[Arm-netbook] The opposite of the EOMA-68 laptop

[Christopher Havel]

...actually, somewhat more on topic. You want a laptop that's a real PITA
to get into? Try the HP Compaq tc4200 and tc4400. Mom's had both. Ugly,
slow, bothersome, nasty machines. There may be others with the same chassis
and its fatal flaw... I dunno. I hope not!

They wouldn't be so bad if they weren't "convertibles" as I call them --
they have a single doofy swivel hinge thing for the lid that lets them
become a nasty bulky tablet instead of a nasty bulky laptop. The problem
isn't the hinge itself, *per se* -- but rather in its implementation and
how the whole thing goes together. The WiFi card and half of the RAM is
under the keyboard, and to get under that keyboard, you have to pull up the
power button bezel...

...which inevitably breaks in half right around that freaking hinge,
because that's basically how it's made. There is no other way into the
system as far as I've been able to figure out. You can't get the hinge out
of the way till the bezel (and keyboard, IIRC) are out -- the connection
for the LCD cable is under there somewhere. Forget it. You have to damage
the freaking thing to get it open.

I just put electrical tape over the broken bezel to hold it together... but
my god, a laptop where you have to literally break the casework to get into
the dang thing, geez louise. (If you can't tell, I'm trying REALLY HARD not
to swear here. I could paint this email bright blue with four-letter words
on that particular chassis' point of idiocy, but I'm in polite company, so
I'm trying to restrain myself.)

As Luke Skywalker said upon meeting the Millennium Falcon -- "What a piece
of junk!" Alas, the Millennium Falcon is a far superior machine... and I
say that as a Trekkie ;)

I guess the upshot is that it's not a "nurse, get my scalpel" iMac... ;)
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