Computer Oddyssey

[Catrin]

That helps, certainly. Robust machines - especially refurbished - don't cost near as much as they did back in the day, hopefully you can can find something that will last as long as my desktop (and as well), and can eventually be upgraded Windows 10. My recent adventure was with an 8 year old desktop that I hope will be around for at least a couple more years - I know of new computers that are slower than my 2009 Sony. My driver issues with it was a special case due to proprietary hardware.

Have fun looking and good luck!

[smilingcat]

<geek speak>

Well, I have my father's last laptop. He bought it about a month before he was diagnosed with dementia so the laptop is literally brand new; but, it is slow and old, XP, celeron processor and less than a Megabyte of RAM. USB port is only 1.0 so again slow. I want to use it but just doesn't have the umph to deal with today's bloatware.

It did bootup Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS but took about 4 minutes to do so off USB live. Tried loading OpenOffice because that is what I prefer over MS office suite. No go Joe!! So I tried something with smaller footprint using Puppy Linux (slackware version of Linux) it too didn't fare too well. Do I want to try Damn Small Linux distro? I think the problem is with USB1.0 port. I'm not ready to install linux onto the laptop hard drive yet.

<end geek speak> (oh what was the proper format for HTML??)

I like this laptop, its got a very nice screen.

So yes, you do want a Robust machine...

[Eden]

lol - that would be
<geek speak> </geek speak>

though in these days it's more likely to be written in Java... and someone else will have to advise you on that one

[Catrin]

Yes, Ubuntu does require rather robust resources, but there must be other options. You should be able to find a live CD, assuming it has a CD drive?

[smilingcat]

GAHHH!!!!

spent 6 hours or so tracking down a virus on my partners computer... How does she manage to get it infected with virus?? This isn't the first time or second time or third. This virus isn't as destructive as some of the others but it basically bricked her expensive WF-7620 epson printer. I ended up scrubbing her computer of printer drivers for the epson, managed to updated the firmware of her printer to unbrick it, tried to re-enable the printer from being offline to online, which it didn't take for some time. blah blah blah...
and got it fixed after much &^%$#.

Then just the other day, the strong windstorm came and knocked over a huge oak tree onto the power lines feeding my neighborhood. When the power went out, I had instructed her to unplug everything. When the power came back, we plugged everything back. Printers is offline again and I can't get it back on line. Checked the WiFi connection and its good... control panel> drivers printers> WF7620 and it says its on line but WF7620 says its off line GRRRR....
as last resort, reloaded the original driver after, once again, I scrubbed her computer... now the virus is back. ???? reloaded the updated driver and the virus is there. Checked for virus and it says it found no virus. THE NEW VIRUS HAVE A WORK AROUND TO ESCAPE DETECTION FROM MANY OF THE VIRUS DETECTION/MALWARE DETECTION SOFTWARE.

my partner is really mad at me now and I'm uber pissed off!! I'm not a GOD you know. Besides, I don't have enough hours in a day for my own work load. And I looked at her internet connection and its UNSECURE!!! %$# me!

And oh my dryer decided to go cold. It's an older machine so I could take it apart and fix it but again I just don't have time. Most likely, a blown thermal fuse somewhere inside or burnt out heating element. I did this three times growing up for my mother's dryer. maybe four times. Oh and our furnace made a huge exploding sound and had to be replaced about a month ago... Then about a week ago, I pulled my car into our drive way, parked it, set the parking brake, shut off the engine, took my foot off the brake pedal and the little jerk from the release of the brake pedal caused the car to break traction on the ice and my car sled backwards into my partner's pkup. I didn't have time to release the parking brake, restart the engine, put it into reverse and back out, so bump it went. Have an appt with body shop next Monday to get a quote then schedule a repair date.

gawd, I wish I was 6 feet under.

[ny biker]

So, not just a computer odyssey but a general machine-related odyssey for you, smilingcat. It does seem like everything breaks down at once. For me lately it's been phone, work pc, refrigerator, toaster oven, regular oven. Plus my car is due for service and has a dent in the front that I need to fix one of these days. So far I have only dealt with the phone and the toaster oven, though technically I'm not done with the phone yet -- I can't get it read the music files on the sd card and I still have to reset the old one and turn it in so I can get a credit for it. But once I finish dealing with that, I'm sure something else will break or wear out. It's always something!

[ny biker]

So, not just a computer odyssey but a general machine-related odyssey for you, smilingcat. It does seem like everything breaks down at once. For me lately it's been phone, work pc, refrigerator, toaster oven, regular oven. Plus my car is due for service and has a dent in the front that I need to fix one of these days. So far I have only dealt with the phone and the toaster oven, though technically I'm not done with the phone yet -- I can't get it read the music files on the sd card and I still have to reset the old one and turn it in so I can get a credit for it. But once I finish dealing with that, I'm sure something else will break or wear out. It's always something!

Just over a month later -- I still haven't dealt with the refrigerator or the oven, and still haven't been able to get my new phone to read the music files on the SD card. But I was forced into taking the car in for service this week. It's a long story so I'll just skip to the end and say that the guy at the local Toyota dealership who has been taking care of my car for years has once again done a great job of fixing things quickly and for a reasonable price.

More relevant to this thread, I have finally taken the plunge and gotten a new pc for work. The old one has just gotten so slow, I didn't want to put it off any longer. I prefer to buy from the local Micro-Center, and after looking through the laptops and desktops on their website, including the customer reviews, I decided to get a relatively inexpensive HP laptop with Windows 10. I will still use the larger monitor and more comfortable mouse that I already have. The guy at the store tried to upsell me because "the processor is not the latest model." This annoyed me; of course he doesn't know the backstory of how annoyed I am that I have to provide my own pc for work or how much I detest setting up new tech devices or how generally peevish I am right now due to the sedentary lifestyle that has been forced on me by the ankle injury, but still, when someone has obviously already chosen the exact model that they want before walking into the store, there are better ways of suggesting that they consider another product. Then he tried to sell me on anti virus software. Then he tried to help me choose an external hard drive even though I'd already done the research and made that decision, too. Eventually he figured out that I was not going to be a big spender, handed me the paperwork to take to the cashier and ran back to the pc department.

So now I am about ready to start the process of setting things up and transferring files from the old laptop to the new one. I do hope it goes smoothly. Once it's all up and running, I want to start using it after hours for some tutorials to learn a new programming language, which of course is another flavor of computer odyssey...