to crack or not to crack that is the question . . .

[FRIENDinDEED]

ok this tale involves a 15 year old who is soon to become 16 (girl), sonot only do i need and expert opinion but from a parents point of view if at all possible. im the stepdad and normally i dont get involved with certain things that happen because they normally involve my wife or my stepdaughters dad.

this is a school issued laptop, a thinkpad, cost around 2k. she comes home after school today and the sob story starts " mom, i dont know what happened, i opened the laptop and the screen was cracked, it was fine the period before, we were taking a quiz and i put it on the desk behind me and when i opened it again it was cracked"

now, wife and i are both thinking/calling bullshit BUT stepdaughter swears up and down that, that is what happened. she tends to lie, as with any dumb kid, they think that no one will know and they can get away with it (i know for fact cause i have a 15yr old boy and 16yr old girl that do the same dumbshit and i call them a whoooole lot worse although we have an understanding that they never abide by).

so my question to the community and the experts, are some laptops so cheap that with the slightest touch the screen cracks?

with this one, everything is left to question because although she was TOLD to NOT leave the personal laptop by her bedside like her mother does, she did it anyway; stepped on it, cracked the screen and came cryin like a puppy dog, i like it though cause my wife is not a "coddler", still a couple of things that i dont agree with but by far not a coddler so its not so far fetched that the school laptop receives the same treatment at some point in time

first off we pretty much know that she either dropped it or stepped on it somehow, but in the off chance that she may be right (and mind you i think it is a veery off chance)i just want to know how likely that it could be that the possibility of a fly taking a shit on a laptop screen can crack it.

i call bullshit cause years ago i used to build pc's for fun, before it was heard of or the parts were easy to get, a barebones kit would normally get me giddy like school girl, so i know my way around a computer, not to keen on the programming end of things but i can build em with the best of em, so know that its just not that easy to break this thing BUT i could be wrong since i havent been on the pc scene in a while

these days i just let dell do all the work, not big on use anyway. keep some pics, vids, d/l the occasional torrent or two, and mess around on ic.

so gang, what could it be that is afowl about this quandary?

 

[Oldmans_Herbs]

hey there.. i have an Acer that i have replaced the screen in 2 times, very very easy to break.. but in my opinion, (i have raised 6 kids to adulthood 4 boys 2 girls.) you should always believe the girl as hard as it is sometimes to do so and take your medicine if she is right and point out the facts if she is indeed full of poo.. either way you need to back her each time.. peace, Herb...

 

[FRIENDinDEED]

hey there.. i have an Acer that i have replaced the screen in 2 times, very very easy to break.. but in my opinion, (i have raised 6 kids to adulthood 4 boys 2 girls.) you should always believe the girl as hard as it is sometimes to do so and take your medicine if she is right and point out the facts if she is indeed full of poo.. either way you need to back her each time.. peace, Herb...

i hear you but . . . uuuuugh!!! cant do it. general rule (with me anyway) is if you tell the truth about something the punishment wont be as bad as if you were to tell a lie about it. for me, as a parent, i cant any more fair than that.

i set this up so that they could get a fair shake and, its a shitty thing that people get crucified in our society for making a simple mistake. i dont wanna raise them that way, but too many, way too many times they have come up short especially about shit they couldnt control if they wanted to. if you knew it was out of your control to begin with then why lie about it?

ive put that rule into practice time and time again. your gonna make mistakes, and at times your gonna do dumb shit (These are my kids so i knoooow they are gonna do dumbshit) and my stepdaughter is a risk taker like her mom so she is gonna do her fair share of dumb shit along the way as well. lol, matter of fact since they have been soming for visitation my wife and i know affectionately refer to our 3 kids as "the three stooges" at times "the three amigos".

my wife and i balance each other out though, at times i get too out of it and she does as well, when we see the other thinks one of the kids should hang high, we kinda reel each other back talking behind closed doors (cant let the enemy see dissension within the ranks).

now that you mention it, i didnt get a chance to see the make of it so i gotta check that out, it kinda looks slapped together, but im thinking if they are charging parents 2k for these things then by no measure should they be cheap

thanks for the advice though.

 

[SeaMaiden]

A few years ago we were visiting my stepson and his wife, and we discovered that the laptop we helped him purchase had the screen pretty badly cracked. He's an adult, mind you. He lied and told us some story, and then his (now ex) wife took me aside and told me that one night he was hella drunk with some friends and somehow ended up SHOOTING the laptop with a .22.

I have a 22yo son who also lies like a dog. Wait a minute, dogs are honest.

If she were my daughter/stepdaughter, I, too, would be highly incredulous. And if she doth protest loudly I would remind her that were it not for the propensity to be so lax with the truth, she might have better luck convincing me of her innocence.

 

[Secrecy]

Re: to crack or not to crack that is the question . . .

I've come to the conclusion that I will never buy my teen a $2000 lappy.

 

[LoSwaga]

uh...

#1 - a $2k laptop is way past overkill for any student, unless they're a graphic design major or similar...for less than $500 brand new you can purchase a laptop that is MORE than fast enough for just about anything any student could need it for...except for maybe games, but that should be a non-issue if it's a SCHOOL laptop. I know you didn't buy it for her (you said it was school-issued), but the school that is handing out those laptops is spending way too much for no reason. that aside...

#2- sounds like she's full of shit. I've seen plenty of cracked screens with laptops of all sorts (mostly Dells, oddly enough) and I can't say that there has been a single example where the screen was not cracked as a result of negligence or poor care by the owner.

All that said, a screen for most laptops is less than $100, although it can be a real PITA to put in. For $200 or less you can find somebody local (or online) who will replace the screen for you and guarantee their work.

 

[soulfly22583]

I have worked with lenovo products for the last 3 years in a school setting and can say the laptops (even the small netbooks) have pretty damn durable screens.

With that said - I could see that if she did turn around and place the laptop on a desk behind her and didnt pay attention another student could have dropped a backpack directly on the screen and that would probably get you a cracked screen. Ive seen this exact type of thing happen with a teacher - she had her laptop on her desk and dropped her backpack (with a couple of text books and another laptop) on top of it like it was nothing. The screen cracked across the top right corner.


Just my .02 on the technical side of it.

 

[Kitana]

Just had a repair on a lappy myself . I sent it to Ohio to a place called UCR. They are cheap and offer parts/services.U can buy parts used or new. United Computer Repair

http://www.ucrnet.com/

 

[TheGreenBastard]

What kind of school makes you 1) pay for a laptop, 2) pay for a laptop more than $500.

A student needs nothing more than a netbook, a lot are using chromebooks which are ~$400. If that computer is anything less than a multi-core with dedicated graphics and several gigs of ram that school is scamming people. The only thing that would justify that cost is if it was loaded with software that your paying for.

They should be loaning the PC's out with a deposit at most, schools have budgets for a reason.