Geez! I hate that!

[Junkyard-Dog]

A few months ago I built a new PC for myself and really lashed out getting "premium parts". A few days ago I was just writing in a word document and it suddenly turns off without any warning. It won't reboot. So I go through the process of troubleshooting and it turns out the motherboard has just died for no reason.

It just HAD TO BE the motherboard. The one part that means I have to take EVERYTHING else out of the case to return it for warranty. :(

All that time I spent on cable management was for nothing.

[.:4:.]

This morning. Come time for breakfast both myself and my college were undecided on food choice. So we went for a short walk and both got tired of the usual places, the cheap joints you knew what you get, and the expensive ones are just that. We saw a new place on clarence st in town that had had a table of lift mechanics chowing down. That's a sign it must be good. The staff had scruffy long beards and top knots, all were dressed in st vinnies attire, interesting artwork. Looked genuine hipster. Having done a lot of work in Surry hills, I know the food choices may sound odd but usually aren't bad. Got the blt with avo ($3 extra, rediculous) but that was my treat as pay day was yesterday. My college made the same choice. It was not a bad food choice. On the drive to the next site, thinking about food, I called my college and asked what the t in blt stands for, the reply was tomato. His had none either. Geez I hate getting fleeced even if it's trivial

[.:4:.]

I forgot to mention they had early 90's gangsta rap playing, I should have been sus with that. Some John Butler or similar would be more convincing for the rest of the hipster theme

[xr8cam]

Originally Posted by Junkyard-Dog

A few months ago I built a new PC for myself and really lashed out getting "premium parts". A few days ago I was just writing in a word document and it suddenly turns off without any warning. It won't reboot. So I go through the process of troubleshooting and it turns out the motherboard has just died for no reason.

It just HAD TO BE the motherboard. The one part that means I have to take EVERYTHING else out of the case to return it for warranty. :(

All that time I spent on cable management was for nothing.

My 3yo Toshiba did exactly the same thing 3 days after the warranty expired. No warning, just shut down for good. The only fun was which tool to choose from my toolbox to jemmy the CD tray open to get a DVD out! I ended up getting carried away and now it looks like it's been run over. Another $1000 I have to waste on below par electronica. Any suggestions for a replacement brand? I don't play games or design on it, just a nice fast machine for searching the web & photography etc. I don't have the skill set to make my own so will be buying one with windows 7.

[paulie]

Hijack.
I so don't get these so called 'specs' for the computers..
Ive bought 4 new laptops and each time i buy a new one i always try to get better than what i had. (Faster processor, more ram etc etc).
I show the sales guy exactly what i had and what i do.
Everytime its "This laptop will be almost twice as fast blah blah blah"
And i get stung everytime. I swear my original laptop was just as fast as my latest fang dangle wizz popper. And that cost me $700. The new laptop close to $2k...
For browsing the net i expect the page to just pop open. Not take 10-15 seconds.
Why the hell does it still sit buffering on a 15min youtube clip?
Old laptop had dismal ram etc and old ****** dongle sim internet.
New laptop has about 4times the ram etc and fastest nbn i could get.
All the sales people can say is. Each computer works differently. ...
That be like ford telling me why a new car (mustang/xr8 whatever?) Performs worse than a feista...... if something is better on the paper they are using to entice a buy then it should bloody work like that.
Did a back to back test of old vs new. Old laptop actually opens some pages faster than new. Its also ready to use quicker to.

My next laptop is going to be a sub $300 cheapie i think.

[Junkyard-Dog]

Ok, I'm going to hand out some amazing advice.

Originally Posted by xr8cam

My 3yo Toshiba did exactly the same thing 3 days after the warranty expired. No warning, just shut down for good. The only fun was which tool to choose from my toolbox to jemmy the CD tray open to get a DVD out! I ended up getting carried away and now it looks like it's been run over. Another $1000 I have to waste on below par electronica. Any suggestions for a replacement brand? I don't play games or design on it, just a nice fast machine for searching the web & photography etc. I don't have the skill set to make my own so will be buying one with windows 7.

If I was going to buy a laptop under $1000 I would get a Dell - I have never had a problem with a Dell laptop or PC unless it was severely abused and right now I own six Dell PCs of various ages, most of which were ex-Gov or ex-corporate and were seriously abused. I would get this: http://www.dell.com/au/p/inspiron-15...OyZ4z93O&ven2=,

Then I would put a 120GB SSD in it as the primary drive. In the end that would come under $1000 and would be a great laptop - fast, relatively good battery life and absolutely bulletproof hardware. It simply would not die. It would be the Rocky Balboa of laptops. Hell, it would even be capable of playing some fairly decent games too if you ever decided you wanted to. Although obviously not suited for gaming, it would be able to play GTAV at 720p.

