I bought my HP zd8000 laptop back in August 2005 after my old laptop started misbehaving. This zd8000 has been a pretty good laptop, other than a heat problem and the lint problem I wrote about earlier – well except for the battery. I’m now on my 4th battery and it looks like I’m going to be heading to “batteries R us” and getting yet another replacement. Yesterday my laptop suddenly switched off and the battery hasn’t charged since, nor does the computer think there’s one in it.
This is more than a bit annoying. Right now, the only way I can type this article is by removing the battery. Otherwise, the keyboard is unresponsive. Not a big deal unless I actually want to type something like my password. The other problem is that the AC adapter has a weird connection into the computer that works its way loose. So there’s always the “will the laptop become unplugged and switch off without warning” dilemma. That’s always fun – not!! The only good thing about the battery being gone is the fact that the temperature on the wrist rest becomes about 20° cooler.
The heat problems are not trivial. I used to use the laptop on my lap. I rested the laptop on my legs until my legs became so discolored that I couldn’t wear shorts. I think my legs were being cooked by the laptop. I finally bought a chiller and put the whole thing on a lap desk. I got one big enough to allow me to add a mouse because the right button on the touchpad got kind of funky about a year ago, so rather than respond with a touch, it requires more of a massage to do right mouse things. Replacing the touchpad is a major overhaul and it’s not a part you can get from HP. You have to find one from a cannibalized system.
I guess since the laptop is 3 years old, it’s lived its useful life. It has become a friend. It saw me through school. I’ve added memory, a larger hard drive, and the 3 batteries. It has been to Egypt and Israel. Overall, it’s been a a decent machine, but it’s time for a new one.