Dell Inspiron 8200 - I purchased said Inspiron 8200 in early Jan 2003. This is a work computer, and travelled in a padded back-pack about 200 meters per day, with 2 take-downs and 2 set-ups per day. This totals about 1 km travel and 10 take-downs/set-ups

Dell Inspiron 8200 - I purchased said Inspiron 8200 in early Jan 2003. This is a work computer, and travelled in a padded back-pack about 200 meters per day, with 2 take-downs and 2 set-ups per day. This totals about 1 km travel and 10 take-downs/set-ups per week.

Dell Inspiron 8200

Dell Inspiron 8200 I purchased said Inspiron 8200 in early Jan 2003. This is a work computer, and travelled in a padded back-pack about 200 meters per day, with 2 take-downs and 2 set-ups per day. This totals about 1 km travel and 10 take-downs/set-ups per week.

While the computer remained on for long periods of time, it was carried carefully and was subject to the minimum of travel. During June 2004 (6 months out of warranty) the motherboard failed. I called Dell tech-support, and was directed to re-seat all the modular components, with no effect. This failure was not catastrohpic, and the computer sometimes worked, sometimes didn't.

Since the computer was out of warranty I decided to open up the case and have a look for myself. I was shocked to see that the laptop lacked any kind of super-structure. There is a U-shaped steel brace that supports the

monitor, but only provides one degree of stiffness.

For all other kinds of flexing, the mother-board take up the strain. For a computer that is/

portable/, this kind of lax desgin is simply unacceptable. From the growing number of complaints around the 'net, it seems that this fundamental design flaw is fairly universal to any laptops that's moved. This from a supposedly "high-end" machine too. I will cirtainly never buy Dell in the future and encourage my collegues and friends to do likwise. Pete Peter D

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