"Oh...now don't start that again."
Posted on 02/14/2017 6:49:10 AM PST by Zionist Conspirator
Almost two weeks after buying a brand new computer, it's still giving me fits.
They one they sold me is an HP with an AMD processor. Other than having trouble with Flash on Firefox it's been doing great, until Sat. night when, while watching a movie on YouTube, the computer suddenly froze up completely and rebooted. Then the next evening, while watching another long video on YT, it happened again.
An online acquaintance has talked me into taking this back (I have one more day to do so) and switching it for a Dell with an Intel processor for practically the same price (though they'll have to order it). I'm going to try to spend the day taking most of my stuff off this thing and then return it tomorrow. I still dread the set-up, after having just gone through it. Why they didn't sell me that other computer to begin with I don't know.
And now more trouble . . . for the past four years I have subscribed to AVG TuneUp and have been automatically charged each year at this time. I attempted to cancel my subscription but whenever I logged into my AVG account it told me I had no subscriptions . . . then this morning I see I have been billed for it!!! And I had no opportunity to cancel. Fortunately I've applied for a refund already, but this is an awful lot of trouble to go to.
I'm beginning to wish I'd never gotten a computer to begin with twenty years ago. You can't live with 'em and you can't live without 'em.
I'll be so glad when all this is over and some sense of normalcy returns.
Anything from Microsoft has virus functions built in.
Wipe whatever you get and go Linux.
I couldn't watch movies, even DVDs I put in the DVD drive, without them halting.
Over time, though, things have cleared up. My thinking is that it is mostly due to Windows 10. Windows 10 is a total hog and is a gossip. It is constantly talking to the internet to tell everyone what I'm doing and downloading the latest versions of software.
I was going to get a Linux box, but got a Windows box because I was going to do some contract work that required Windows. I wish I had stuck to my original idea and went with Linux.
I might still download a Linux OS and boot from that.
I had to cancel and re-issue cards TWICE with Turbo Tax. USAA had to issue a second set of cards within 3 months and fenagle my account to break the auto enrolling feature.
When agreeing to the auto subscription, you also agree to give them access to any new card #s that get issued to the account, so your product will arrive and you will be billed regardless. I thought that a new card #s would sever this but it does not.
With computers, you can have a great price, great tech, or great service.
Pick two.
My Win7 machine is 4 years old, cost under $500 with a 22" Monitor included and hasn't so much as had a hiccup (knocking on wood now).
I avoid all the big brands. They all have a bunch of crap they like to put on their machines, most of which sucks. I get custom built from a good shop in town. As for AVG, you’ll have to get on the horn to them probably, then never install any tune up software ever again from anybody, really that stuff is largely unnecessary in the modern world and just sucks CPU cycles to no gain. Back when memory management and disk management was important they served a roll, but these days it just doesn’t matter.
Several years ago now, I bought a SamJUNK 17” with i7 processor and 8 GB of ram. It cost $800. The months after the warranty expired, it bit the dust.
I took it to a local repair. A couple of weeks later they called me and said they had been trying to get a replacement otherboard. SamJUNK did not have replacement motherboards for that model.
I bought a replacement with almost the same specifications — a Dell 17” with the i7 processor and 8 Gb of RAM. I have only minor problems. About 3 years ago, I did replace the slow 5400 RPM hard drive with a 7200 RPM and noticed a significant increase in boot-up and file access. That Dell is now in its 4th years and still running great.
I still have the old $800 SamJUNK — it is an expensive doorstop.
Switch to Dell if you can. I usually purchase the warranty with it (something I normally don’t do on other products). Whenever I have a problem I call Dell and they can usually fix it.
Hate to admit that I can’t figure some of this stuff out with a degree in computer science and thirty years of experience.
I have a few older ThinkPads ... they have been great. One, a T410, runs hot. The other two, a T420 and an X201, run cool as cucumbers.
I've had trouble with HP machines, and will not ever buy an HP laptop. I have a small stack (6 machines - 4x NC6000) to give away to a worthy home. I build all the desktop machines from components.
