Anyone using the lojack stuff on an M1530?

The day I ordered my M1530, the special that was running included two years of the Lojack service. I'd probably never had purchased this on my own, but heck, it's on its way.

I understand that the M1530's BIOS is compatible with Lojack, meaning that even with a drive format or disk swap, Lojack quietly comes back. Nice, but it would also seem tough to get rid of if it causes trouble. So I guess my question is...(limitations of the effectiveness of the software aside) has anyone had a BAD experience with having the Lojack software installed? Conflicts? System instability? Resource hog?

It's free, so if it's just ineffective, no big deal. But if it's actually troublsome, that's another story. Anyone using it?

 

I"m interested in seeing how many folks installed this as well. The 2 year lojack was an automatic part of my package as well. I have yet to install it because I'm not to crazy about this thing reporting my whereabouts 1'nce a day.

I never saw anything about it installing itself in the bios. I read that it installs itself as a unidentifiable service and can be removed by the user (you) or if you know which service to stop. Or by reformatting.
teslas

 

It's my understanding that if a laptop has a "lojack compatible" BIOS (which apparently the M1530 does) then Lojack somehow installs something there (in some non-volitle part) so that if the drive is formatted or even swapped out, then Lojack actually reinstalls itself on the fresh drive. Pretty neat actually, since the first thing a thief would probably do is wipe the drive.

I read on another form where a guy tried this...formatted his drive and reinstalled the OS and did nothing else, and in a day Lojack was back phoning home. Eerie.

Still, I'd like to know if anyone has had issues with it. I wouldn't want to have to go to the trouble of struggling to get rid of it if it stinks.

 

http://www.absolute.com/partners/dell.asp

 

It's not troublesome because it's not really there in your OS. It's not something like a virus protection program that hides quietly in the background, this runs even deeper and more quietly. Don't mess with it. Have you seen the news lately? Thieves are being caught everywhere thanks to it. It'll only cause a problem if you stupidly try to remove it, which requires a butt load of work to achieve or so I've read. Also, it doesn't "tell of your whereabouts" like a hidden camera or anything, it only will if you want it to i.e. if it is stolen, you call LoJack and then it will be activated to report it's position.

 

I usually don't like any sort of program that records my whereabouts either, but the idea of having some sort of protection against someone jacking my laptop at college seems great to me.

 

Does it hog any system resources? Anyone know?
I got it free too with my 1530 but havent installed it yet.

 

I got with my 1530, installed it...activated it, and forgot all about it.

I have no system issues with it. If, I ever need to use it in the future (hoping not) ~ hopefully it will be of use to me.

 

OK, sounds as if it might be a worthy install. I was skeptical about how responsive law enforcement would be to something as trivial as a stolen laptop, but the Lojack guys make the case that it's an easy bust for the cops, and that they do it because it often leads to larger things...ie, bust a guy for stealing a laptop and uncover drugs and other serious stuff. The laptop gives them an excuse to go searching.

Who knows if that's really true, but what the heck, if the software doesn't cause any trouble then why not?

Hey IUHoosiers...ever post on Peegs?

 

So we bought Lo-Jack on some of our Laptops we just bought for work (Audio/Visual Staging and Rental, so we rent out laptops alot, and they don't always come back). Anyways, we have yet to use it. But make sure you read the fine print. At least on the boxed versions, not sure how it works from Dell. But if they cannot find your laptop, you know what you get back? The cost of the Lo-Jack software. Not the monthly/yearly fee you pay. But the cost for the boxed software, generally $30.00. It's laughable. I mean, they could not find any laptops, ever. And still make a huge profit.

 

There's a monthly/yearly fee? Mine was offered in a package with CompleteCare... I installed it and don't recall it. (Maybe a terrible pun of "set it and forget it"?) But it hasn't affected my system at all, and even though you only get the price of the software back, if it came with the laptop you might as well use it.

 

Yeah, not exactly generous. But I guess since I'm not paying for it (for two years anyway) it doesn't really matter.

 

Yes there is a monthly/yearly fee. Maybe it is just yearly? I think it is like $15.00 a year or something small like that. But again, this could be different with Lo-Jacks deal with Dell.

 

I have it installed and it has no effect on system performance. You won't even know it's there. But I believe the product sold through Dell only guarantees a refund of the purchase price of the software as opposed to reimbursement of the value of the unrecovered computer. (At least I think this is the case. The contract language provided by Lojack is harder to read than the U.S. tax code.)

 

Yeah, when I ordered my notebook on 5/12 (XPS Sale Monday...LOL) two years of Lojack was thrown in as part of the deal. Per their web site, it's normally $49.99 per year, or $99.99 for three years.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I paid $50.00 USD for 2 years CompleteCare and 2 years LoJack package.

 

I got 3 years free of LoJack with 3 free years of accidental coverage with dell

 

I just recnetly purchased lojack for my M1330 and got a nice deal... for about 27 dollars shipped i got 4 years of coverage with lojack. I installed it and have formatted twice since then (once was a zero fill that took a few hours to complete) and it is still reporting my where abouts. Very nice idea if you ask me, the second i installed the software the website showed all the info about my computer, the service tag, and the make and model. As far as i read if lojack doesnt recover your laptop within 2 weeks or something like that they reimburse u the money u spent on the laptop (during the install it told me to print out receipts for the laptop and the lojack service incase i ever needed it). IMO completely worth it, i have yet to even see a process that looks related to lojack running on the laptop and yet it still reports to the site every day im using it.

 

oh yeah i also upgraded from bios A09 to bios A10 and it still didnt affect lojack.

 

I had never heard of Lojack before reading this topic. I'll be living on a student apartment next year and this might be useful to have on my XPS M1530.

Is Lojack available in every country?

 

i got 4 years of lojack with the 4yr warrenty. Still looking into this software

 

You guys all need to read this review and all your questions shall be answered:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=127238