Originally Posted by paulie

Hijack.
I so don't get these so called 'specs' for the computers..
Ive bought 4 new laptops and each time i buy a new one i always try to get better than what i had. (Faster processor, more ram etc etc).
I show the sales guy exactly what i had and what i do.
Everytime its "This laptop will be almost twice as fast blah blah blah"
And i get stung everytime. I swear my original laptop was just as fast as my latest fang dangle wizz popper. And that cost me $700. The new laptop close to $2k...
For browsing the net i expect the page to just pop open. Not take 10-15 seconds.
Why the hell does it still sit buffering on a 15min youtube clip?
Old laptop had dismal ram etc and old ****** dongle sim internet.
New laptop has about 4times the ram etc and fastest nbn i could get.
All the sales people can say is. Each computer works differently. ...
That be like ford telling me why a new car (mustang/xr8 whatever?) Performs worse than a feista...... if something is better on the paper they are using to entice a buy then it should bloody work like that.
Did a back to back test of old vs new. Old laptop actually opens some pages faster than new. Its also ready to use quicker to.

My next laptop is going to be a sub $300 cheapie i think.

It seems like we live in a world which is increasingly replacing religious worship with the worship of technology. It does get annoying updating all the time and seemingly still staying behind the times after spending big.

Still there are ways you can get maximum bang for buck. I have one idea that could help speed up your laptop. It will at least stop you from wasting $300 on a really crap laptop that you will hate at any rate.

Does your current laptop have a hard disk drive or a solid disk drive as the primary drive?

If you're using a HDD, I strongly (STRONGLY) recommend that you upgrade to an SSD. You will never, ever want to use a computer with a HDD once you have experienced an SSD. Adding an SSD to an old PC will make it seem so much quicker for general use.

Look up what they are or maybe even watch the first few minutes of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLS6RrLnQOc

You can get a cheap Sandisk or Kingston 120GB SSD for about $65 on ebay and use your existing HDD as a secondary drive (most laptops have provisions for at least two 2.5" drives). I would recommend spending a bit more and getting a larger capacity (240GB) drive if you use a lot of different programs frequently and will actually use that space.

On the topic of videos loading slowly. This could be many things.

Sometimes videos just won't load because computers are really logical but extremely stupid and I found this plug-in for firefox that is essentially the best thing that ever existed: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...eo-everywhere/

^ This will force the video to play in HTML5 - basically it will just make the video work when nothing else will and it's really simple to use as well.

If that doesn't work, the issue probably is not with your PC or your internet connection but the server the video is located on. Quite often the servers become over-saturated and can't provide data for all of the clients which are trying to access them. This happens to me all the time on popular sites youtube even though I have the most expensive internet I can possibly get where I live and I have enthusiast-grade computers.

Finally there is also the possibility that the videos you're trying to load are just in a higher definition than you were previously accessing and therefore there is a lot more data to download than before. For example, going up from 720p to 1080p means you will need to download a lot more data because 1080p has more than twice as many pixels. 1280x720 = 921,600 pixels and 1920x1080 = 2,071,600 pixels.



I used to work in tech support and I guess it stuck with me because I still occasionally enjoy helping people with their tech problems... even though working one minute in tech support will strip you of your soul and make you hate the entire human race for the rest of your life.

All the best.

[GXL078]

Originally Posted by Junkyard-Dog

It seems like we live in a world which is increasingly replacing religious worship with the worship of technology.

I will always worship the holy trinity that is the 351 , the top loader and the 9 inch diff. And Dick Johnson.

[Junkyard-Dog]

Originally Posted by GXL078

I will always worship the holy trinity that is the 351 , the top loader and the 9 inch diff. And Dick Johnson.

Yeah, I agree. Technology is great!

[paulie]

Yeah the new laptop i got is i7 core with 10gb ram and has a solid state drive i think its 240 or 250gb? And has a dedicated graphics card apparantly. Plus a few other things.
Its definitely no quicker than my old one. Which i think is i5 and 4gb ram, 1tb hard drive. (Not solid state)
I dont do anything crazy with it. Check emails surf net, youtube etc.
Ive found using my phone now to be just as easy /quick so i don't use the laptop as much now as i rend to get p#ssed off with it.

[Junkyard-Dog]

It depends what you even mean by "faster" and which tasks you're trying to accomplish. I find it extremely hard to believe that you don't get a better experience in general use with the newer system with SSD than you did with the older system.

If that is that case you must have a "virus" or a lot of bloatware installed.

[paulie]

Obviously im not a techi. Or id probably not be in the position im in all the time.
Ive got malware and virus protection that says the computer is clear and safe?
There is alot of cr@p i have never used nor will i ever on here when i got the computer. Yet there is no word or excel or paint etc on it due to now having to pay a cr@ppy yearly rate etc for it.
To me i think the computers have most definitely been getting slower as the programs get newer xp, vista, windows 7 etc etc.
Tempted to wipe it and try putting my old xp onto it with all my programs i have purchased, word, excel etc.

