Never break your notebook's plastik casing
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): Some of you might still remember I wrote about the Toshiba 100CS in this column in the middle of last year.
I had bought it in a hurry before I left on a trip to Australia. I used it during the trip and I raved about it in my subsequent article. In fact, a reader from Medan then decided to buy one for herself.
I still enjoy using the notebook today.
Although it only uses a Pentium 75 MHz processor and it does not have L2 cache, it always provides a pleasant level of performance.
It does not have a CD-ROM option, nor does it have the capability to produce sounds beyond one or two small beeps.
But, do we really need these bells and whistles as we travel?
The Toshiba 100CS was considered the best used notebook in the United States. Until two months ago, a used 100CS still sold for US$999.
Unfortunately, there turned out to be a problem with Toshiba's plastic casing. A man from Yogyakarta has found cracks in the casing of his own 100CS. He tried to get it fixed, but was unsuccessful.
He wrote a letter-to-the-editor in at least two different newspapers, and that was how I learned about his concern.
He is not alone. My otherwise excellent 100CS has also developed a crack on the top cover, near the right hinge. This might have been caused by the load of books that I once piled on top of it.
I must have foolishly thought that a notebook was as solid as any paper book. And like the Yogyakarta guy, I have also been less than successful in trying to find someone to fix it.
Like him, I contacted Toshiba's authorized distributor for Indonesia.
Given Toshiba notebooks' popularity, I had expected professional technicians.
Instead, I met a couple of guys who seemed to be hanging around doing nothing behind the counter.
Anyway, I showed them the crack, and I told them that everything else was perfect. But one of the guys did not believe me and insisted on turning on the notebook.
Then another guy said, "This one is difficult to replace."
If the walls and the glass doors of that building could laugh, I guess I would have heard them roar.
Displays
Let me tell you another true story. My driver, Hidayat, once brought two IBM ThinkPad 365 notebooks that belonged to the office where his older brother worked.
One had a cracked liquid chrystal display (LCD), but it still worked fine. The other had stopped working altogether. Hidayat asked me whether I could "cannibalize" the one and use the parts to fix the other.
I said, "Sure, but you have to do it yourself." I wanted him to learn along the way.
Hidayat did not know anything about computers. All I knew was that he had the manual dexterity and intelligence required to do such technical operations.
With step-by-step guidance, after about three hours he had exchanged the LCD screens of the two ThinkPads. When he was finished, he had one perfect ThinkPad.
So, when this Toshiba guy told me it was difficult to replace the cover of my notebook, I wondered how I could trust them.
Then they told me the costs of the fixes -- Rp 390,000 for the replacement part and Rp 150,000 for the labor.
I would still have to pay tax, so the total would be close to Rp 600,000. But I was also told the cost could have been lower if the notebook was bought from them.
They had this thing they called "PI" -- "parallel import". What they meant was that the notebook I had bought was not the one that they as the authorized distributor had imported into the Indonesian market, but was brought in by other importers.
Fair
This revelation really turned me off. We all have to earn a living, but still there should be some sense of fairness in the way we do business.
More importantly, the way they worked did not really impress me. As you also know, quite often if your notebook or PC is fixed by a technician who is not really professional in his job, you will end up having more problems than you started with.
Finally I packed up my 100CS and left. I thought I would just try to find the cover the next time I was in Singapore and replace it myself.
Come to think of it, having problems with your computer in this country is almost identical to being sick.
If you are not really among the rich and famous, you will be out of luck if you get really sick and you do not have a relative or friend who is a physician.
As for Toshiba's service here in Indonesia, it is really a pity. It is high time they improved the quality of their service.
Toshiba is still one of the most popular notebooks in the world, but other leading brands are coming in strong, too.
Tips
The IBM ThinkPads are truly solid notebooks that you can easily find in the market. Compaq has also been aggressively marketing their Armadas and Presarios -- both also solid notebooks.
If you want top performance, Micron Millennia Transport has been leading the pack and has also been available locally. The competition is going to get tougher in the notebook arena, so unless you can provide friendly and, above all, professional services, you will be left in the cold in no time.
Now, what should you do to avoid an early passing of your notebook? First and foremost, as I learned the hard way, never pile heavy stuff on top of your notebook.
Some notebooks, like my other notebook, a Siemens Nixdorf SCENIC Mobile 300, have a much tougher construction. You could feel it when you touch them. Still, they are not meant to be placed under a pile of dictionaries.
Second, as it is very easy to stow the notebook in the far corner of your study, it is very easy to forget about it until you are once again leaving on a jet plane. Therefore, you need to take it out of its bag once in a while and turn it on.
Third, to ensure a long battery life, it needs to be drained completely at least once a month and be fully recharged. You have to do this regularly, otherwise you will have to replace the battery sooner than you expect.
Fourth, regularly check the inside of your notebook bag for sharp objects, including paper clips and ballpoint pens.
As you hop from one conference to another, these things could easily accumulate in the bottom of your bag, scratch the notebook cover and cause cracks, too.