laptops

Thursday night Bob's nerves were on edge a bit. We sat together, doing stuff on our laptops for a while. Then I turned mine off to knit, and when the noise of the fan died down, Bob said, "I'm going to buy you a new computer." Oh? This old clunker is just too noisy to live with.
So we both looked online a little, and then we went to the BX Saturday to see what they have. All I know is I want a 15" screen instead of the current 17" so it will be lighter and more portable (also cheaper). Yes, I'll mis the number pad, but not having my shoulder pulled out of joint every time I go to lift it on my lap will make up for it. :-) The BX had one "cheap" one, so we looked at it some, but were unable to find some information. The "help" didn't know anything about it, and was unwilling to find out any information (like maybe getting the box out to at least see what the manufacturer wanted us to know). There were two more under $1000, but we didn't look at those at all. So far we have found that 1. you get what you pay for, 2. most US companies won't ship over here, 3. the BX isn't the greatest place to shop for computers.

Let me tell you about my current laptop. This was the replacement for the one that got stolen from Bob's car while on base in Texas. (No, we never got any kind of reimbursement for that theft.) While it was still fairly new, two years ago, Bob and I were outside building a storage shed at our rental place. The children got hot and bored, so we let them sit inside the empty house and watch a movie on the computer. About 1/2 way through, Riah (age 2) took what was left of his drink and deliberately poured it over the keyboard. The screen went black. It wouldn't respond to commands. We just knew it was finished. But Bob took it apart and dried it out and put it back together and it worked just fine.
The power cord that came with it has been cut with scissors and pinched in the recliner mechanism of our couch. Then it wore and became frayed at the base of the big square thing that I don't know the name of. I finally got worried enough about it that I ordered a new one, off Ebay since HP won't ship over here. (Oh, yeah, it would also just fall out of the back of the computer without cause or warning.) The new one was not branded, but it worked. Then one day when it was unplugged, William got hold of it. I grabbed it from him and plugged it back in. Click. Apparently he'd got it in his mouth and it was still wet when I plugged it in. Bye-bye new power cord, and Bob has forbidden me to plug in anything ever again. ;-) So I'm back to the old plug.
And then there was the crash when I tried to download a parental control program.
It is very noisy, very hot, and very heavy. When typing, "M" skips a lot. The built in mouse touch pad thingy will stop working at random times. But it still works. And I recommend HP to anyone in the market for a laptop, because they have some good features, and it can take a licking.

I wonder what I'm gonna get.