SCI offers option to trade in faulty 2000-01 laptops

To appease disgruntled student owners of the problem-ridden IBM 1400-series laptops bought through the 2000-2001 Student Computing Initiative, the University has partnered with IBM to offer new laptops to the 631 students who bought the model.

In an email to current owners announcing the offer, program director Luke Bodenstein an-announced the upgrade will cost $1,000 and require that students trade in their old machines.

Thirty students have signed up for the offer since the email was sent last Friday, said Bodenstein, who expects 100 students to take part.

Bodenstein said a goal is to get the faulty systems off campus, as they have been a burden to the OIT Helpdesk and Hardware Support.

The 1400-series laptops have, "caused me many a sleepless night," Bodenstein said of all the complaints he has received. "I hope a ton of people take advantage of [the offer]. It will make things better for all involved."

Junior class senator Brad Flora '04 led the USG investigation into the reliability of the 1400-series laptops.

"The USG put some pressure on SCI, and SCI put some pressure on IBM," he said, "and IBM has responded to the students."

Since the email went out, Flora has received feedback from several juniors. Though some wished more could have been done, others were satisfied, one going as far as to "write 'thank you' 100 times in an email," Flora said.

This marks the second time OIT has tried to fix problems with SCI laptops this month. The first came two weekends ago when OIT offered free hard drive replacements to 300 students who had purchased laptops with potentially faulty devices through the SCI in 2001-2002.

The T-30 offered as a replacement is essentially the same computer sold to freshmen through this year's SCI program. It is almost four times more powerful than the computers they will replace.

Bodenstein was confident the T-30s would be more than adequate to last students through their remaining time at the University.

Through a combination of negotiations, group rates, trade-in value and University subsidies, the upgrade is being offered at $1000 — less than half the retail price.

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The University could negotiate IBM down from manufacturing costs after the company was made aware of the volume of student complaints stemming from the model, said Bodenstein.

While IBM didn't think its machines were faulty, its representatives agreed the problems students were experiencing were undeniable, Bodenstein said.

"They were very, very cooperative as soon as I alerted them to the gravity of the issue," he said. "Every single resource available was at our disposal, [including] conference calls with them that included executives way up the ladder."

By offering this system at the discounted price, IBM is "taking an enormous loss from a profit loss standpoint," he added.

The 1400-series laptops — sold mostly to members of the Class of 2004 — have been plagued with problems, some of which began right out of the box. Ranging from power supplies to pointing devices, few parts of the 1400 series have been faultless.

Those consumers affected have until Feb. 25 to take advantage of the offer on the SCI website.

OIT staff and IBM representatives will be on hand at the Frist Campus Center during the weekend of March 8 to help students transfer data from their old computers to the new ones.

"For me," Flora said, "I've been on the senate for two and a half years and this was easily the most fun, must successful and most rewarding thing I've done."