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After spending some time on the net looking for a little support and reflecting on my experience with a SOTEC 820P compared to posts I have been reading, I am a little compelled to post a blog dealing with my ailing laptop.

I purchased my Sotec 820P nearly three years ago for 899.00 @ Sams Club. The notebook does not measure up to my Thinkpad or Toshiba (Tecra/Sattellite Pro) exposure. It was a gamble based on musings that the laptop playing field had pretty much leveled off. Pretty much I had been noticing IBM, HP, Toshiba and the others building machines with like components and configurations at prices within a few bills of one another. I figured the Sotec 820 would probably compare to the lower spec name brand notebooks… but it had a faster processer than competitors. (2.0Ghz compared to 1.6Ghz in the others compared)

I also had found that the Sams Club purchasers did a fair job of getting decent product in their stores for the club members. (Though I feel Costco is far superior in products and support for them) I needed a laptop quickly for some work Jodi would be doing from home and I took the Sotec plunge.

My bar was set too high with Thinkpad and Tecra experience… but overall the Sotec performed better than I could have expected.

As a review I will brain dump what I’ve done/observed with my SOTEC 820P

• Soon after the purchase I bought and installed Windows 2000 Pro and found all necessary drivers at the sotec site. This change was based on my personal preference of a Microsoft Professional Workstation over the home system codebase. XP Pro hadn’t been out long and I didn’t like the additional horsepower it required above 2000 Pro.



• Running a Domino Web server on the laptop was problematic with occasional blue screen crashes related to unknown things happening after the computer had set idle for many hours. I shut off all sleep options and still had the problem. No big deal for me since the SOTEC CPU was twice the speed of my Satellite Pro and afforded me firewire for my home video projects.



• I didn’t need any support from SOTEC until after my 13th month of ownership. After a critical discharge due to the fact I had turned off the power down option linked to closing the screen I was unable to boot the computer. With the guidance of Avaratec Support I was able to boot by removing the battery and booting with the power engaged. Internet searches revealed a common flaw linked to poor engineering which causes the CMOS battery to die prematurely compared to any other laptop I have ever used. Even though the CMOS battery dies once a year, it is very simple to replace at about 4 bucks each.



• The CDRW drive has been flawless and if the HDD dies as I type I have gotten my money out of it.



• Nearly 3 years using the computer 10 - 30 hours a week with Java development(including ECLIPSE), Lotus Notes development, Many graphics programs, and lots of one-off utilities have given no problems.



• Today the battery has died. Only Averatec sold the battery previously and they have now dropped support and accessory sales is pretty much gone for my model. (www.sotecglobal.com is even gone) This laptop is close to worthless if it won’t travel, so I will lie this old hulk to rest … mind you it will take time to save, shop, and move into a new laptop.



• I see a lot of people flame SOTEC’s support and the poor quality of computers they make, but I know the company made more machines than are represented by a couple dozen flamers posting on the internet. As a matter of fact most buyers could be sitting similar seats to mine, feeling they got a fair product at a fair price with a few nuisances that did not outweigh their decision to purchase the product.

I don’t know that I will purchase another Sotec/Avaratec laptop because they truly are just very cheap and clunky machines compared to IBM/Toshiba business class computers. (Which I prefer since I make a portion of my living on a laptop)

…But then again Sotec never marketed the business class user.

Well, that’s all I have to say about that. rich