The grumpy thread

[madrat]

I've had 3 lap tops, all have been utter shit, I'm going back to a desk top next time.

[beko1987]

Desktops are bargain buys at the moment because everyone wants laptops or tablets! I've got a dual core dell that I cant sell even for £40. Quite close to just giving it away (hint hint)...

[Tamworthbay]

We bought a cheap HP it was total shit, was given an expensive one that was six months old by a family member, it was still utter utter shit. HP = shit, unless = sauce. They are also one hell of an unethical company.

[SiC]

I vowed never to have another HP after my last one was away for 3 weeks to change a screen. That was on a corporate account too. I now always and only buy Dell business laptops from the Dell outlet. I always pay extra for the Next Business Day warranty for 3 years.

 

The Dell business laptops are much better built than the consumer ones, as they have to withstand the abuse. Being Dell outlet they're either canceled order or have marks. Everyone I've ever got for both myself and family have never had a noticeable mark. The big thing is that they're at least and often third price of retail. Their outlet store does take a bit of checking as they rotate stock through quickly and specs can change. Some are better than others.

 

The NBD warranty is the real great thing on them. Any little fault they'll come out next day and fix. Key loose? They'll replace the keyboard. Graphic glitches? They'll replace the motherboard and screen. No quibbles.

[SiC]

Have you checked if it requires a BIOS update? I recall some early i-series processors could act funny at times on some machines and had the scenario you described. Most had an update to fix.

[mercrocker]

Thoughts with Xtriple.....

[cort16]

I thought my macbook would be robust with the metal case but I’ve burst it twice . Okay the first time I was pished and poured whisky into it but the 2nd time it fell off the couch onto the carpet and burst the screen . It’s welded into the case you need to change the whole top case and they’re 200 plus quid second hand . It’s not even a retina .

Mrs c has an hp laptop cort jr hulked and it cost 33 quid for the screen and took me 10 mins to replace .

[iainrcz]

Don't want to start a war but, *cough* apple are shit *cough*

 

My older brother has a thing for them.

Probably why he can never afford to repair his car.

[cort16]

It is a nice device when it’s working but they really don’t want you repairing it.

[clayts450]

I struck gold with the HP lappy I got for a ton off eBay many years ago. Still going, stuck an SSD in, solid as a rock, proper heavy like, with metal and shit, old school. Also has an early i5.

 

One of these badboys - Elitebook 8440p

 

 

 

Only thing it's needed is a new keyboard, but that's down to my boxing glove encased fingers

 

[iainrcz]

It is a nice device when it’s working but they really don’t want you repairing it.

Don't get me wrong, I've used a fairly modern desktop jobby. Nice to look at at, snappy to use, but I nearly had a seizure at the price the geezer paid for it.

 

 

Not to mention their love of suing everyone.

[SiC]

Don't want to start a war but, *cough* apple are shit *cough*

 

My older brother has a thing for them.

Probably why he can never afford to repair his car.

We all get MacBook Pros as standard issue laptops at work. I can't say I'm endarmered with it. The bugger even managed to cut my finger when it slid off the laptop stand and the sharp edge hit my finger.

 

Naturally I run Windows on it as my main OS as I need to get work done.

[dollywobbler]

Desktops are bargain buys at the moment because everyone wants laptops or tablets! I've got a dual core dell that I cant sell even for £40. Quite close to just giving it away (hint hint)...

 

Oh hello... (Forgot to look at the thread...)

[Ghosty]

Further to Parcelfarce charging me £25 to fuck about with my shipment from Rock Auto, which came straight outta Compton (really) and somehow ended up going via Germany (because DHL?), despite having paid the invoice on Friday, they still sent out a slip telling me I needed to pay them, that came yesterday. 

They haven't yet managed to get it from the depot in central Manchester to me, 9 miles away either. I thought they could have sorted that by now?!

 

They also seem to be contracting out delivery work now - mainly to aging blokes with no uniforms, in rental liveried vans - dead professional, right? Today we had a delivery while I was working on the Prelude, and the delivery man walked across the front lawn to get to me. Er...

 

Royal Mail, who'd've thunk it.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

...I know Northern Ireland's still stuck in the 1950s in many ways, but I reckon it's an utter piss-take that I can't just tax the damn thing online - car is on an English plate, registration details never left Swansea, insurer is a big company based in Leeds - but the fact it's being registered to an NI address precludes me from using the DVLA online portal as a new owner. Fuck knows why.

'cos Ulster sez No?

[beko1987]

Oh hello... (Forgot to look at the thread...)

Message sent. Probably won't be ideal for hubnut video editing, but will be ideal for writing magazines, which is probably quite key to your livelihood...

[cort16]

I bought my Mac book so I could use xcode to learn objective c and swift but I just used it for watching videos of cats falling over and browsing eBay for shite cars.

