Dell Inspiron 4000 PC Notebook

Pros: Dell, seems to be a well-made laptop
Cons: May only be sold refurbished, touchpad is rather delicate, battery and speakers are weak.

(NOTE: This is my first review for this category. Unfortunately I'm not very technically oriented and I couldn't find the technical specs for this computer online due to it being no longer offered by Dell. I will happily adjust this review if reviewers ...

Pros: DVD drive worked well. Screen was clear.
Cons: Burned out after barely more than two years of service. Completely useless.

I signed up for epinions specifically to tell you that this computer, two years old and rarely used, just burned out its motherboard. I spent an age on hold at Dell customer service and then the tech had me take the whole thing apart myself and then said it needed a new motherboard and that for the money the repair would cost ($699-799) I should just buy a new computer. I hate living in a throwaway society.

Pros: Reliable, good keyboard, quiet.
Cons: Slow when trying to run multiple applications.

I use this notebook at work, and thus I have multiple business applications that need to be running all day.

This computer can be very slow and annoying to use when trying to run multiple applications. The keyboard lettering has faded out, and thus for someone who has not memorized their keys... this could be a problem.

If you only need a laptop for basic business use, and only plan to run Word & Excel, this would be a great laptop that you can probably buy cheap. However, if you plan on running any advanced applications, I would highly recommend spending the extra money to get something faster and more appropriate for your needs.

Overall, great laptop that's reliable.. however with all the advances in technology, this is practically extinct.

Pros: Reliable. Can replace many parts yourself.
Cons: Dell's poor battery. Many owners report the touchpad as unreliable.

I've had the laptop for 5 years and it has been very reliable. I've had to replace the cooling fan (common failure), and the touchpad, just recently. Got parts off ebay very cheaply. I use the computer pretty heavily and travel with it two weeks out of the month, so it's not babied. The battery was replaced with an after market 4400ma generic and that runs the machine for at least 4 hours (unless you running a DVD). Care should be taken to condition the battery and to not recharge it from a partial discharge very often. I upgraded the hard drive from the measely 10gb OEM drive with a 40gb off ebay. No problems there. Even though the machine is only 850mhz, it plays DVDs just fine and gives good performance on the internet. Some owners have reported problems with the keypads, but mine has gone 5 years without problems.