The Vent and Rant Thread

[Freeshadow]

First "I can see clearly now"; next "Here comes the sun" c'mon

[Blossom]

So because if the gorgeous weather I decided today was a good day to clean my desktop. I got my shiny new can of air and went to work. The dust was so thick it look like grated cheese. I now use my laptop and hubby I let him use my desktop. I have to remind him it's mine not his. He takes such horrible care of his stuff.

So I spray all the dust out and it looks like new. It was bough in 2008 and has Vista on it. So I hit power and it loads up to the start screen then reboots. This means I have somehow messed up which order the USB ports the externals go into so now it can't find the cache Microsoft makes my computer use because the external is a bigger drive. I finally get that sorted out and get into Windows only to have it bug check on me. This kept happening over and over and it took several tries to get the error code. After googling on my Nexus it turns out it's related to cables. So I open the PC up again and remove the SATA cable to the hard drive then reinstall it. Problem solved. I guess the air knocked it just loose enough or maybe it had dust in it.

This was a four hour ordeal! By the time I was done I was sick to my stomach from worry. I kept thinking hubby is going to come home and not be able to play his Facebook game. I'd never hear the end of it. However during all this My Passport drive fell from the shelf and smacked the top of the desktop hard. It was off when it happened but man that hurt hearing it. I love that little drive. It seems to be okay but currently copying 300GB over to the big external just in case.

I'm ready for a nap.

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[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Blossom

So because if the gorgeous weather I decided today was a good day to clean my desktop....

So I spray all the dust out and it looks like new. It was bough in 2008 and has Vista on it....

Same here. Mine was bought in 2008 as well, running Vista Business. Then I got back to school for some additional courses in 2011, and qualified for free Windows 7 through Technet, so I upgraded.

I actually did an in-place upgrade, putting Windows 7 on top of Vista.

Then a few months later, still in 2011, I decided to upgrade that computer; I created an image of the boot HDD (a WD Raptor), and replaced it with an SSD. Then swapped out the 9600GT graphics card for a GTX 560 Ti. Then got a Q8400 quad core on sale to replace the E8500 dual core, and in the end, added a second 1TB hard drive. It already had 8GB of RAM from the start.

Half a year ago, I put Windows 10 on top of 7, in-place again.

Three months ago, I removed all programs except the essentials, upgraded everything that was left (including drivers), cleaned out any remains of old software (CCleaner and by hand), and moved all data to my new, and much more powerful laptop.

One day, I have to take the case apart, because the 2011 upgrade left the cabling in a mess. It does work however, so I've never bothered. After fixing up the case, I think the computer can be mostly retired. It's still connected to the second input of the monitor, as the case is not in the way. (The monitor has a built in keyboard/mouse switch, so the laptop's docking station is connected to the first input.)

I still have the 19 inch Eizo monitor I got for this computer as well, including the (seperately bought) color calibrator and software.

I've never used a computer this long, and to be honest, as long as I don't want to play games newer than 2011/2012, it would *STILL* work for 90% of the things I'd like to do.

Although, I do notice that the new laptop can convert books and music MUCH faster per book/song than this one, and more books/songs at once as well. It's almost three times as powerful.

To some extent, this computer will probably reach 10 or even 12 years of serviceable life, the first 8 as a main computer, and the rest as a backup/standby. That would make a 2008 computer still in use in 2020. I can't imagine a computer from 1994 still in active daily use in 2006, barring some special circumstances... such as this epic 30 y/o old-timer, which was still running half a year ago.

[Blossom]

Mine has been a bit of lemon since the first PSU went out. Replaced with a 500 Watt PSU. The GPU slot is faulty so I am stuck using on board graphics by Intel. Yuck! It use to eat hard drives till I removed the GPU card. Other than heating and voltage issues it's worked fine for most things. No heavy gaming but Facebook games are okay. I mostly used it for productivity and Calibre. I made hubby a limited account so he can use it and not mess things up. He uses it for casual games and YouTube.

All my book related programs are on the desktop so I still need it but he does hog it when he is here. I use a remote program to access it from my laptop so I can do whatever is needed.

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[Katsunami]

Why don't you put the book related programs on the laptop?

[Blossom]

I no longer have the setups and some are incompatible with newer Windows.

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[badgoodDeb]

Does anybody prefer that I take this to a separate thread? Or is it okay in here?