[twosmoke300]

Ghostys post liked for “ straight outta Compton “

[BorniteIdentity]

Hmm.  Second hand technology.  My thoughts:

 

Firstly, I'd want to know explicitly where the machine had come from, to be able to form a judgement on what kind of life they'd had.  Secondly, I'd probably only buy a second hand server or desktop.  In my line of business, the desktops live a sheltered life (racked up in a climate controlled CTA, turned off at night etc) but the laptops take a hammering in the field or in the hands of hamfisted execs.

 

My computer is also my livelihood, so I've always bought new and used until temperamental behaviour develops.  Then that machine gets a reinstall and kept for redundancy whilst also being replaced. 

 

We've just got an Intel NUC at work for video editing etc, and this is probably where i'll go next for my own office.  

 

Anyway, good luck!

 

 

My grump?  The Avensis has developed a mystery coolant weep right at the top of the radiator.  I'm hoping that it's just coming out of the rad cap and then running along the top of the fan/radiator shroud.  More investigations required.

[beko1987]

Oh I can help with your first part of your grump, my dad bought it new, and it was his mail server in his office. Left on 24/7 for a few years, never went wrong. Then, 4 years ago his business failed and he took all the computers home because he didn't know what to do with them and didn't ask me at the time (when they would have had a value). Earlier this year he asks me to help him do something with them so I went round, blanked all the hard drives with him and bought them all home to try and sell them for whatever I can get and give him the money. Struggling greatly with it tbh so happy to donate this one to wobbler, give him £40 of my own money and everyone's happy.

 

Hope this helps

[dave21478]

You all know what a dunce I am with computers, but I am exceedingly happy with my current laptop. Someone on here recommended looking for a used Lenovo Thinkpad and I found a seller churning them out on ebay. Its an X230 model and I shoved an ssd into it and its been brilliant ever since. It has very minor scratches on the lid, but otherwise perfect.

No, its not some super-sleek slimline thing, but its solid. You could probably club someone to death with it and it would likely still work once you wiped the blood off.

[beko1987]

You all know what a dunce I am with computers, but I am exceedingly happy with my current laptop. Someone on here recommended looking for a used Lenovo Thinkpad and I found a seller churning them out on ebay. Its an X230 model and I shoved an ssd into it and its been brilliant ever since. It has very minor scratches on the lid, but otherwise perfect.

No, its not some super-sleek slimline thing, but its solid. You could probably club someone to death with it and it would likely still work once you wiped the blood off.

I used my 2003 Thinkpad T40 with mild upgrades last night to write a build thread, and it was excellent too! Much nicer to type on than my modern hp laptop, proper key travel!

[beko1987]

 

My computer is also my livelihood, so I've always bought new and used until temperamental behaviour develops. Then that machine gets a reinstall and kept for redundancy whilst also being replaced.

required.

And I must say you should probably have the case off and give them a clean out every year or so if their clogging up enough to start overheating... A nice cpu re-paste every few years would help too. Otherwise a fresh reinstall will do nothing, as soon as you start using it again up go the temperatures. Some of the crap I pulled out of the fans of my retro thinkpads was amazing, I was amazed they even ran at all!

[dave21478]

Fuckin awesome start to the day.

[AMC Rebel]

My grump is there are too many quality posts to read on here and I really need to do something else.

 

Thoughts with xtriple - as others say, hope the problem turns out not to be as bad. 

[beko1987]

Fuckin awesome start to the day.

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Looks like you were nearly out anyway

[BorniteIdentity]

And I must say you should probably have the case off and give them a clean out every year or so if their clogging up enough to start overheating... A nice cpu re-paste every few years would help too. Otherwise a fresh reinstall will do nothing, as soon as you start using it again up go the temperatures. Some of the crap I pulled out of the fans of my retro thinkpads was amazing, I was amazed they even ran at all!

 

Ah -sorry.  I meant a clean install of Windows, minus ALL THE FUCKING BLOATWARE. (!)

[beko1987]

Ah -sorry. I meant a clean install of Windows, minus ALL THE FUCKING BLOATWARE. (!)

Ah well that's understandable! That always helps loads! I helped a friend rebuild his Dell with fresh virgin windows after the dell driver update program pulled down an incorrect graphics driver and caused the thing to not boot! Even windows 10 needs a nice 20 minutes of stripping out before its nice!

 

I have windows 2000 on one of the thinkpads, it's a lovely place to escape to! As long as I stay away from YouTube and other such places, stupid modern internet

[mercrocker]

Fuckin awesome start to the day.

IMG_20180502_082927.jpg

 

At least you can still get it in glass.    Fucking horrible farty plastic jars round here.....

[Kiltox]

At least you can still get it in glass. Fucking horrible farty plastic jars round here.....

Is this going to be the next thing that the war on plastic goes after? Huge number of condiments come in plastic bottles now