My laptop started to catch on fire and debating if i want another brand.

[Ninja-san]

So my 23 day old XPS M1330 yesterday decided to kill itsself. Im turning the computer off when the screeen goes off white. After hitting the power button smoke stared spewing out of the back. Once the pc cooled off i got it to stop smoking i called DELL. Their sending my another XPS but im unedgy if i want the same brand again. Needless to say i was still in the process of getting a back up harddrive so Iv'e lost all my art/animation work ):

So the question is should I stick with the M1330 or go up a grade and go with a XPS M1710?

[Draginvry]

DELL

There's your first problem right there.

But it might be user error. Laptops typically don't have the cooling power of a tower. If you run high-resource applications or leave them on all day long, they will overheat.

You might want to invest in a separate cooling system. You can buy external devices to help remove the heat. I use the Targus podium. You'd be surprised how much of a difference it makes having a laptop a couple of inches above the table surface. Combine this with a high velocity air circulator for the win.

Your first problem is still Dell. IMHO, Compaq is a lot better choice for laptops. They have a good balance between price and functionality. My Presario2580 is over two years old, and I've never had anything burn out on it. I've only had two things ever go out on it. One of the keys was broke and caused a glitch. And the buttons for the touchpad don't work. The former was fixed under my warranty, and I don't even care about the latter (I don't ever use the touchpad)

[Pyrion]

But it might be user error. Laptops typically don't have the cooling power of a tower. If you run high-resource applications or leave them on all day long, they will overheat.

Bullshit. I left my laptop at a friend's house running an automated data recovery program (Zero Assumption Recovery, if you must know) for half a day and it didn't overheat. No air conditioning at his place, either.

[Katsurugi]

With proper maintainence and design, laptops can be left on overnight and should be able to perform to every degree a lower end desktop can but with the convenience of portability. When designed or maintained POORLY, a number of consequences can occur.

Laptops usually come with instructions, and are usually discarded by the consumer. They should have space on all sides of them to have the optimal air flow, the back, the sides and even the bottom. I prop my laptop up on several decks of cards when I use it.

In this case, I would probably not get the same laptop, any other model would be a bit more attractive, unless of course that was just a freak, isolated incident. Of course you should do some more research. Dell has gotten a lot better in terms of use-able hardware. A number of acquaintences I know have Dell laptops and they work fine even after a year or two. Most likely they have not been used to run Half Life 2 or Doom 3. Read some consumer reports and I guess that's the best you can do.

I would recommend probably a Toshiba or even a Gateway. I get a lot of flak for owning a Gateway laptop sometimes, but it's been good to me. Everything works fine even after using it as my main computer for 6 years now. The only real complaint that I have about it is that it doesn't cool down fast enough since it is getting old in general. Resistors increase their resistance and the fan is somewhat loud and less effective. If I could easily get in there and clean it up, I would and I'm sure that would help me a whole lot. Also, Sony is not a bad brand for a laptop, or old IBM Thinkpads. They're owned by Lenovo now. Hopefully the quality has remained the same.

[Legion303]

But it might be user error. Laptops typically don't have the cooling power of a tower. If you run high-resource applications or leave them on all day long, they will overheat.

No.

My wife's main computer is a laptop I gave her when I updated mine. Other than the occasional Windows-required reboot, it's been on continuously for over a year. Now get ready for the irony: it's an eMachines M5310, notorious for overheating issues.

On Dell: my laptop and my son's laptop are both Dells. I use mine for at least 12 hours every day, and he's 4 years old (hence, hard on his stuff--he spilled water directly into his keyboard just last week, in fact). Both laptops are quite rugged and I would not hesitate to get another when upgrade time comes around again. They also made the best run of cheap PDA ever (Axim 50 and 51 series, on which I ran a full-speed Playstation emulator) and the widescreen 37" LCD TV I have, which has been flawless in every respect. Dell's old reputation for shitty products has been turned around for several years now.

So I'm going to have to compare my year-old Dell, my son's 11-year-old Dell and my wife's 5-year-old eMachines laptops--none of which have had any problems other than the previously mentioned overheating issue (which isn't affecting my wife because she doesn't play intensive games like I did)--to your year-old Compaq, which has had two problems. Heh.

Ninja-san: I would recommend Dell's refurb program for whatever you decide to get, if you're not averse to refurbished hardware. You can find stuff really cheap there sometimes, and you still get a 1-year warranty. If you go with another brand, see if they have refurbs with full warranties as well.

-steve

PS: in the interest of not sounding like I work for Dell, I have to say that while their hardware support department has been very responsive to questions I had about my laptop's specs, their general customer support department sucks ass. If you need to contact Dell for anything other than tech support, be prepared for several weeks worth of back-and-forth with annoyingly stupid people.

[Alpine Flame]

By the way... there is a community for watching IT equipment, especially laptops, catch on fire and such. You can look at it here if you want to.

http://explodinglaptop.com/