Bugger.
When I opened my laptop today, I had to use more force than usual, and the hinge at the bottom of the screen snapped at its base. The hinge itself has jammed. It’s metal and it just won’t budge (I’ve tried various tools). Even if I could get it to move again, I’d still need to reattach the broken metal base somehow. I can’t see this being easily repaired (and of course it’s long out of warranty). Has anyone else experienced this problem? If so, how did you deal with it? Is there anyone who specializes in these sort of repairs?
For now I’ve managed to wedge it in an open position, so it’s usable, but it can’t be easily moved without cracking the plastic case or damaging the screen. So it’s no longer portable, which means no more laptop gigs for the Time Being. I’d actually been considering taking a break from gigs this year, but I didn’t expect the decision to be made for me.
The laptop is a four year old Dell Inspiron 8200. It was top of the line when I bought it and had given me no problems until now (apart from the hard drive dying last year, but given what I put it through, that wasn’t a complete surprise).
I was hoping to get at least another year out of it before replacing it with something smaller and more capable of doing live video. Not that I’ll be able to afford it for some time (I need to pay off the credit cards before running them up again ;)) but what’s the best brand of PC laptop for live music/video these days? Dell was the shiz back in 2002, but appears to have lost its lustre…
February 5th, 2006 at 10:56 pm - Edit
obviously the new macbook pro running dual boot XP/OSX - the only downside (for me) no firewire 800… that’s assuming it can be made to dual boot. no-one will know till about a week after it’s out I’d imagine… it’s got the nifty if you drop it the hard drives shuts down thingy, so good for those drunken gigs..
February 5th, 2006 at 11:29 pm - Edit
One word…
Carrillon.
We have one of their desktops at the Conservatorium and it hoons. I’d aspect the laptops to be just as snappy. Sure, you could sell yourself to Apple - but I don’t know that off white is really your colour.
February 5th, 2006 at 11:46 pm - Edit
Thanks for the tips.
Carrillon does indeed do laptops, although their Aus distributor doesn’t mention it. They’re bloody expensive, but I spose you get what you pay for.
I guess I’ll keep an eye on how the laptop landscape develops over the next few months before taking the plunge.
February 6th, 2006 at 9:54 am - Edit
don’t listen to old ben kenobi… join the light side… think of the 95% less maintenance you’ll have to do…
February 6th, 2006 at 11:16 am - Edit
I read on macslash that you can dual boot XP on the intel based iMac- but it is a real mess about.
The Macbook uses the same boot-loader (some new fandangle intel replacement for openfirmware) so I’d say its fairly feasible.
Get a mac, you know you want to…
February 6th, 2006 at 11:46 am - Edit
See: http://neosmart.net/blog/dual-booting-windows-xp-on-a-macbook/
Its yet to be independantly confirmed though.
February 6th, 2006 at 3:12 pm - Edit
mac, eh?
http://riki-oh.textamerica.com/?r=4115891
February 6th, 2006 at 3:50 pm - Edit
All this and I would think that the main benefit if you went mac would be not dealing with XP.
February 6th, 2006 at 3:55 pm - Edit
lol funny!
February 6th, 2006 at 3:57 pm - Edit
Isn’t XP is the dongle you need to play counter strike source and Day of Defeat?
February 6th, 2006 at 4:05 pm - Edit
Well, every OS I’ve used has been craptastic, but I’m more familiar with XP and so know how to deal with its quirks. I also know how to get software for it (main drawback of dual boot would be acquiring/maintaining twice as much software). Another big factor for me is that AudioMulch is PC-only at this stage (but will eventually be ported to OSX).
My only motivation for using OSX would be cos that’s what the uni uses, and I should get to know it better. Longhorn or whatever the fuck the next Windows OS is called looks pretty scary with all its DRM and anti-privacy shit, so that may eventually force my hand.
February 6th, 2006 at 4:16 pm - Edit
And to think I sometimes wonder why girls rarely comment here…
February 6th, 2006 at 5:06 pm - Edit
And now you know…
February 6th, 2006 at 5:20 pm - Edit
Seriously though, if you have to go PC, how powerful do you want to go? Two cpu or not cpu? Now that’s a question…
February 6th, 2006 at 5:41 pm - Edit
Are there two different Gregs commenting here??
