chrisbagnall Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 Good Morning We are looking at purchasing 15 new laptops for staff use this summer Considerng the StoneBook Pro, has anyone purchased any of these laptops and do they have any feedback We purchased the NT-310 laptops a cople of years ago, and had major problems where the screws kept on falling out, and the chasis breaking around the hinges due to poor fixings. It was a full time job having to repair these all the time Dont want to have the same problem again with the plastics.
D_Burling Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 We experienced the same thing with the NT-310s. Stone demoed the Stonebook to us following the issues we had, definitely better design and more robust but I think we'll avoid buying Stone for the time being given the headache the last model caused... 1
FN-GM Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 We have inherited a range of Stone laptops the oldest is from 2014 and the newest is 2018. All of them are junk and we have issues with them falling apart. Some of them are problems similar to yours. I wouldn't have them given to me for free!
chrisbagnall Posted July 9, 2018 Author Posted July 9, 2018 Thanks for the reply FN-GN That's the worry that we have, don't want the same problem, With regards to the 2018 model, what kind of problems do you experience?, are they the ProBook?
EvLPhenom Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 Haven't used Stone for a while due to build issues that were creeping in. Have recently been using Lenovo laptops for Staff and Students. They have been rock solid and haven't had any issues with them.
FN-GM Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 Thanks for the reply FN-GN That's the worry that we have, don't want the same problem, With regards to the 2018 model, what kind of problems do you experience?, are they the ProBook? I will have to check. The Pro thing does ring a bell. We are having similar problems with as the others. Bits of plastic breaking, screws falling out etc.
chrisbagnall Posted July 9, 2018 Author Posted July 9, 2018 exactly the same problem as we have had We have about 30 of the NT310 laptops, and have had problems with the hinge plastics (top keyboard plastics). To date I would say that we have replaced the hinge plastics at least 4 times on each of the 30 laptops! No exaggeration. We have a parts only warranty so it has become a full time job for us replacing all the plastics. The DPD drivers are here every day bring in new parts. Its good to hear that we are not the only school experiencing this issue, as Stone have been in to see us a couple of times, and stated that no one else has this problem regarding plastics. I am just intrigued to see if the plastics have changed/ been redesigned on the later models.
HarryMonkey Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 We've had hinge problems with the NT-310, Stone reckoned we must have had a bad batch because they'd not come across it before ... Hmmmmm, a few porkies going on here methinks.
D_Burling Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 Its good to hear that we are not the only school experiencing this issue, as Stone have been in to see us a couple of times, and stated that no one else has this problem regarding plastics. We were spun that line also. It took longer than it should have for Stone to recognise this was a manufacturing issue after initially refusing to fix it blaming it on accidental damage
CalmBlueOcean Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 Ditto here on the NT310 units from Stone with their ill-fitting screws and weak plastic. Seems like a far more common issue than they would have had you believe! I suspect country wide that exact issue must have lost them a lot of business. We moved over to Toshiba and Lenovo instead. No complaints on that front.
maark Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 HP probook 440s have been pretty good here. Surface Pros have been more problematic with a few going back to microsoft with different issues and they also tend to fall off science benches and be smashed beyond repair.
christhetech Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 I'd probably be more inclined to go for HP ProBooks or Lenovos tbh. I've not had too much experience of Stone, but there are some of my peers who swear by them. I just know that the few machines that I've had off them in the past are best described as ok, but nothing special. I can PM you a contact at a really decent HP reseller if you need one.
TechieWils Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 I've not used Stone for a couple of years since moving out of education but the NT-310's and I think it was the NT-300 (or whatever the previous model was) I had loads of problems with screws falling out. luckily the staff were quite vigilant and let me know so I had a few bags sent from Stone do my self. The main issue I had was the AC adapter, something would blow on the main board that caused it to stop charging. Apparently it was a bad batch of solder on them. Then the fans would die on others. Out of 110 laptops I had about 30 - 40 that needed a new fan or mainboard within two years.
yac2016 Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 Personally stick with Dell or HP hardware these days.
SJA Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 We've had hinge problems with the NT-310, Stone reckoned we must have had a bad batch because they'd not come across it before ... Hmmmmm, a few porkies going on here methinks. Yes, we had the same problem. My complaint went to director level and they denied any knowledge. We have wasted so much money replacing these before their time. Further to this, almost all our Stone desktops have developed fan issues which required replacing. They are on our avoid list.
Edu-IT Posted July 9, 2018 Posted July 9, 2018 We had the screw problem too. Stone regularly came out to repair where chassis wouldn’t tighten.
southhamster Posted July 10, 2018 Posted July 10, 2018 We have both NT310 and the newer Pro P10A for staff laptops. So glad we bought onsite warranty as we've certainly needed it! They are generally ok, but lose the case screws all the time. If they would only use a decent loctite screwlock thread glue (including when repairing), maybe this wouldn't happen and maybe tighter tolerances on the screws and fittings. We've bought some threadlock and will be experimenting to see if it helps. To a certain extent I think many laptops now have now got so thin and light that they are just not robust enough for less than perfect use. I also think smaller screens are better - less flexible. Once the Stones are out of warranty we'll be looking at something else; maybe even better quality second hand HP's or Dells.
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