[Discuss] EOMA68 Computer

[bogstad at pobox.com (Bill Bogstad)]

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 8:42 PM, Rich Pieri <richard.pieri at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/20/2016 3:26 PM, Steve Litt wrote:
>> Also, the computers of 2000-2008 were much more robust than today's
>> thin, light, cut glass ornaments that pass for laptops. I bought two
>
> Certainly, most of what's out there is pretty flimsy but it has nothing
> to do with being thin and sleek. It's the BGA (ball grid array) surface
> mountings which has replaced PGA (pin grid array) in consumer
> electronics. BGA is crap. It has a lot of mechanical problems which make
> it significantly less durable and much harder to inspect for defects
> than PGA mountings. Even something that looks like it can take a beating
> probably can't due to the BGA mountings. Main board gets flexed? Dead
> computer.

Actually everything is worse.   I bought a $300 special for occasional
use with Windows two years ago and the keyboard gave out after a year.
Amazingly, I was able to order a compatible replacement from China;
but the touchpad stopped working shortly after I installed the
keyboard.  Although, I could have used it with an external mouse; I
ended up retiring it from even that use.   I booted it up yesterday to
get my "free" Windows 10 license and the touchpad is working again.
I'm glad that I'm not depending on it for my day to day computing.

Bill Bogstad

>
> --
> Rich P.
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