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Anyone considering purchasing a notebook computer might want to check out the latest blog from Christopher Null. It's an eye-opener to say the least. The part we found most interesting was that a 16% failure rate is now considered to be acceptable. All we can say is ouch! The reason for this posting is that we just heard M-Tech is reporting a whopping 1% failure rate. Note that we do not receive financial compensation from M-Tech. We just thought this information might be important to anyone in the market for a new notebook or laptop computer.
Lunis Orcutt - Nuance Dragon Medical Gold Certified BBB Accredited Speech Recognition/Microphone Solutions Provider
Lunis, I currently own a lot of laptops, all of which have been bought "off lease" or "refurbished" and one being "used." I use them a lot- in fact, I usually have both my desktop and laptop working at the same time. Sure, most laptops break eventually, but it all depends on WHAT breaks down and of course, the overall cost of the laptop. Since the cost of my laptops is what the cost of one of your typical expensive M-Tech laptops, then when it breaks it's not that much of a big deal.
That said, if it's the on/off button, with my Dells its as simple as taking it apart and plugging in a small replacement switch board that costs about $6 on eBay. That's the thing about Dells- they not only are relatively cheap, but are very modular and easy to break into the case. If it's the keyboard- same thing. The motherboard or keyboard usually cost over 50% of the cost of an off-lease laptop, so I don't bother with them and simply throw it in the trash. Hard drives break all the time- I wouldn't count them as a "broken laptop." These are easy to swap out.
When I shelve a laptop, it's mostly due to the fact that they've become way too slow- I currently have 5 laptops and tablets, and 4 Windows CE devices that shelved due to obsolescence.
I only have 5 that are officially "broken," but after many years of use:
M-Tech? Who the hell has heard anything about M-Tech? They are so proprietary (think $$$$) that they can't even be bought through ebay!
Let's take a look at the MTECH TW10 NetBook- it sports the same Intel Atom 1.6Ghz processor as is seen in just about every other NetBook, same 10" screen, same 1GB SDRAM, same Win XP Home... yet at a whooping $564 it costs twice that of any of the Asus, Acer, Dell, or HP Netbooks with the same configuration.
Today's laptops are all made of very similar design, craftmanship, or components except for some niche products like the Panasonic "Toughbooks." Drop one of those expensive babies, though, and you'll find that they aren't so tough after all!
So to sum this up, I consider Mr. Null's assertions as hogwash!
Al
Al Borges, M.D.
Al,
You are seeing laptops that have already survived 3 years. I think they tend to work if they have worked for a decent while.
My current laptop is a HP TX1000 series tablet that is just over a year old. I have 3 fans running underneath it, replaced the thermal paste last week and still the wireless or lan dies from overheating. I have ordered a Dell Tx2 to replace it.
The one prior was an Acer latop - okay, my fault, I spilled a cup of water into it. Just over a year old Dual core cpu etc.
The before that was self assembled Pentium M 1.7 Ghz. that might have lasted 2 years before the hinges cracked on me.
The one before that was a Compaq/HP - don't think it lasted 2 years either. And I had a series of Compaq/HPs before that. Nothing lasting 3 years.
Curiously the Toshiba M200 that I gave my daughter is now 3.5 years old and is just starting to give issues with the CPU rising to 70-80 deg C so we need to pull that apart and re-grease it.
Graham http://www.synapse-ehr.com/ Synapse - the EMR for the superior physician
Al, my first "laptop" was an IBM XT clamshell with dual 720k disk drives. Ran my EMR of that time on it ( dBase II+). It had a small LCD monochrome display, and optional slices. I think I had the slices with the parallel port, and the one with CGA out.
What about you?
My first computer was a clone that looked like a Toshiba 1200 laptop:
I used it a lot to type up my consults when doing my hematology fellowship at the NIH.
My first computer was a Commodore 64.
It was a dream machine.
the audio and video on it was well ahead of it's time.
My first PC was an Amstrad:
Remember the old days, when there was no such thing as a sensible laptop? Amstrad unleashed the PPC-640 in 1988 as a low-cost IBM-compatible portable. It weighed 22lbs, so the term "draggable" is probably more apt. It ran on ten C batteries or mains power and offered a terrifyingly bad 320x200 flip-up monochrome screen. The CPU was an Intel 8088, clocked at 4.77 MHz. It came with a "full" 640K of memory and included a 2400 bps modem, in case you had a hankering to surf your local FIDO bulletin board system or CompuServe.
email:
Our computer knowledge is probably just enough to be dangerous and our original post was simply meant to be informative but we don't think that M-Tech is focusing on low-end computers such as their netbook and we certainly wouldn't recommended a netbook for speech recognition use but we did note one interesting feature with the M-Tech netbook. Most over-the-counter netbooks, such as those that you would find at Staples, you can literally bend the monitor screen without putting any stress on your hands. This made us a bit nervous but we noted that the M-Tech netbook didn't bend when you applied pressure to its monitor screen. We're not trying to justify the price or even defend the company. We're just making a comment about their construction. We were generally impressed with the company. We're certain that a lot, if not most, computer companies will beat their prices but what impressed us most (besides the low return rate) was their one-on-one customer treatment and the person who you speak with over the phone is typically the person who puts your computer together and handles Technical Support down the road. They are the only American company we know of that assembles notebook computers from the ground up and properly burns them in (stress testing). We have no doubt that you can find a better price but we're going to be purchasing our next 2 notebook computers from this company because for us, it's worth spending a little extra and feeling a little more secure.
