You can easily learn those things yourself.
Some stores, like Best Buy, even give you your money back in store credit for a new laptop if they can’t fix your old one.īut software warranties that cover antivirus scans and backups aren’t necessary. I say get a physical plan that protects you from spills, drops, and stealing, especially if you’re going to be carrying your laptop around campus. Check the computer protection plans from your store to see if they’re right for you. But manufacturer warranties don’t cover drops, spills, stealings. Most, if not all, laptops come with a manufacturer’s warranty that says they’ll repair your computer if a part is found defective. I hope it helps you make a more informed decision. I’ve compiled all the advice I’ve ever given on computer purchasing below. I’ve gotten a lot of questions from MIT parents about which laptops are good for their kids. I’m now typing from my brand new Lenovo Yoga 2 which is twice as good as my old laptop and only cost me $100 on top of my store credit. So instead they gave me store credit to buy a new laptop. They gave me an estimated repair time of two weeks.įive weeks later, I get a phone call from them saying that one of the parts needed for the repair is no longer being sold. I had a warranty on it that was close to expiring so I took it to Geek Squad at the beginning of July. This happens when you consistently leave your screen on one image for too long. It served me well until this year when my laptop started getting burned in pixels, leaving ghost images on my screen. I bought a new Lenovo Yoga 11s for $800 and it was as good as the MIT IS&T recommended computers but half the cost. I also started my own computer repair business at home to raise money for college.Ĭhoosing a laptop for college was easy because I knew more about computer specifications than just “bigger numbers means better computer”. Our school ran out of vouchers to take these exams so I never got certified but I did learn a lot and worked as a computer technician for my school’s technology department senior year.
There I took computer repair classes to prepare for the CompTIA A+ certfication exam and network management classes for Cisco CCENT certifications. I went to a vocational high school to study information technology. As scary as it was almost breaking our very important computer, I enjoyed fixing it and continued to mess around with it. After three days at the mercy of How-To Geek and Super User, I finally fixed it.
In middle school I tried setting up a dual boot between Windows XP and Ubuntu but I messed it up and corrupted my Windows installation and left myself without a bootloader.
I’ve been breaking computers from a young age.