Hello everyone!
I was walking through downtown Toronto today and I came across an electronics store that had some 48GXs and 17BIIs for sale (they were all in boxes, no blister packs, so I knew they were older units).
There was one 17BII left; it was Indonesian from 1998 and I found the keys to be extremely loose...nothing like the older Pioneers...I guess when production moved to Indonesia, HP decided to cut the production costs even further by reducing their quality thresholds...
Anyhow, I put the 17 back and grabbed a couple of the 48s. After about 30 minutes of playing, I caved in and bought one. I could have bought one on eBay, but by the time I add shipping, duty and the exchange rate it's usually the same price as buying one here.
I played with a couple of the 48s he had there and they all did something interesting when I turned them on; for a split second after pressing the ON key, every pixel fires except for a vertical line about 5 pixels in from the right hand side. The whole thing lasts for less than a second.
Once that's done, everything seems OK; the pixels that didn't fire during startup appear to work just fine.
I didn't check all of the units, but I do remember another one doing this...is it normal?
Thanks!
B.
P.S. Once production of the 48 ceased in Singapore, where did it move to? Indonesia or China? How do the new ones compare to the older ones? I know the newer black screen is nicer, but what about the keyboard feel?