LAPTOP SURVEY

[Mary Motley O'Brien]

I'm having some issues with my playback sound on my Dell computer. I've always had a Dell because of the awesome service contract....next day to your home, and that is so important, but I thought, what a better place to start a discussion and take a survey on what kind of laptops people use and how they like them. It will help us all dramatically if we know what to buy the time time we need to get a new one.

[Shannon Wise]

Mary, have had great luck with HP. They have awesome, awesome customer service/support. Have not had any problems running software on any of them. Just getting into the audio part and having a bit of trouble getting sound quality. Thought it might be blackberries, but now I believe it's the Norton 360. I believe I need to turn it off. Was not a blackberry issue as of today. I was thinking about it when I first got my new laptop, HP, about 5 wks ago, took about 4 or 5 depos, audio worked beautifully, then on one of my computers the Norton expired and we got the 360 for all 3 of our computers, so I'm thinking that may be where my problem lies. I'm also going to finally break down and get a USB microphone.

[Mary Motley O'Brien]

Thanks for your input. I do get static noise when blackberries go off, but hum, I never thought of the anti-virus. I don't have Norton....but totally blanking on what it is called. I do use an internal mic from Martel, but is there some difference with a USB one as compared to one that plugs into the mic spot?

[Shannon Wise]

You know, I have no idea, but I know you can plug your headphones into the jack of the USB mike...most of them have a head jack, and their sound cards usually are better than the one on the computer and override that. I'll have to verify that for myself. I mentioned on another subject forum on the audio I started that I have one client that through my tape-recorder...I have my headphones on just so I can hear better...I can tell 3 seconds before he does that he's getting an email or voicemail, and it drives me nuts because I get this static whack right in my ear.

[Mary Motley O'Brien]

Oh wow, that is wild. You can tell before it happens! Interesting idea with the USB theory. Well, they're coming out to replace my mother board, so hopefully thath will do the trick. But anyone else reading this, don't get off the topic which is laptop preferences and what people like "for our industry."
Thanks Shannon =)

[Shannon Wise]

No problem. My vote is still HP. I've heard good things about Sony Vaio, Viao, whatever, that love their laptop and say they have great customer service also.

[Mary Motley O'Brien]

Unfortunately, I think it's like that with them all. It's the same with Dell. They have people that are from India or some other country because it's cheaper for the company, so I've heard, but yup, it drives you crazy because you can't understand a word they say....speaking of which, I had a witness like that today!!!!!Urgh!!

[Shannon Wise]

Sometimes it depends on the time of day you call who you get. If you ever do the live chat, it's a lot easier to understand.

[Rosemary Schwartz & Associates]

Hi, Mary. I have had a Dell for years, beautiful audio and like you said, you can't beat the warranty. I'm getting ready to get a new one this year. I'm sticking with Dell. I'm on Case CATalyst and it works great with the software. I hear Toshiba is good, too. Dell has a new one called a Vostro that my computer tech told me to get. It comes with Windows XP, which he's told me to stay away from Vista - too many problems. Hope that helps.

Rosemary Caravetta
CSR #4836

[Mary Motley O'Brien]

Thanks! Yes, I have definitely heard to stay away from Vista.

[Kyung]

Now, is it laptops or the audio on the laptop?

I personally have a Dell. I had a few issues at the beginning, but it's working fine now. The only thing that kind of irritates me is it always randomly trying to debug something once in a while. And it makes these noises all the time like I've hit the wrong key.

Now, in terms of audio. I'm on Eclipse, and we can fiddle with the audio setings and the compression it records under.

I had a Toshiba before, but the support was not very good.

My friend told me that a lot of businesses use Dell.

[Mary Motley O'Brien]

I have only had Dell laptops and for various reasons have had to have the mother board replaced on them, where the on-site warranty comes in great, but what started all of this, about a year ago, I forget why, the mother board had to be replaced and I noticed immediately that when I would take a job, the recording was different. There was like "white noise" in the background that was never there before they replaced it, and I've been dealing with it ever since. And depending on the room I'm in and when the fan comes on, even with an external mic, the quality is awful. And so I finally called support again, before the warranty is over, to figure out what it is. They're replacing the board again, but I was told when you put a new mother board in, you can end up getting one where the quality of it is not as good, which is BS. You'd think they would all be equal. But the topic just got brought up by my husband of "You should see what the majority of other reporters use. Maybe there's a certain brand that works better for our jobs," hence here I am asking this question.

[Shannon Wise]

Mary, my HP, both of them, you cannot even hear the fan. I had a Dell Inspiron and oh, man, what a noise when the fan came on. I also can hear other fans coming on on the attys' computers who have Dell or something else, but I was so relieved when I realized I've had no more fan noise on my last 2 HPs. That might be a consideration.