I got an early Xmas gift today, I have questions for the computer gurus here

[aurielle]

I got a new Sony Vaio laptop today. I have the option to purchase an extended 2 year warranty, and/or an accident warranty. This being my first laptop, is it a good idea to purchase a warranty? If so, which one? Or are they a waste of money?

Also, I need to purchase Microsoft Office. Where is the best place to buy it? I have Windows 7 Home Premium, if that helps.

TYIA

[lovcom]

1. The warranties are mostly a huge rip-off....don't do it....rip off city.

2. Don't get the too expensive MicroSoft Office suite....get the free and beter OpenOffice product...it is a lot better and it is free! Just go to OpenOffice.org and download it....it is a great product!! Also it opens up existing MS-Office documents too....

3. Max out the memory (ram) on your machine...a cheap way to turbo charge it's performence when running more then a few concurrent apps.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by lovcom

1. The warranties are mostly a huge rip-off....don't do it....rip off city.

I agree 100%. Extended warranties are a great deal - for the company. Stay away from them. You don't need it.

[ktmarvels]

Regarding the warranty, if you're worried that you will not have the money to fix/replace the laptop when/if it breaks, pay yourself the warranty. Put whatever amount you would have paid to the company into a savings account. That way if something happens you'll have some money to pay for it....and if nothing ever happens, you'll still have the money!

[creditcardfree]

Our laptop warranty with Dell ended up being a great deal. We purchased the computer 5 years ago, with a 3 year warranty. Two months before the warranty expired, my husband was walking up steps with the laptop and tripped. The screen went blank. When hooked up to another computer the hard drive was still working.

To sum up...the warranty provided us a brand new, somewhat upgraded laptop computer. I'm using it now. Laptops are more likely to get damaged because you use them in a mobile way.

Usually, we would not have purchased the warranty, but my husband took the computer to Iraq...so we figured the possibility of a problem was more likely there. It made it to Iraq and back, but was damaged at home. Opps!

[MonkeyMama]

Originally Posted by lovcom

1. The warranties are mostly a huge rip-off....don't do it....rip off city.

2. Don't get the too expensive MicroSoft Office suite....get the free and beter OpenOffice product...it is a lot better and it is free! Just go to OpenOffice.org and download it....it is a great product!! Also it opens up existing MS-Office documents too....

3. Max out the memory (ram) on your machine...a cheap way to turbo charge it's performence when running more then a few concurrent apps.

Agreed 100%. (I'm no guru but my spouse is).

[aurielle]

I think I'll take my chances and skip the warranty. They want almost $300 for it and I still need to buy a couple of accessories for my laptop.

Lovcom - thanks for reminding me about openoffice.

Thanks everyone.

[jasonnoguchi]

I have a Sony Vaio and it has to be the most crappy laptop I have ever gotten which is loaded with useless programs which you cannot uninstall without sacrificing driver update support and its graphics card driver NEVER gets updated. One word: REGRET.

[aurielle]

Originally Posted by jasonnoguchi

I have a Sony Vaio and it has to be the most crappy laptop I have ever gotten which is loaded with useless programs which you cannot uninstall without sacrificing driver update support and its graphics card driver NEVER gets updated. One word: REGRET.

Um, well....okay. Thanks for crapping on my Christmas gift.

I know, you're just informing me of your experience. But it's hard not to take it wrong when you first read it, the way its written.

Hopefully I will have better luck with mine.

I'm not a real big tech head, gamer or anything like that. 99% of the time I'm using a personal puter for surfing, email, and word processing. So I'm not real bothered with useless programs sitting in my hard drive. I'll just let them sit there and ignore them. And if I ever have a problem with the graphics card, well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

It's much better and faster than my old desktop, and has Windows 7. I've only had it for 2 days but so far I'm happy with it.

[jasonnoguchi]

Yup, just sharing. Guess what I am trying to say is, don't bother with the warranty... you may gradually find that its not worth that extra money after understanding it a bit more.

[kenyantykoon]

my warranty expired a few months ago and i had never had to use it. it all depends on how well you take care of the cpmputer. if you are careless get one. if you are careful you may not need it. If you take care of the gadget, it will give you years of service

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by kenyantykoon

it all depends on how well you take care of the cpmputer. if you are careless get one. if you are careful you may not need it.

I don't think it is just about being careless. I think more important is how you intend to use the computer.

My laptop sits on the desk in my office from Monday morning until Friday afternoon. The risk of anything happening to it is minimal. It then comes home for the weekend where it sits on the desk in our family room.

The only time it is at increased risk is when we travel.

If, however, you travel for business a lot and are going through airports and in and out of shuttles and such with the laptop, the risk of damage is a lot higher. Or if you are a student taking it back and forth to classes every day. Or carrying it around to different job sites.

[aurielle]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

I don't think it is just about being careless. I think more important is how you intend to use the computer.

My laptop sits on the desk in my office from Monday morning until Friday afternoon. The risk of anything happening to it is minimal. It then comes home for the weekend where it sits on the desk in our family room.

The only time it is at increased risk is when we travel.

If, however, you travel for business a lot and are going through airports and in and out of shuttles and such with the laptop, the risk of damage is a lot higher. Or if you are a student taking it back and forth to classes every day. Or carrying it around to different job sites.

I'm going to college next year. This is something to consider.

[myrdale]

As everyone above said, warranties are usually a bad deal. If I purchase something, and it breaks, I generally will not do business with that comany again.

