Bad news

Dell are making waterproof laptops? Is a laptop what you really need? Laptops are not the best for video editing, and when you have problems like these, it's never a simple matter of swapping out or reaseating a card.

that part sort of caught my eye.....did you drop it at any time, or was that purely hypothetical?

also, if you've not sent it back yet, madmonkey had an excellent suggestion in plugging it into an external monitor and seeing what happens.

Of course, if you can't even get into windows, that sort of makes it a moot point, at best.

He he yeah, my Dell laptop seemed to be waterproof! I was very tired and knocked a pint glass of water down the keyboard, thankfully on the side that was above the battery rather than any other components. This was followed by an hillarious (in retrospect) panic as I opened up the laptop and propped it on its side next to our fire to try and dry it out - and it has worked fine since!

And yeah, I know laptops aren't ideal for video editing but I don't have room for a desktop in my tiny flat; plus I do quite a lot of work away from home so I need something that's portable. My old Dell (XP, 3GHz Pentium IV, Radeon 9700 graphics) was fine for video editing - just needed a big external HDD to hold all the data. My new Sony (Vista, 1.8GHz Duo, 8-series NVIDIA graphics) should be fine too, as I've gone out and bought another, even bigger external HDD. It is frustrating not being able to get into the machine myself without a struggle, but on balance it's the best option for me.

For the record, I called Sony today at around 12pm, and within two hours they have arranged to collect the laptop from a friend's house (I am away for a week from tonight) and reckon it should be back with me, repaired, within five working days. They have been excellent.

Good point valis - but yes, I was being entirely hypothetical and the laptop wasn't dropped at any point.

Unfortunately I don't have an external monitor here at the moment, and since there seem to be further problems with the machine - e.g., Windows refusing to boot, or so it seems, it seemed best just to send it back - especially since Sony are being so efficient about this (see my other post) and the laptop's well within it's one year warranty (i.e., it has 11 months and three weeks left!!).

just checking; was curious more than anything.....returning you to the entirely capable hands of mr. madmonkey now....

lol

[quote=Jim0203]And yeah, I know laptops aren't ideal for video editing but I don't have room for a desktop in my tiny flat; plus I do quite a lot of work away from home so I need something that's portable. My old Dell (XP, 3GHz Pentium IV, Radeon 9700 graphics) was fine for video editing - just needed a big external HDD to hold all the data. My new Sony (Vista, 1.8GHz Duo, 8-series NVIDIA graphics) should be fine too, as I've gone out and bought another, even bigger external HDD. It is frustrating not being able to get into the machine myself without a struggle, but on balance it's the best option for me.[quote]

Fair one. I've not had any dealing with Sony support. They are a good company so I was quite suprised when you were originally talking weeks. Dell and HP are the same during the warranty period of any laptop or device, they are normally out the next day. At least you'll be sure to have a nice working laptop in the next week or so, but be sure to come back and let us know that everything went OK, and if you are able to install Windows without any further issues?

I was getting the figure of four weeks from the Laptops Direct website, so was very pleased when Sony told me it should only take a few days. I'm guessing it will come back to me with Windows installed as it was when I first got it, but I'll make sure to come back and let you know!

Only complaint so far is that Sony originally told me I would only need to give the laptop over to DHL; I then got an email from DHL telling me to print out a couple of bits of paper and give them to their courier. Not a huge problem in itself, but I'm away for the next week so had left the laptop for collection with a friend over on the other side of Edinburgh. I emailed the DHL forms to her but she doesn't have a printer, so I had to trip out their again! Hopefully all is sorted now...