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Everything’s Gotten Better Except Computers…and Democrats
MOTUS A.D. ^ | 1-5-20 | MOTUS

Posted on 01/05/2020 4:32:12 AM PST by NOBO2012

In case you have forgotten - or didn’t need to take note at the time - I would like to remind you again to never, ever buy a HP computer. I’m having another (major) computer problem. Less than 2 years old and I’ve already had it repaired once (to no avail) and then replaced under warranty. The new one worked for 8 months until this recent snafu. All of my issues have a common thread: drivers that will not load or load incorrectly. I’m as far from a techy as you could imagine and if I can diagnose the commonality in what is obviously an ongoing problem with their very expensive computer why can’t they fix it?

I can’t send it in for repair until we arrive in Park City sometime in the near future so until then I will have use my old computer which was having its own problems or I wouldn’t have replaced it in the first place. All of which is a long way of saying posts will be short for the foreseeable future as both my computers have gone berserk. If I didn’t know better I’d think they were Democrats.

Image result for calvin hobbes computersNewsflash: they already have.

It would be nice if an under 2 year old computer could work half as well as an over 50 year old camera. I know, I know: they’re much more complicated.

On an objective basis, and despite all my griping, most things have actually gotten better over the past half century or so. But it is important to identify the exceptions.

Posted from: MOTUS A.D.




TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Humor; Politics
KEYWORDS: computers; democrats
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1 posted on 01/05/2020 4:32:12 AM PST by NOBO2012
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To: NOBO2012
Get an iMac. I have three of them and never have a problem. They're all easy to use and, if you buy Apple Care, you can get a tech on the phone to fix anything that's not hardware-related.

Some people might disagree, but the only people I know with computer problems, run Windows OS. They're always cussing at them.

2 posted on 01/05/2020 4:40:42 AM PST by HotHunt (Been there. Done that.)
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To: HotHunt

HP has meant Has Problems for many, many years and I refuse to own one. I tell anyone who asks for my opinion essentially the same.

I’ve been a Dell guy for a long time and they have done well by me and my MIS department.


3 posted on 01/05/2020 4:51:23 AM PST by wally_bert (Your methods were a little incomplete, you too for that matter.)
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To: NOBO2012

The only HP laptops that aren’t trash are the Elitebook series.

https://store.hp.com/us/en/mlp/laptops/elite-352503—1

If you want a laptop that lasts, and is better built than a macbook, Dell’s XPS is that. Next in reliability are the Dell precision and lenovo thinkpad X1 and T line.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/overview/cp/linuxsystems

Stay away from Acer, Asus, and Chinese brands.

The amount of absolute garbage sold as laptops and chromebooks these days are overwhelming. They cheap out on networking modules, ram modules, all the way down to the bios which was programmed by some illiterate Indians sweating to death on a boat offshore.


4 posted on 01/05/2020 4:52:46 AM PST by JFoobar
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To: HotHunt

I’ve been building my own PC’s for 25 years.

Right now I’m running off the guts of a Lenovo I got on Ebay for $70 a year ago.

How much does an iMac and Apple Care cost?


5 posted on 01/05/2020 4:56:21 AM PST by Moonman62 (Charity comes from wealth.)
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To: NOBO2012

I stopped using HPs in the late 90’s. Went Mac in 08 and never looked back. Yea, you’ll pay more up front, but they last and they work.


6 posted on 01/05/2020 5:02:06 AM PST by AFreeBird
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To: AFreeBird

Currently run two Mac laptops.
They are early 2008 and do what’s needed.

I know, crazy. The Intel core duo chip was major.


7 posted on 01/05/2020 5:05:17 AM PST by romanesq (8Chan and its child porn, violence and murders are kaput. So is the QAnon grift with it.)
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To: NOBO2012

It’d be nice if I had a 50-year-old car instead of a 2-year-old, because it’d be simpler to fix...but that’s a rant for another day.
I’ve had HP computers since I was 5 years old. Never had a problem with any of them. The XP still works, so does the 7 and my two Windows 8 laptops. I can’t stand Windows 10 but those things work fine too. All mid-priced except for one fancy souped-up Windows 10 I got recently.
Bought an Acer once. It lived about five weeks.


