computers. They often offer very competitive pricing as well. I liked Elonex (www.elonex.co.uk) until they went into administration, but right near them, there is a company called Mesh (www.meshcomputers.com) and that is the type of place I would get computers from.

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A comment on: It's That Time of Year Again

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Comment from wkeithscott on 2006-11-25

2006-11-25T14:30:41Z

HI Leo: Read your comment re an inquiry #2 key wasn't recognized by windows as not working. Well, from day one, my xphome, sp2, and all the regalia of anti sypyware. Mcaffee, spysweeper, etc. MY 'l', font is sometimes missing in print-out, the bottom part. and appear's an as normal L, but in small, reverse. I justignore it. Is that an norm. + k

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A comment on: It's That Time of Year Again

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Greg Bulmash on 2006-11-19

2006-11-19T23:33:14Z

One thing to watch out for when buying the "weekly special" at a lot of the big box stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, and Comp USA is shared video memory.

You'll see in the fine print of the specs that the laptop or desktop has "64 Megs Video RAM (shared)" or something to that extent.

Shared memory means that the computer is taking a portion of its system memory and assigning it to the onboard video processor. So if you get a machine that claims it has 512 megs of RAM with 128 megs of video RAM (shared), you're buying the equivalent of a machine with 384 megs of RAM and a fairly low-end 128 megabyte video card.

I say low-end video card, because unless you have high-end RAM in the machine, the system RAM may be slower than the RAM you'll find on a good video card. And the "onboard" graphics processor on your motherboard is generally much less powerful than the ones on even mid-range video cards.

The other thing to consider is, though Leo recommends Dell, do you want to go the mail-order route? If you do go with mail-order, you need to factor in an extended warranty with "on-site" service or a local repair center option.

If you don't get that warranty, then if anything goes wrong with the computer while its under warranty, the recipient of your "gift" may have to pack it up, ship it to the manufacturer (often at their own expense), and wait weeks to get it back. Either that, or they'll have to try to diagnose the problem over the phone with a tech in India who will then have a warehouse in Indiana ship them a part they'll have to replace themselves.

If you buy an on-site service warranty, they may still have to go through some phone-hell, but in the end a local contracted tech will come out to their home or office and fix their machine.

If you don't want to pop for the price of the on-site service warranty, buy the machine from a big box vendor. That way, if something goes wrong, the recipient can throw the CPU in the back seat, drive to the mall, and drop it off for repairs at the local outlet of the chain where you bought it.

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A comment on: It's That Time of Year Again

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