Topic awaiting preservation: Did I make a Notebook purchasing mistake?

Hey all,

I need to ask your advice. I just purchased a Notebook computer at Best Buy tonight. It is a Toshiba S255. A Pentium 4, 512 MB, 40 Gig, 15" screen, DVD CDR.

But I ended up buying the floor model because that is all they had left, and because they charged me $300 less than buying it new. I spent about 45 minutes looking the thing over and testing it in a variety of ways. The keyboard, screen, and touchpad all work well. and I financed it with 24 months no interest.

My concern is that the salesman said that it was on display for 3 months. With the power being on all day -every day, and the thing heating up, Im worried that the thing has been through a lot. Maybe it will fry out in a few months. I bought their extended warranty just in case, but I have 14 days to return it if I choose, for a full refund.

Do you have any advice, opinion, warning, suggestions?

thanks mucho

Eric

imho, you've got yourself a good deal...

I usually leave my PC on 2,3 days...and it has been like so for years now.

Don't worry about that!

Elias

Your worried about components being damaged from overheating?

I wouldn't worry about it. Just think of a normal computer. In my (little) experience, laptops are cooled fairly well.

I would not worry too much about overheating. I used to work at CompUSA and I can tell you this much. I do not know what their practices are, but our store shut down all the computers at the end of the night, including the floor models. That is what people normally do with their computers, shutting it down at the end of the day. IMO, you got a good deal. As long as you had it checked out by a technician and nothing seems to be wrong, it should be ok. This question of leaving the computer on all the time or shutting it down at the end of the night has been going on for years. I shut mine down when i am not using it. Personal preference, but I do not see any harm in it.

Awesome!

I feel much better now.

thanks much

If it's any news after the assurances you've already recieved, I have only turned off my old Dell C800 about 5 times in the last 3 years - it became a Linux server after I settled down and stopped travelling fr a living, and it shares a fairly warm room with 5 othe computers, all of which have been on for the same sort of period.


Bug-free software only exisits in two places
A programmer's mind and a salesman's lips

I have an old 133mhz Toshiba, it gets pretty hot but I got it a few months ago and haven't turned it off much as I use it to play mp3s and I've seen no crazyness, by the look of it it was used a lot before I got it and has to be a few years old.

How do I turn off my computer again? It's been so long that I've forgotten how. Eric001 you should be ok, as long as the screensaver comes on, then you won't burn a picture in the screen, I think it'll be ok. Sounds like you got a good deal too. I'm looking at getting a laptop, but I'm thinking I'll go with a MAC though, I really want to give MAC a try. Anyone own a MAC top?

You have to bear in mind, that computers are designed to be left on, the more you turn them off, then the more wear and tear is caused. I think you have a safe buy, and with extended warrenty, you cant really lose. Nice buy !!

I've got a mac laptop for work I went from having a 19 in. viewable display to a 17 and didn't skip a beat. It's nice. Color is for shite and runs a little warm, but other then that great. Oh wait, I do hate not having that handy keypad to the right.

Go for the 17inch titanium powerbook. It's a beauty.

Get your Mac propaganda out of here Jeni!

But you are right about that missing numberpad, I still reach for that thing now and again...

:::krets.net:::

My Linux machine has been left on for about 4 months now. My parents insist that the downstairs computer at my home be shut down when not in use. They have some paranoia that because its constantly connected to the internet, they're bound to be "hacked."

It's just personal preference but it shouldn't make a difference.



Jestah

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Since I do have 14 days to basically test the thing, I was just wondering if you would suggest any diagnostic tests that might indicate if there is a problem is brewing underneath. I guess I can check out what is in the system software - not too familiar with XP Home edition. But, I noticed that Scandisk goes by a different name.

Thanks again

Eric