8 posted on 01/05/2020 5:10:42 AM PST by Buttons12
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To: HotHunt

Wouldn’t disagree with you on Apple products, but have to say I’ve never owned one. I guess it’s just because I got so used to the various Windows systems. But I must say that most of my good fortune with Windows was on Dell computers & the bad luck involved HP. Had an HP printer go down once & took the computer with it. No more HP printers after that. I have a Dell desktop & an older HP laptop now, mainly because the laptop was a freebie. It runs Windows 7 & still works, but is painfully slow. Attempts to correct it have been unsuccessful so far. I have no plans to replace it.


9 posted on 01/05/2020 5:11:23 AM PST by oldtech
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To: oldtech

Load Linux onto an old machine to replace Windows, and it will work fine.

The only things you won’t be able to do are play some of the more popular games and view some of the more popular video sites (although YouTube works fine — Amazon Prime does not).

If that doesn’t affect you, then Linux is a good replacement for windows.


10 posted on 01/05/2020 5:28:54 AM PST by CondorFlight
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To: NOBO2012

I was also very unhappy with the last HP I got. The hinges tore away from the frame twice. I replaced them myself, but the construction is far too flimsy: After the second time I reinforced the stress points and so far so good.

Regardless, my next new system will be a Lenovo or a Dell, HP has gone downhill, which is a shame. My previous system was an HP which I still have; It’s 9 years old, and refuses to die. So it was relegated to a multimedia system, which it performs admirably.

Apple earned my ire by going to their nasty little trick of soldering everything (Including the hard drive) to the mainboard.


11 posted on 01/05/2020 5:38:03 AM PST by ferret_airlift
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To: NOBO2012

It’s a machine controlled by a program. Both are made by humans who don’t understand how the human mind works and fail miserably at trying to replicate it.

When a computer fails, it has no idea that it has failed.

Computers don’t think. Computer programs should not be given life/death decisions.


12 posted on 01/05/2020 5:39:55 AM PST by I want the USA back (If free speech is taken away, dumb and silent we are led, like sheep to the slaughter: G Washington)
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To: Buttons12
It’d be nice if I had a 50-year-old car instead of a 2-year-old, because it’d be simpler to fix

ALERT, ALERT! Thread hijack.

Easier to fix, but you have to do it more often. Set of spark plugs lasted 3000 miles 50 years ago. Now they last 100,000 miles.

I had a 64 Mini-Cooper that I had to tune up every weekend because it would shake itself apart during the week. I got pretty good at tuning and balancing the SU carbs. Took about 10 minutes once I go good at it.

13 posted on 01/05/2020 5:52:02 AM PST by super7man (Madam Defarge, knitting, knitting, always knitting)
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To: super7man

You do realize that you can put modern platinum tipped spark plugs in a 1960’s car right?


14 posted on 01/05/2020 5:58:21 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: NOBO2012
re: hp computers - I totally agree, I'll never buy one again. Right now I have two:

My company gave me one (a laptop) to stay connected at home. It is agreeably light, sleek, good screen and decent keyboard. (I haven't found a laptop yet with a good keyboard) However, it suffers from the same malady that seems to strike all hp computers: it is relatively slow. Now, this one is a step up from the previous one. (can you say "tech refresh"???) Overall it is not too bad, almost snappy. However, if you look at the spec sheet it *should* be a screamer. It's like looking at the spec sheet for a Ferrari, then driving it and realizing you got a V-6 Camaro. Or maybe the Camaro with the small V-8, automatic, and too tall of gears.

