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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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