Broken laptops suck :-/
My Netbook (10.1" N270@1.6GHz, 512/1024MB RAM, 160gb HDD) is falling apart now.
Third (cheap) battery, third power adapter, remapped 5 keys as the top row is not working anymore, tape on the trackpad button, the letters have vanished from some keys due to heavy use; Solvent from working with plastic models has left stains on the thing; Scratches, dents...
And just now the key "A" stopped working more or less (contact issue), some other letters have broken plastic holders.
It's also annoyingly slow despite recently upgrading and optimizing start-up Youtube-Videos barely play on the old single core device, upgrading it to 1GB Ram did not help much. . .
I guess I'm going to upgrade. Fun 6 years! Super long run-times, and despite slow, I got lot done on it. A whole magazine layout, 60 megapixel posters, close to 300 x 3D models with most of them on Thingiverse, Video editing.... And a lot of cursing due to the slow machine
I hate spending money on something I "don't need", but even I have ordered a $10 keyboard module it seems too much of n hassle. Disassembling, back-up, finally switching from XP to Windows 7 or 8, and possibly replace the battery again seems more of a hassle then it's worth anymore
I would probably spend a whole Sunday on this.
Now I also have a feel of guilt as I also wanted to order (or get it as birthday gift from my SO) the Gamebuino, but the other spend has priority. Meh. Money is a stupid concept.
Now I am just not sure what to get.
-A refurbished €140 Netbook (10" N2600/1GB/320GB) perhaps, but I would probably end up having to buy a new €30 battery right away;
-A new 220-250€ Netbook (which my SO has) would be the most obvious replacement, but I really dislike the touchpad (which would be bad as I do 2D/3D graphics with it), and the other choices in this price range have a much lower battery life or just an SSD;
-Then there's the Acer Aspire E3 for €298 which is more then I am comfortable with for a "spontaneous" purchase, plus with the extra weight and size I can't just slip it into my backpack as easily (Though I do have a cheap Dell Venue Pro Windows tablet which I got for Christmas two years ago, so I guess I still have something portable).