I’ve been running Fedora on an XPS 15 7590 for several years now, but just recently the ssd started being not found at boot. While I’m trying to get it working again I just don’t trust it any more so I’m currently looking over my options. I’ll add some more details of the situation in the spoiler below.
ssd issue details
The ssd appears to have died overnight after I believe the laptop overheated. While it is not recognized during boot no matter what I have tried it does show up when I boot to a live usb after I switched the bios settings to ahci from raid which it was apparently on by default.
Oddly, testdisk and other diagnostics that I’ve been able to run claim it is in perfect health. I am thus currently uncertain if the issue is in fact with the ssd or if it is somewhere along the line in the connection to the ssd. This is relevant because it would make replacing the ssd pointless, but I don’t know how to troubleshoot any further to figure it out at this point. Advice would be welcome on this front too.
My questions are:
a) Is it more sensible to simply buy a replacement ssd and hope that solves the problem despite the worries/doubts I have expressed in the above details, or do I accept that computer prices are never coming down again and I might as well suck it up and buy a new laptop now since they’re only ever going to get more expensive.
b) If I am to buy a new laptop now, what should that be? My budget is relatively tight at the moment, but a laptop is a valuable tool that will get much use and is worth investing in. I use one mostly for basic web dev work and light gaming, and media consumption. I have been looking primarily at Framework and System76 options but am open to other suggestion if people have them. I’ll add more details on my thoughts below.
laptop thoughts details
Framework: I understand that the ceo has gotten some flak and that they have given funding to some projects led by unpleasant people. I don’t like that, but I find myself doubtful that any other major laptop companies hands are all that more clean and I’ve got to buy from somewhere. I do also quite like their modularity and upgradability/reparability which could help me avoid a situation like this in the future.
System76: I like what I know of them and even if they aren’t necessarily the most price competitive I do respect that they’ve been a player in pushing linux hardware for some time now and I wouldn’t mind rewarding that. I’m not that interested in PopOS though.
Tuxedo Computer: I also like what I know of them (little as that is) but the shipping from Germany to Canada is killer. That said, I haven’t looked into the current import fees from the states with the ongoing trade bullshit so maybe it comes out in the wash a bit more than I think.
Dell XPS: While it’s done well by me for the most part there are a few gripes I’ve had with my current laptop and I’m not sure if I want to go back to that same well.
Thinkpads: So many damn models I’m a bit lost. I know some people love them though.
That’s all I’ve got in mind but I’d love to hear about any other options people know about that I should consider.
Thanks for any advice!
If you do end up replacing the whole laptop, oddly enough I happened to be looking into the same thing today. Two sources not in your list that you might want to consider: Starlabs and Purism.
I don’t wanna go Framework because of the aforementioned CEO shenanigans. Both System76 and Tuxedo are ultimately selling priced-up rebranded Clevo laptops, for better or worse. Both Starlabs and Purism, I believe, custom manufacture theirs like Framework does. I’m leaning Starlabs because I need something that can run at least some games, and it seemed the better contender there