[gt24]

I have an older laptop that I purchased a while ago, an Compaq Armada m700 at 500 Mhz. Anyways, this laptop has a metal shell and is a durable old laptop, or so I think.

Anyways, I am using the laptop for school... so yet again I was carrying it around school. Just like my PDA, I carry the device with me. My PDA, being owned for nearly a year, has been dropped nearly 10 times and yet hasn't been effected one bit by that.

Today, my laptop was in my backpack which was sitting on a hook a little less than 4 feet from the ground. The hook snapped (stupid hook) and the backpack fell to the floor. No big deal, right?

Laptop... first off, one of the hinges (metal) was slightly chipped... yay, it is a personality mark! It wasn't cracked or damaged in any way, just now it is showing metal instead of black paint. Look at the other side... and the front panel of my CD Rom is slightly detached. A simple push on the panel reattached it... but it was odd. Open the screen, and the fake touchpad (the touchpad wasn't an option on this model, only the trackpoint) was knocked loose (what the HECK!?). Once again, simple touches reattached it.

Start the laptop and thankfully, the screen is fine. Computer beeps twice, "I/O Rom Error (101)" it says nicely.... In order to make that fine crappy message go away and actually boot my darn laptop, I had to remove and reseat my memory, my hard drive, and my cd rom drive. Luckly, all of these worked when reseated and my laptop booted. How the HECK did all of that fall out from a small drop!?!

Go into Ubuntu Linux, set up networking (via ethernet) later on in the day. When I tried to start Firefox, my computer HARD LOCKED. Rebooting, ANNOYED, I get back into Linux... which now says that I have no network card or modem...

Go to Windows, yep I'm having "hardware difficulties" with those pieces of equiptment. So, I flip over my laptop, open up the networking area, take out the networking module, reseat the networking module... NOW it is fine. Oh, COME ON!!

So, now I hope my darn laptop is working perfectly fine... it seems to be though. My question to the forum is this... how the HECK do you manage to keep these darn fragile laptops going? One drop does this much damage? At least it was superficial (everything became unseated). A friend of mine had a similar age laptop, heavier though, in a laptop bag that fell 3 feet had their screen BREAK. Accidents happen... but I seriously don't want these "accidents" destroying my laptops.

How the heck do you keep these things alive? What can I do to prevent every piece of my laptop from flying apart... also prevent anything from getting broken? I am glad that I only have a 500 Mhz laptop as opposed to something really pricey!

[ozzlo]

well I just happen to be the most clumsy person in the world and have many incidents like that and I haven't had any problems (per say physical damage related)

ok so I had my laptop on kitchen table to do some homework and I can't remember what happened but i tink I was expecting a very imporntant phone call or something because I lept out of my chair and went dashing for the phone only my foot caught the power cable and the laptop was flung off the table into the wall and onto the floor ( the screen was open the whole time and it ended up palm rest down on the ground)... the only thing that had happened is the computer froze and I restarted the computer and it worked just fine since... that was with my i8600 over a year ago. with my new laptop I have completelly dropped it while going down the stairs... I managed to break it's fall with my foot but it caused me to also fall down the stairs. the laptop and myself tumbled down the remaining 4 steps and I landed on it with my elbow ( not my whole body weight I just hit it) and it works perfectly fine... I'm tankful for my laptop and myself that the stairs at my house are carpeted...

I sense a slight difference in build quality... maybe you should get one of those toshiba tougfbooks... or maybe I should get one too

I have a relly protective backpack with lots of comfy support for my notebook maybe a more protective backpack is a good sugguestion...

[shellshock]

It may just be me, but I like to feel and hold things before I buy them, You away know when they dont feel good in your hands. My laptop is a pos hp, it creeks and is very flimsy. I held a powerbook at school the other day, and that thing was light, thin, sleek, and felt solid in your hands. If I ever buy another laptop, its gonna be a IBM or dell, hands down. I think there the best two manfurctures on the market today

It all comes down to build quailty

[9mmCensor]

get a toughbook.

[damarble]

Originally Posted by ozzlo

only my foot caught the power cable and the laptop was flung off the table into the wall and onto the floor ( the screen was open the whole

I did that to a pos KDS laptop. The screen shattered. Oops.
I've dropped my Inspiron 4000 once, in a backpack from ~3ft, the CDROM and battery fell out but otherwise everything was OK. It's pretty flimsy, all plastic. Warps when you pick it up by one corner.

Another option for a tough laptop is from Itronix. Very durable. They're designed for military use. Slam em against a wall and no prob.

[gt24]

If it is any consolidation, the laptop does feel solid in my hands and works flawlessly... now that every single piece of the darn thing is reseated. I bought it primarily because it was a cheaper and older laptop but also because of the magnesium casing (it took me a while to think of the word). I suppose it would do better next time if all the parts would just stay in! Perhaps I have to look into that.

[Scott9027]

Originally Posted by gt24

If it is any consolidation...

I think you mean consolation

Does anyone know if the Panasonic (I think that's who makes it) Toughbook is affordable at all. I really like the idea, but I could see it being outdated hardware and completely overpriced. Anybody know?

[moz_21]

Originally Posted by Scott9027

I think you mean consolation

Does anyone know if the Panasonic (I think that's who makes it) Toughbook is affordable at all. I really like the idea, but I could see it being outdated hardware and completely overpriced. Anybody know?

Yep, it's Panasonic. I believe they run P3's yet, and are quite spendy. I might be wrong though lol.

[itshondo]

get a better case/backpack....

[AKDUDE]

I have a old Panasonic Toughbook, I love it, but it has just become too slow for me. 366 P2, 192 megs of ram (maxed) and a small drive, and a dead battery.

I wish I could updated the motherboard and add more memory, but google, newsgroups and such bring for no info, so I just got a new ACER laptop instead. The Panasonic Toughbook is near and dear to my heart though. I am going to keep it running, get a new battery, and a bigger drive, and repaint the thing when I get a chance.

[demortey]

i had a compaq 700 series. within the first month i dropped it down the stairs (14 of them) it bounced about 3 times, hit the floor at the bottom and slid a few feet...inthe process loosing its side panel thing, cdrom cover and one of the hinge covers. it worked fine tho. but it eventually became the peice of garbage that all the 700s did, loose hinges, power connectors loosening adn shorting out, causeing one to replace a couple caps and the power connector, bent everything. rebuilt it about 3 times with old laptops/parts off ebay...and finally sold it (suprisingly) to get money for a powerbook.

[Nathan0490]

I found some p4 1.8 ghz toughbooks at $350 bid with 20 hours left, ebay prolly would be the cheapest...............

[Kendan]

Don't drop them and get a better laptop bag with good padding. Otherwise one drop can kill it.