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

And before you upgrade, there will be a boatload of critical security patches that likely never got applied, and you'll need to let them apply first. Expect multiple reboots in the process, because some patches affect things that can't be modified while Windows is up and running. You must reboot after the patches are downloaded, and they'll be installed when you reboot before Windows fully loads.
______
Dennis

Attempted the above. It got to the end and said it wasn't happy; and it undid it all. Explicitly, it said "We couldn't complete the updates Undoing changes Don't turn off your computer" (no periods). Installing the updates took more than 3 hours (so I went to bed and checked 12 hours later. Removing them also took more than 3 hours, so ditto.

Is there any way to get a list of these patches, and request (click) them one at a time, so they have a chance of mostly succeeding, before one or two fail? Especially if the failure is an internet failure; that way I can just try those few patches again. Even *my* internet isn't stellar (though hers is non-existent). I will call my provider and do the periodic "let's do a reset, shall we?" dance, to re-attain the maximum paltry speed that I ever manage to attain. But I am doing this wired, not over wifi.

So, basically, I'm back where I started and haven't accomplished anything yet. Except a first backup to my own thumb drive, using the mechanism under Control Panel.

[Katsunami]

On what operating system are you now?

Microsoft just released an "Update Rollup" package for Windows 7 and related server OS-es. That rollup basically is "Service Pack 2" in disguise; it applies all updates ever released up until April 2016.

Oh, how I loved service packs and rollups in the past. They could be beautifully slipstreamed onto a CD for use in a new installation, and then in a few minutes, you could get the latest updates of the last two months or so. Installing 7 years of updates after a fresh Windows 7 RTM install is undoable. Before you're done, Windows 7 is probably out of support and the server taken down

[badgoodDeb]

I think it's Win 8 (as opposed to 8.1) but if you remind me how to check I'll look tonight (it's at home). I'm a mac person. I used to speak basic PC, but with the advent of Win 8, they lost me entirely and I can no longer find things! And now my even-less-savvy-than-me neighbor still thinks I'm the guru. Sheesh.
This discussion started in post 27692 in this thread (May 12, last week). I had to borrow her PC; her own internet has been non working for more than a year. I want to get patches, and then Win10 onto her box while 10 is still free. Not that she'll notice, but free is free, ya know? And 10 will still be patched, for a while.

[Katsunami]

Press WinFlag+Break (can also be called Pause; on laptops, may require Fn to be pressed as well).

[Dazrin]

Don't you hate it when someone asks you for some information and you give them a very clear answer and they still completely ignore it?

Just found out that happened to me a couple months ago and now I have to redo a bunch of work because someone couldn't be bothered to read three sentences. Grrrr.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Don't you hate it when someone asks you for some information and you give them a very clear answer and they still completely ignore it?

Just found out that happened to me a couple months ago and now I have to redo a bunch of work because someone couldn't be bothered to read three sentences. Grrrr.

yup, that's right up there with the people who ask my IT advice and then tell me later they did the exact opposite because their hairdresser/butcher/daughter's boyfriend told them to do the opposite.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by CRussel

yup, that's right up there with the people who ask my IT advice and then tell me later they did the exact opposite because their hairdresser/butcher/daughter's boyfriend told them to do the opposite.

The nice thing about questions asked and answered in writing is that there's a paper trail (though it might be an electronic one.) You can point to the original question, and your answer, when someone wants you to redo something because they didn't listen the first time.

My peeve is that sort of thing in person. I have periodic discussions with people, where I say "We've already discussed his several times, and you've asked the same question before. I'll answer it again, and this time have the courtesy to actually pay attention, listen to the answer, and try to remember it. If you can't do that, I'll simply ignore any questions you ask in the future."
______
Dennis

[PeterT]

Where I work there is a laptop shared by all the drivers which we use to check things like emails, job postings etc. This last week the IT department in their infinite wisdom activated Windows 7's BitLocker requiring us to enter a PIN when the machine is powered on.

Of course that PIN (although a relatively simple sequence) is now on a sticky by the laptop.

And one of my co-workers refuses to change her ways. Whenever she has finished with the laptop she won't just log off, she insists on powering off the laptop because that's what she's always done.

Sigh

[Blossom]

Sometimes being the only tech in the family besides my brother who is all the way in Canada. (Smart man) is a real pain. Mom broke her backspace button on her laptop. So now I have to figure out how to remap it for her. I've never had a key break on me so I'm clueless which method to use. Google needs to be my friend today.

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