Dual core CPUs seem to be where it’s at these days, so I guess I want at least one of them. Two would be nice if affordable.
I’m not really sure about the performance difference though, eg is it better to have two average speed CPUs or one extra fast one?
February 6th, 2006 at 5:51 pm - Edit
just the one greg, unfortunately… a lot of power media users and creators seem to be going for toshibas, especially…
SATELLITE PRO P100 Core Duo T2400 (1.83
Australian RRP (inc GST) - $3,410.00
February 6th, 2006 at 5:53 pm - Edit
Oh, and I think UTS offers a discount on Toshibas…
February 6th, 2006 at 6:32 pm - Edit
Thanks - sounds good! But they don’t let you customise it?
I’d want to upgrade the graphics card to 256MB, and add a second internal hard drive (if it can accommodate one?).
I’d also want to upgrade the RAM to at least 1GB, but that should be relatively easy to do later.
February 6th, 2006 at 7:25 pm - Edit
BTSOI you don’t actually want a notebook - you need one of LAN party machines like Shuttle makes (like this one - http://au.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SD31P.asp) RRP 749 plus CPU, Videocard memory and drives - and it’d be about half the price of the equal spec notebook. Get a roadcase custom made (to hold KB, mouse and screen) and you’re set…
February 6th, 2006 at 8:03 pm - Edit
WTF does BTSOI mean?
A small desktop is an interesting idea, but I used to do gigs w/ a desktop and… never again. That’s why I got the laptop in the first place. I need something that I can take on a plane with me and still have room for more carry on luggage. Desktop components also don’t handle shock very well - something I found out the hard way.
It’s weird to think that my four year old Dell is still apparently a good machine by today’s standards - I would’ve hoped things had evolved more…
Ah well, wait a few months and see, I spose…
February 6th, 2006 at 8:04 pm - Edit
Linux! Linux! Linux!
February 6th, 2006 at 8:06 pm - Edit
Just got home from a 10 hour day wading through Unix setting up an XRaid Server with a certified Apple geek. I’ve always been interested in the idea of a stripped bare lappy running PD under Linux. After today it no longer seems so intense.
February 6th, 2006 at 8:26 pm - Edit
By The Sound Of It = BTSOI
And yes I made it up to confuse you…
February 6th, 2006 at 9:47 pm - Edit
For sound you still can’t beat the SID chip in a C64. Hang on, what year is this?
February 6th, 2006 at 9:59 pm - Edit
Ben, I love Linux (and PD) in principle, but in practice, for me, at least for now, life’s too short.
greg, I’ve got one thing to say to you: JDNGESLDIQJMCALXMAPFO!
flute, have you seen the SidSation?
February 6th, 2006 at 10:26 pm - Edit
Bugger me, how many sodding SID chips do you get in the thing for $1000US? One? What’s up with an emulator?
Stay a while. Stay FOREVER!!!!!!!
February 6th, 2006 at 10:54 pm - Edit
Yes, although we are about to see an exponential jump in laptop computing power… progress has been very stagnant over the last couple of years.
Linux would be the raddest option.
Rad as in like 80s BMX movies.
Which is a good thing in my books.
February 6th, 2006 at 11:45 pm - Edit
exponential jump? when? how (long should i wait)?
bmx bandits - our nic’s best work!
February 7th, 2006 at 10:41 am - Edit
Soon, my son, soon…
Well, I’ve been told to keep an eye on the new dualcore babies cause they are ‘the shit’.
And although they are available from ppl like Dell and Asus- its just the begining i.e. they have good potential to improve.
Also with MS’s shitty mem allocation system and barely there SMP support- you might have to get your hands on Vista before you noticed any great leaps in speed with ‘em.
Buuuuuut, if you ran *nix today, you’d be laughing. Don’t worry- I’m just poking fun now.
And Ben… you don’t understand how happy that makes me to hear you say that ;)
To be truthful- I have a policy of never waiting for tech, cause you could wait forever. When you DO get a lappie, make sure it has a Duo in it, a faster than 500mhz FSB, loads of vid memory and real zippy ram (say 667Mhz).