I submit that failure rates, as is the acquisition of a computer virus, is for the most part, contingent on the carelessness of the end user. Mobility is conducive to human neglect.
Chris Wilkerson, D.C. Carson Doctors Group TabletPCs in Medicine Editor-in-Chief www.MedicalTabletPC.com Home: www.Digital-Doc.com
Human neglect... I could see that, but would anyone here try to bend a computer screen?
Let alone pay up the wazoo just in case you have a schizophrenic moment that you do bend it? Let's get real here. If the $280 NetBook irreparably gets run over by a car, I'll just throw it away and buy a new one.
Like I've said in the past about EMRs- the higher the price, the riskier the purchase. The price then goes up even further when you have to buy insurance and extra product support.
I thought that this YouTube video was cute:
My neighbour has just given me his HP NC6220 laptop for parts as it keeps crashing with blue screens even after a new windows xp install.
This is bizarre. I just purchased a Dell XT2 multitouch tablet from auction to replace my 1.2 year old HP Tx1000 series tablet which keeps overheating. The dell came with a blank hard drive so I thought I'd install Windows 7 64 bit RC1. After I finished the installation ( every okay in drivers ), I noticed that the mouse would move by itself and start activating programs or selecting patients by itself!
No time to waste, so I've wiped the drive and am using the Vista business 32 bit cd to install vista instead. See if that behaves itself ...
It's quite a nice tablet .. missing a camera but I never used the one on my HP so no big deal.
>>would anyone here try to bend a computer screen? <<
No one here or definitely not one that actually paid for the device. I had mobile adolescents in mind with this statement. Parents buy an expensive TabletPC or laptop for their kids with a hinge and a special digital screen. The kids put their mobile device in their backpack with several books. Inevitably, conscious or not, they treat their back pack like a book and just drop it or toss it, then they complain that the plastic hinge broke for no reason! I get a kick out of reading the Tablet forums on complaints about broken devices. When you read their HPI, it wreaks of personal carelessness.
>>> Note that we do not receive financial compensation from M-Tech.
Then why are you posting this all over the 'net, s.a. at the AC forums site, and if one Googles "Knowbrainer and M-Tech" there are numerous hits, some with M-tech recommending Knowbrainer which doesn't pass the smell test. You guys should strive to be above this type of activity.
http://www.google.com/search?q=knowbrainer+M-tech&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8
Osler, where are you? Check out his views on spamming the forums and trying to hard-sell stuff like the M-Tech computers which he mentions "fleecing"- http://www.emrupdate.com/forums/t/16627.aspx?PageIndex=9
Al, as a physician, you probably find yourself recommending other facilities and physicians (better known as referrals). We very much doubt you receive any compensation for your referrals. We'd appreciate it if you could give us the same benefit of the doubt. The main reason why we put this information out is because our company's survival depends on our speech recognition solutions working as well as possible. NaturallySpeaking is a resource hog and we often run into computers that all too often seem to work fine until NaturallySpeaking is installed. Simply put, unless your computer is reasonably healthy, NaturallySpeaking often winds up being the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back. From the end-user's point of view, if they install NaturallySpeaking and their computer immediately goes south, they tend to blame us or DNS even though the actual reason is often a sick computer. Your assumption about us having something to gain is correct but it's not financial. Simply put, our odds of success increase when our customers don't have computer issues and we are certainly guilty of that charge. Wanting what's best for the public and being a vendor are not necessarily mutually exclusive. To phrase this another way... if rather than being a web-based only, we owned a public store in the middle of a school zone, we would recommend that people drive 15 mph because of the children; not because they would be more inclined to see our store. Like physicians, good companies often recommend other good companies because they want what's best for their customers/patients. Example: We were the only microphone vendor to be listed on UmeVoice’s (the manufacturers of theBoom “O” microphone) homepage for nearly a year. We were completely unaware of the endorsement and only found it by accident. We didn't know about the homepage endorsement at M-Tech until it been up a while. Throughout history, good companies have been known to recommend other good companies and we really can't help it if the occasional major manufacturer recommends us. We work with a lot of big companies/agencies like Microsoft, Mobil Exxon, NYPD, Military etc.. However, numerous company recommendations do not make us guilty of accepting bribes and you won't find click-through or keyword advertising (such as the ads on this forum) anywhere on our website.
(error- duplicate)
>>> We didn't know about the homepage endorsement at M-Tech until it been up a while. Throughout history, good companies have been known to recommend other good companies and we really can't help it if the occasional major manufacturer recommends us.
Well, I find that hard to believe. I could possibly believe a high rating from a known neutral rating site like CNET or PC World, but by another vendor? Doubtful.
Things that make the recommendation of yours not believable include:
Lunis, it's so transparent it's almost laughable!