Technical Support Information

Getting technical support for a used laptop can be a problem.  The different manufacturers have different policies regarding the technical support that they offer.  Below I have given some basic guidelines and opinions regarding the quality and ease of technical support from the major manufacturers.

Dell

In order to take advantage of Dell technical support you will need to know the previous owners name and address in order to transfer ownership.  This information may not be available.  However that is not to say that they have quality tech support.  It all depends on who you get on the phone.  They outsource their phone support out of country.  Good luck finding an English speaking technician. 

Online support
You are required to create an user name and password account (its free)

IBM

IBM seems to be the easiest to work with.  I have found that the techs speak English quite well.  The warranty is easily transferred to the new owner.  You can even get restore disks cheap.

Online support
no account required

Hewlett Packard/Compaq

HP has a rather nice site.  I have not had to use their tech support so I am not sure how good they are. However their website is quite informative and has supplied all the info that I have needed to get the job done.

Online Support

All that I can say is do not rely too heavily on the manufacturer for software type issues.  These guys are really good at the basic hardware issues and can usually get the problem diagnosed and solved fast.