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Then why don't you cut the one of the item form your traveling inventory? These days decent laptop-cum-tabs are available and having one such device will make it possible for you to get rid of your tab.

Acer and Asus both have very good options. Once thing you need to make sure is that most of the low priced devices have 32 GB memory card where they have Windows OS installed on it. That is too low of space for Windows disk. Just avoid them and try to get one which has larger primary storage capacity along with secondary hard disk. You have very good budget which can fetch a very well speccd proper 2-in-1 device.

Or else a laptop like this should do the job for you: http://www.amazon.in/Asus-F200LA-CT0...=2+in+1+laptop

I purchased an Asus 11.6" for 21390 i3, 4th generation with 4gb RAM and 500gb hdd, in white. It came with dos and I installed win 7. Loved the handiness m. The win 8.1 was about 23k on paytm about a month back. Have a look there

Even I have got the same. I purchased it in jan and I just love it's compact size and low weight. Even put in an ssd for a while. Was blazing fast. Since the price is low, ssd upgrade will be definitely worth it.

Also, the resolution of this is same as some of the 15 inch laptops out there. Text looks good.

Wow what has Microsoft done! So, so much impressed by the Surface Book. I was thinking of moving to the dark side (getting the Macbook pro) but MS has my attention with the Surface Book.

Anybody knows if they will launch it here? I'll buy one if they do and the 950 and that would just be perfect.

I have been using IBM Thinkpad (now Lenovo) X series for over 10 years, and have found them to be excellent for my use - light, fantastic keyboard and excellent battery life. Even better is the IBM service. Bought in India Thinkpad series have International warranty, so you can get them repaired in all major metros around the world.

You are using IBM Thinkpad, not the Lenovo Thinkpad otherwise you wouldn't have said all that. :)

@helmet, since Microsoft has launched the new Surface 4 series, you can consider something from the previous Surface 3 series. Discounted offers may start on it soon.

The last Thinkpad I bought - X60s is after Lenovo tookover. The build and feel is still same.

Where Lenovo is ordinary is in the "Lenovo" brand laptops, but the "Thinkpad" brand still has the old built.

Sorry, no, it doesn't. My Lenovo Thinkpad R500 had a multitude of problems. Screen dead, touchpad issue, all within warranty. Then just after warranty, the motherboard gave up. This, after I thought I had paid for extended warranty - when later I found out it was never added at all - 99$ down the drain. And no laptop to speak of. Everyone in my family and friends circle know how I maintain my stuff, so this really was poor quality.(nothing of good quality dies on me - I just eventually sell or give my stuff away)

R series are the low end made to cost Laptops. It is the X and T series that are built rugged and last a long time. Any way if you had bad experience nothing can be done. With 3 years of warranty, I had a screen change and a disk changed, but after the warranty expired all that I changed were the batteries, they seem to last only two years.

If you want hassle free experience; at a price; get the Apple Laptops with their extra high resolution screens. Both my sons have switched to Apple and are happy with over 4 years of ownership each. The only problem with Apple is that the battery is soldered, so it has to be changed at the Apple Service Centre. As with most electronics, unlike the older IBM Thinkpads, Apple Laptops need to be changed once the extended warranty expires (3/4 years).

Absolutely true, there is nothing to fault a ThinkPad for, also Lenovo after the acquisition of ThinkPad only made them much more affordable whilst having all of the feel of IBM ones. The laptop demands have changed these days to making them lighter and more portable hence far much carbon-fibre/magnesium alloy is used in latest models.

To me the keyboard feel and ruggedness of the laptop is 2nd to none (having used Lenovo SL Series aka R Series and presently T Series). Yes in real world it has all happened, spill of water, slight bumps here n there and an accidental 2 feet fall as well.. not a scratch. People keep comparing Dell, Apple etc to ThinkPads, very honestly this is atleast 2 leagues above if not more. A colleague of mine had to spend 9k odd to change the Macbook trackpad glass because it cracked under normal use.. nuff said. Dells heat up like a stove (most one's I've seen anyway).

Ultimately you get what you pay for. All the higher end mobile workstations have similar specifications and similar build. Similarly lower end Lenovo are as good or as bad as similarly priced offerings from others.

If you want it light, rugged and long battery life then there are only a couple of models to choose from, all of them outrageously expensive.

So,

I was trying to fix my colleague's laptop: A Dell Inspiron N4110, that had been dead for a year due to a faulty HDD.

Bought a new HDD and plonked it into the HDD slot and started installing Windows. Once the initial installation was completed and the computer restarted, the usual type a PC name etc. began. Suddenly here, the laptop turned off and restarted and gave me a "A disk read error occurred" error. I restarted again but to no avail.

I thought I should try installing Windows again. When it reached the stage to choose the partition on which to install the OS, I selected the drive and hit format. It just hung there. No progress. I thought I could format using EaseUS' boot ISO. Again, no use. It hung at the formatting stage. Now, this was a new HDD. I wasn't prepared to let it go so easily.

I disconnected it and hooked it up to my PC, everything worked flawlessly. No issues whatsoever.

So I figure the problem could be a faulty SATA port on the motherboard. But is there any way to change only this part? A new motherboard is fairly expensive. :(

Also, I thought of removing the CD/DVD Drive and using the HDD there with a Caddy. But I would like to think of replacing the SATA port as the primary option.

Any help is welcome. :)

Yes, if only SATA port is gone then its repairable. You will have to find some motherboard repairing guy, there should be few at local computer peripheral market or ask some known computer service guy. Even other traceable faults also can be repaired at much lower cost.

Thanks, tbppjpr.

Are you 100% sure it can be replaced? When I look online for parts, I can barely find any. Then again, SP Road in Bangalore should be able to solve most of my problems IMO.

Any idea how much this should cost? A rough estimate would be mighty helpful. :)

Not sure about cost but expect something like few hundred bucks, most probably withing 1K. One of my cousin got some issue in motherboard and it got fixed locally.

I had some issue in my projector when mini HDMI port got broken. The authorized service station told that whole motherboard needs to be replaced. Got that port fixed locally at around 500/-, though charges seemed higher and port again got broken but thats different story of the design flaw of port placement itself.

Point is these type of things can be fixed. :)