Laptop durability question

My M60 with 4 years on it is going strong. Don't get liquids near the thing, as you know what mayhem that can cause. If you really need to drink on the job get a desktop box and just throw away the keyboards when they fail. I get the Dell Complete Care because they repair or replace within 24 hours. I haven't found a problem except the battery pack needs replacement too soon it seems.

Haven't used a dock. If I wanted all that other stuff on my desk, I would get a regular desktop PC.

The ONLY way I have been able to keep the M60 running 99.9% uptime is to never let it on the Internet, as I use another PC for that (a Mac). That way the M60 doesn't get corrupted with malware. It takes too damn long to reinstall everything from scratch with all the MS Office & XP Pro updates.

Bo

I did have a M70 for about a year in a docking station which caused a lot of problems, it automatically choose new settings each time I started it and was nothing but trouble that way, also the usb ports didnt always work (it was the same problems with all the M70s in the office 15 pcs). I ended up using it outside the docking station and the small screen made it horrible. Like the above poster I would say if you buy it for SW get a regular desktop pc, its easier to upgrade and you get better components for less money.

Wow. I've got an M70 that I've used nearly every day with virtually no problems. The volume control buttons stopped working a while back, but I suspect that this is a software issue and not a hardware issue.

I use mine primarily alone, but I have a docking station was well and it gives me no problems.

good luck, =========================================================================== Chris

I have a 3 year old M-60 that is my everyday machine. It works 10 hours a day everyday. At the office its set up with a docking station, external monitor, keyboard and mouse. At home it gets used as a laptop and it's traveled all over the country. This machine has been rock solid and I've been very happy with it. When it was new it would give desktop workstations a good performance run but its becoming outdated now. A new M-90 would be sweet.

My only complaint is heat. When it's out of the docking station I need to prop up the back of the macine about 3/4 od an inch or it over heats.

I would definately reccomend the docking station (or at least an external monitor) if you're going to be using this all day at the office.

My Sager (new in 2000?) runs 24/7 most of the time. The paint/coating is worn down to the plastic below the keyboard. The battery could use a replacement. Other than the fact that SW 2006 and above won't run on it because of performance losses, it has been pretty trouble free. I don't know whether Dell's are built this tough. The one issue it has is overheating due to cat fur in the fan. I have gotten into the habit of de-furring the fan on a regular basis.

We bought a cheap machine for my son and he trashed it in a couple years. I bought them used HPs and they are holding up well.

TOP

I also have a 2.5-3yr old M60, that I use all the time. It does get warm unless I prop up the back, which I do anyway for more ergonomic typing. I don't have an external moniter or docking station, but I've considered getting one. I run some fairly large assembly models, animations, and a little Cosmosworks, and the laptop has held up to all that pretty well.

I have no complaints about my M60, as long as it is on SWks 2006, but I did try using an external monitor once and seem to recall I found it mirrored the 1900 pixel display but would not support higher resolutions on an external monitor.

A minor irritation with the M60 is the mini FireWire connector that DOES NOT have a powered bus. I haven't checked if the M90 does. Without that, you need external power source for an external hard drive. The worst part of that is if the external AC power adaptor for your external HD glitches, and that can trash a drive, as I have done.

I would be careful to understand what resolutions an M90 will display on an external.

I would also consider looking at the Dell laptop upgrade cycle, and consider whether the M90 is EOL cycled now, and a new M100 might be hitting the online store pages shortly. I absolutely hate putting $4500 into an M90 only to see it upgraded in a month or so.

Bo