I believe (and so does my IT systems guru at work) it is because of fundamental system design choices hp makes. (he digresses into memory bus width, wait states, chipsets, interconnect schemes...) This could be related to your driver problems. When a manufacturer goes out on their own, or uses oddball components, the drivers in the OS may not get as much attention as mainstream parts.

My other hp is a personal laptop purchased for my wife a few years back. She loved it for about 2 weeks, then hated it so much she went back to Macs and has never looked back. It was originally loaded with Windows 8.0 or 8.1. The user interface was kind of cool and new at first. Then it got increasingly annoying. (yes that is an OS issue, not a hardware issue, read on) Couple that with a touch screen that seemed to make it's own fingerprints, and a touchpad that seemed to have developed a mind of it's own... After she went Mac I inherited it. I wiped it and put KDE Neon Linux on it. It boots slower than any other machine I currently have. Win 8.x was glacial - a big part of my wife's frustration, you never really knew when it was finally completely booted up and ready (?) for user input. The really old Sony Viao laptop it replaces for me (PCG 61A12L circa 2010) boots MX Linux in about the same time. Heck, even the $45 Raspberry pi 4B I just got boots raspbian about as fast. I did end up adding Win 10 to a partition on the hp. I honestly don't remember why. I haven't "needed" to use it in at least a year. But it is there, our token Windows machine in the household. Oh, and in contrast to the newer company laptop, this hp is neither agreeably light nor sleek. Well, at least under KDE neon I can auto-disable the touchpad when a mouse is connected.

I consider the Raspberry pi an indication of just how much computers have improved. A 4 core, 64 bit computer with dual 4K HDMI, USB 2.0 & 3.0, WiFi and Gig-ethernet...for $35 at the entry level??? If it wasn't for processing GoPro video and a couple of other things... This pi setup I am experimenting with does 95% of my computing needs with a total investment of about $150. Most of that is in the 4 TB hard disk I got to fool around with.

I consider the "impeachment" fiasco and the 'rats actually saying nice things about Iran an indication of just how bad they've gotten. Well, we've known they have been un-American and anti-American for some time. (decades) They've just gotten more and more public about their true motives and ideals.

15 posted on 01/05/2020 6:00:44 AM PST by ThunderSleeps ( Be ready!)
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To: ferret_airlift
".... Apple earned my ire by going to their nasty little trick of soldering everything (Including the hard drive) to the mainboard...."

Imagine that. How dare them.

16 posted on 01/05/2020 6:00:46 AM PST by HotHunt (Been there. Done that.)
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To: NOBO2012

It’s probably important to identify the common element in all of those computer problems.

The user.


17 posted on 01/05/2020 6:02:19 AM PST by PAR35
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To: NOBO2012

The author needs to clearly state “Windows computers” - since those of us who run Linux or OS/X don’t tend to have these kinds of problems.


18 posted on 01/05/2020 6:06:42 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: HotHunt
My latest iMac has been nothing but problems because it does not have enough operating memory. And Apple designed it so you can't add memory.

I would never have imagined I couldn't add memory to an iMac. Yet that is the case.

If I run more than three programs, it freezes or crashes.

It takes forever to do ordinary chores, like do a Google search.

I use “Clean My Mac” software to keep it from being completely useless.

I will never buy another iMac. Apple is dead to me.

Here are the specs of my iMac:

iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015

Processor 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3

Startup Disk: Macintosh HD

Graphics: Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 1536 MB

19 posted on 01/05/2020 6:11:55 AM PST by WashingtonSource
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To: NOBO2012

My wealthy clients who NEED Windows now have Macs running Windows 8.1 via the software Parallels.

Bulletproof operation.

Have three of ‘em here at home (one running W7).

Expensive? Yes.

When I show up to a conference and have to provide two presentation computers I cannot have a ‘windows is updating’ screen for an hour or more before the computer is ready to ‘go to work’


20 posted on 01/05/2020 6:13:52 AM PST by BBB333 (The Power Of Trump Compels You!)
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