31 Jul 2019, 20:00
As someone who has worked in an IT environment from before IT even became the name we used for anything running a software programme I will openly confess to being less than comfortable with PCs.
I know more about how a processor actually works that I do about the set-up of Windows.
But I am now the less than proud owner of 2 of the worlds most useless laptops!
Laptop 1 is reasonably old (around 7 years) but is running all the latest Windows software, it's battery life is slightly less than 10minutes (but that's ok as I leave it on mains power) and the on-board CMOS back-up/boot-up battery has failed (but that's also ok as I simply over-ride the screen). I could have fixed all of these for around £100 and some effort, but this little laptop has a deeper, darker side. For reasons no-one can discover and I cannot fix on occasions it simply refuses to believe the internet exists! Nothing I or others try will make it accept that there IS an internet connection - WIFI or ethernet all fail, despite the diagnostics giving me a positive connection. I'm especially vexed when it will connect to some sites, but then fails on others - the very best being trying to connect to the BBC site (most assuredly up and running) then suggesting I try 'Bing' (you know the message) before announcing there was no such location as 'Bing'
EPIC!
Laptop 1 also suffers from a huge processing delays which I've never quite got to the bottom of, sometimes taking it take hours to save anything over 100Mb or up to 5mins to open a simple jpeg file.
So, Laptop 1 was a bit flaky, not very modern and so I decided to invest in a new toy - laptop 2
Laptop 2 is a well reviewed mid-range 'Social use' device - not pricey but well spec'd. Just like laptop 1 it runs the very latest Windows software and was perfuming brilliantly until 2-3months after the warranty expired....
Laptop 2 has now got the most unpredictable graphics behaviour. It can run perfectly for weeks and then be the most obdurate machine in the world, taking dozens of attempts to produce a screen that I can login through (corrupt images, all black screen, all red screen, etc, etc.) and even then can look like the login is fine before instantly crashing when I get the desktop or else randomly crashing in the middle of something. I know it's just the graphics (programs I've been running continue uninterrupted even uploads are fine) but I'm flummoxed if it's hardware or software.
I'll try re-installing drivers, updating drivers and that seems to fix it (sometimes) but then the blasted thing falls in a heap again. I'll check all the connections, convincing myself that something 'clicked' and sure enough the screen is fine... for a time, before I'm back to square one once again!
I've been through the usual forums, trying suggestions that 'fixed it' for others, but no use (I am detecting an increasing number of people with similar problems - suspicious?).
I know I could simply hand it over to a repair shop and let them have a play, but I'd have to 'clean' things up a lot before that and even then I wonder if they'll actually be able to do anything (ok they'll do all the software stuff I did... again! and will probably charge me for a new screen - which will not be cheap!) but I am seriously wondering if it'd be worth the effort and that buying a third laptop might be an easier and almost as cheap option.
Oh, did I mention it's got the most annoying keyboard, that's almost, but not quite the same as every other QWERTY set-up I've used - I mean WTF is wrong with manufactures that makes they think it's OK for their keys ever so slightly different? Like dropping one shift key (hey who needed the right hand one? DUH! me!!!!) or in the case of my GF's laptop, when the left-hand side has whole bunch of new keys that mean I keep printing out stuff when I'm trying to type an upper case letter!
So, I've one laptop that slow and won't speak to the world and another that super-fast but won't show me anything - if only I could take the good bits from each and bastardise them into a single machine... but knowing my luck I'd end up with a plastic and silicon slab that buzzed away to itself but never ever shared a single byte of data or pixel of display with outside world!
Ahhh, it's good to get that off my chest! 😁
And typing in a weird red font, with a fetching pink tinge to the forum page has been very relaxing.... maybe I'll get used to this and see it as some kind of zen experience
Now, where's my big axe? It could be time to get into threatening the damn things and see if that has any effect!
MJ
I know more about how a processor actually works that I do about the set-up of Windows.
But I am now the less than proud owner of 2 of the worlds most useless laptops!
Laptop 1 is reasonably old (around 7 years) but is running all the latest Windows software, it's battery life is slightly less than 10minutes (but that's ok as I leave it on mains power) and the on-board CMOS back-up/boot-up battery has failed (but that's also ok as I simply over-ride the screen). I could have fixed all of these for around £100 and some effort, but this little laptop has a deeper, darker side. For reasons no-one can discover and I cannot fix on occasions it simply refuses to believe the internet exists! Nothing I or others try will make it accept that there IS an internet connection - WIFI or ethernet all fail, despite the diagnostics giving me a positive connection. I'm especially vexed when it will connect to some sites, but then fails on others - the very best being trying to connect to the BBC site (most assuredly up and running) then suggesting I try 'Bing' (you know the message) before announcing there was no such location as 'Bing'
EPIC!
Laptop 1 also suffers from a huge processing delays which I've never quite got to the bottom of, sometimes taking it take hours to save anything over 100Mb or up to 5mins to open a simple jpeg file.
So, Laptop 1 was a bit flaky, not very modern and so I decided to invest in a new toy - laptop 2
Laptop 2 is a well reviewed mid-range 'Social use' device - not pricey but well spec'd. Just like laptop 1 it runs the very latest Windows software and was perfuming brilliantly until 2-3months after the warranty expired....
Laptop 2 has now got the most unpredictable graphics behaviour. It can run perfectly for weeks and then be the most obdurate machine in the world, taking dozens of attempts to produce a screen that I can login through (corrupt images, all black screen, all red screen, etc, etc.) and even then can look like the login is fine before instantly crashing when I get the desktop or else randomly crashing in the middle of something. I know it's just the graphics (programs I've been running continue uninterrupted even uploads are fine) but I'm flummoxed if it's hardware or software.
I'll try re-installing drivers, updating drivers and that seems to fix it (sometimes) but then the blasted thing falls in a heap again. I'll check all the connections, convincing myself that something 'clicked' and sure enough the screen is fine... for a time, before I'm back to square one once again!
I've been through the usual forums, trying suggestions that 'fixed it' for others, but no use (I am detecting an increasing number of people with similar problems - suspicious?).
I know I could simply hand it over to a repair shop and let them have a play, but I'd have to 'clean' things up a lot before that and even then I wonder if they'll actually be able to do anything (ok they'll do all the software stuff I did... again! and will probably charge me for a new screen - which will not be cheap!) but I am seriously wondering if it'd be worth the effort and that buying a third laptop might be an easier and almost as cheap option.
Oh, did I mention it's got the most annoying keyboard, that's almost, but not quite the same as every other QWERTY set-up I've used - I mean WTF is wrong with manufactures that makes they think it's OK for their keys ever so slightly different? Like dropping one shift key (hey who needed the right hand one? DUH! me!!!!) or in the case of my GF's laptop, when the left-hand side has whole bunch of new keys that mean I keep printing out stuff when I'm trying to type an upper case letter!
So, I've one laptop that slow and won't speak to the world and another that super-fast but won't show me anything - if only I could take the good bits from each and bastardise them into a single machine... but knowing my luck I'd end up with a plastic and silicon slab that buzzed away to itself but never ever shared a single byte of data or pixel of display with outside world!
Ahhh, it's good to get that off my chest! 😁
And typing in a weird red font, with a fetching pink tinge to the forum page has been very relaxing.... maybe I'll get used to this and see it as some kind of zen experience
Now, where's my big axe? It could be time to get into threatening the damn things and see if that has any effect!
MJ