You might consider a gently used one or a recent off-lease Dell and installing Linux Mint on it. An easy task. If your needs are basic like Youtube, Web browsing (Firefox) and some office apps (Open Office is MS Office compatible) it could be your road to sanity.
Just sayin'.
Maybe not incredibly useful advice, but I’ve been very happy with my Chromebox. It’s remotely updated and protected, so having spent exactly zero hours of my life dealing with protecting it from viruses and malware and downloading and updating software, it runs faster and smoother now than it did five years ago when I bought it for $250.
I’ve been a dedicated PC buyer since Windows 95 was the latest OS on the market. I’ve been through a Toshiba, an E-Machine and numerous HP’s (3 desktops, 4 laptops, 1 iPAQ). I’ve read customer experiences for years and while I appreciate them sharing their tales ow woe or wonder, it’s my opinion that a bad computer can come from any manufacturer or seller. When you factor in someone’s usage and experience it opens the ballgame a little wider.
Once I learned the scope of my influence on how any of my machines performed, things are much easier for me to diagnose and troubleshoot. It’s so much nicer now to be able to categorize computer problems under “computer”, “software”, or “user”.
I won’t suggest what to buy, but I would suggest trying to diagnosing the problem before deciding on a course of action (i.e. repair or replace). There, again is a crap-shoot where you can go to a private business for diagnosis or a big-box store. It depends on the person doing the work.
I was lucky to find a man who has several locations, and believe it or not, the one I discovered was in a farmer’s market of all places. He has been an ace on the three occasions I’ve used his services. I’ve had two experiences with a big-box store, one negative, the other positive.
My point is to take your computer to have it diagnosed and specify to them that you wish to be called with the results before proceeding to repair the machine. The cost alone will help you to determine whether to repair or replace it.
I have three HP laptops, one from work. All have performed like champions. In the meantime the Dell Inspirion I bought my son is on it’s third disk drive and it’s not even two years old.
Everyone’s experience is different.
As far as Firefox goes, it simply can’t run flash anything reliably anymore. As someone else suggested use Opera. I’ve never ever had an issue with it.
"Oh...now don't start that again."
I’ve had poor service from all of them. Apple’ service drove me to Dell. I was tired of getting a ‘one of ten’ appointment which always resulted into two hours of missed work. HP, however was the worst. Interesting that you joined “I” world in 2003. We left I world forever in 2013.
I’ve had poor service from all of them. Apple’ service drove me to Dell. I was tired of getting a ‘one of ten’ appointment which always resulted into two hours of missed work. HP, however was the worst. Interesting that you joined “I” world in 2003. We left I world forever in 2013.
Linux systems have their own software problems.
I bought a Linux laptop about 6 months ago. I finally got some Youtube videos to play, but websites that required me to log in with my cable company ID just will not work. FoxSportsGo, ESPN-Go, the cable company’s TV stream, etc. It seems that the problem is with DRM [Digital Rights Management]. The loading icon just spins, but never loads the video.
Sometimes the browser will error out and say I need to install the latest Flash. The computer info says I already have the latest Flash. I have tried this with numerous browsers: SeaMonkey, Firefox, Firefox ESR, Cromium, Chrome, Konqueror, Opera.
Thus, I have to revert to the Windows 7 laptop or desktop or to the android tablet for such video streaming. That negates the purpose of going all Linux.
Get a replacement under warranty. Do it today.
Accept no less.
All computers have issues. We have two Apple laptops, both have been to the shop with major hardware failures. The older one had all USB ports go dead at year 3. The newer one had the graphics chip poop out in the first year.
I also have a couple of Windows laptops, the old HP has been a trooper but there are some things about it I haven’t liked since day one. The Asus had a hard drice go bad at 3 years.
You pay your money and take your chances.
Rebooting after while watching videos sounds like a heat issue. There are things that can be done to help but it will always be a problem. Take it back.
Never owned a dell, but I suspect it would be better designed to handle heat issues.
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