I have tried the Open Office programs. While they do everything MSOffice does, the rest of the world uses MSOffice. When you get to college, check your campus book stores. Alot of times they will offer a student bundle, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for around $99.

[aurielle]

Originally Posted by myrdale

As everyone above said, warranties are usually a bad deal. If I purchase something, and it breaks, I generally will not do business with that comany again.

I have tried the Open Office programs. While they do everything MSOffice does, the rest of the world uses MSOffice. When you get to college, check your campus book stores. Alot of times they will offer a student bundle, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for around $99.

Thanks for the tip

[cicy33]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

I agree 100%. Extended warranties are a great deal - for the company. Stay away from them. You don't need it.

I DISAGREE completely. bought a laptop for our 15 year old last xmas. within 4 months the screen was "flashing". He is very careful with it, does not take it to school or friends houses, we don't allow it. We had purchased a warranty which wasn't too much (about 100). FIgured kids are rough on stuff, you know? we sent it in as requested, they determined the cable between the screen and the laptop was bad, fixed it and sent it back within 10 days. Best 100 I ever spent. We paid about a 100 for my laptop warranty as well, we bought the anything goes warranty. If we step on it, drop it whatever it is replaced. my other half is a clutz! so it really depends on what the use is and your luck of the draw. laptops go bad sometimes because they overheat. Going to college is something to consider. most college kids take them back and forth to school. anything can happen. your friends may not mean it but accidents happen. consider just an accidental warranty maybe. been well worth our time.

[lovcom]

Originally Posted by cicy33

I DISAGREE completely. bought a laptop for our 15 year old last xmas. within 4 months the screen was "flashing". He is very careful with it, does not take it to school or friends houses, we don't allow it. We had purchased a warranty which wasn't too much (about 100). FIgured kids are rough on stuff, you know? we sent it in as requested, they determined the cable between the screen and the laptop was bad, fixed it and sent it back within 10 days. Best 100 I ever spent. We paid about a 100 for my laptop warranty as well, we bought the anything goes warranty. If we step on it, drop it whatever it is replaced. my other half is a clutz! so it really depends on what the use is and your luck of the draw. laptops go bad sometimes because they overheat. Going to college is something to consider. most college kids take them back and forth to school. anything can happen. your friends may not mean it but accidents happen. consider just an accidental warranty maybe. been well worth our time.

This is silly....the 1 year factory warranty would've covered that issue! You got ripped off man. Read ConsumerReports...they will set you straight.

And who charges just $100 for an extended warranty on a new laptop?

Nobody these days!

[lovcom]

Originally Posted by aurielle

Thanks for the tip

MyrDale, This makes no sense, because OpenOffice opens and writes MS-Office documents, so it does not matter if the rest of the world uses MS-Office or not.

[cicy33]

Originally Posted by lovcom

This is silly....the 1 year factory warranty would've covered that issue! You got ripped off man. Read ConsumerReports...they will set you straight.

And who charges just $100 for an extended warranty on a new laptop?

Nobody these days!

on his in this case we were lucky. but if he does anything worse they would not cover it with a regular warranty. Also if they had determined it was not the computer but his fault it still would have been covered.

Good example, my daughter had a laptop a year or so back. She was using it and walked away. While she was away from it (about a half hour tops) there was a pipe in the ceiling of the basement they were in (they lived in her husbands mothers basement when they first married, it was very nice and finished but well stuff happens) and the pipe burst and flooded her laptop. She did not see this coming and could not have avoided it as no matter where she had set it the water would have gotten to it. she had no extra warranty and when she called they told her they did not cover water damage or personal damage only if the computer was defective. laptop became a nice paperweight.

Now with my laptop I was willing to pay the extra in case something does happen. as said above. laptops are mobile, accidents happen. regular warranty WILL NOT cover accidents. I would never pay for an extra warranty on a desktop because you don't move those around.

[lovcom]

Originally Posted by cicy33

on his in this case we were lucky. but if he does anything worse they would not cover it with a regular warranty. Also if they had determined it was not the computer but his fault it still would have been covered.

Good example, my daughter had a laptop a year or so back. She was using it and walked away. While she was away from it (about a half hour tops) there was a pipe in the ceiling of the basement they were in (they lived in her husbands mothers basement when they first married, it was very nice and finished but well stuff happens) and the pipe burst and flooded her laptop. She did not see this coming and could not have avoided it as no matter where she had set it the water would have gotten to it. she had no extra warranty and when she called they told her they did not cover water damage or personal damage only if the computer was defective. laptop became a nice paperweight.

Now with my laptop I was willing to pay the extra in case something does happen. as said above. laptops are mobile, accidents happen. regular warranty WILL NOT cover accidents. I would never pay for an extra warranty on a desktop because you don't move those around.

Again, the extended warranty was a waste, because HomeOwner's insurance would've covered the drowned laptop. Even most car insurance policies would replace a laptop stolen from your car too. Also had you purchased the laptop with certain credit cards, an automatic extended warranty might have provided coverage too.

My two daughters have had laptops since they were 3 years of age, and today their 20 & 22, and they nor myself have ever had any out-of-warranty repairs, nor any repairs for any accidents.

I told the girls that if they drop it, or break it, they get no replacement on my dime, and maybe that's why they are so careful with their laptops.

If your lifestyle is so fraght with accidents and such, then I think there are other bigger issues that need attention.