[Junkyard-Dog]

Originally Posted by paulie

Obviously im not a techi. Or id probably not be in the position im in all the time.
Ive got malware and virus protection that says the computer is clear and safe?
There is alot of cr@p i have never used nor will i ever on here when i got the computer. Yet there is no word or excel or paint etc on it due to now having to pay a cr@ppy yearly rate etc for it.
To me i think the computers have most definitely been getting slower as the programs get newer xp, vista, windows 7 etc etc.
Tempted to wipe it and try putting my old xp onto it with all my programs i have purchased, word, excel etc.

I get what you're saying. Even though I don't like making assumptions, I'm going to go ahead and assume that your laptop uses an Intel CPU (mainly because of the price you quoted).

Intel is no longer focusing on making performance increases with each new generation of CPU and they are mainly focusing on energy efficiency instead. They have no real competition (AMD has been lagging way behind for many years) and have no real reason to put out better chips from a business perspective. There is actually a lot of politics behind it all but it seems that all CPU manufacturers have been focusing primarily on the mobile market, which is probably another reason the benefits are mainly seen for energy efficiency as well.

This is the reason you're not seeing the performance increase you (rightfully) expect. To be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed when I upgraded from my ancient LGA 1156-based system to an LGA 1151-based system as well. However I did see many other benefits besides just outright speed so that made it all acceptable.

tl;dr: Intel isn't making CPUs as fast as they could at the moment because they have no reason to. They have no real competition and we (the end user) are being overcharged for what they are selling as a result. I don't think we've seen any really big performance increases since about 2009-2010 when LGA 1156 was released to replace LGA 775 in Intel's desktop consumer range.

[Lunch]

Really idiot? There wasn't enough room in front of you, you had to park that close to me?

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by Lunch

image

Really idiot? There wasn't enough room in front of you, you had to park that close to me?

Didn't you know that when the parking sensors beep solid then you're parked? I also hate it when you are the only car in a carpark, yet the next person decides to park right next to you, not in the other hundred free spaces.

[paulie]

And they usually have a pram/kid seats in back. .

[GXL078]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

Didn't you know that when the parking sensors beep solid then you're parked? I also hate it when you are the only car in a carpark, yet the next person decides to park right next to you, not in the other hundred free spaces.

Even worse is when the have a one month old new car, park right away from everyone else and they come and park right next to and open their van door onto your front guard and you get your first damage to your new car.

Also, hate those dumb people that have Super cheap staff install light globes for them instead of being in the store to open tool and paint cupboards. And when it rains same lot come in for wiper blades. And Battery World has a staff of one trying to fit batteries to 4 cars at once.

[Lunch]

The bigger problem is, see the footpath in the foreground running away from the camera, it continues on the other side of the road ( hidden behind the Mazda ) I woke up this morning, looked out the window and watched a guy walking his dog squeeze through the gap

[.:4:.]

For the sake of 4 steps to the right? I thought walking the dog was exercise.

[ford71V8]

Originally Posted by Lunch

The bigger problem is, see the footpath in the foreground running away from the camera, it continues on the other side of the road ( hidden behind the Mazda ) I woke up this morning, looked out the window and watched a guy walking his dog squeeze through the gap

I see this stuff way too much, Idiots!

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

I see this stuff way too much, Idiots!

Its even worse when the driver who out of 100 spots decides to park beside you, then fold your mirror in to get their fat body past. It's better then when they knock it forward I suppose, but if in a crappy van like my last work car. You had to phsycally move it back to your spot, and often that took weeks to get right. Geez I hate the general public

[xr6-FTW]

Nah nah, nothings worse then parking your car in a different csr spot because not only is it more convient but also on that particular day there wasnt many cars around, only to walk over to your car later on and see a nice big scrape mark on the drivers side rear bumper, bunch of ****en assholes that can't drive

[XR6WGN]

Daughter had her 2015 Yaris written off this time last year - hit up the rear by an in-attentive driver on the SE Freeway. She got herself another one recently and I noticed someone had hit this one too!!

Why can't people, if they touch up some one else's car, just say "sorry here's my details"??? Now she has to pay to get it fixed - not big enough though to go through insurance!

[commodorenutt]

When you drop a brand new clay bar on the ground.......

Still annoyed....

[xr8cam]

When you finally find the spare part your looking for advertised on a national site but the idiot selling it wont take it to the post office because there is not enough money in it for him. Yes people, he is the one making the asking price. So just a reminder to people selling parts: put all your little can't do's at the top of the add or better still, leave it to people who want to sell what they advertise.

[xr8cam]

Originally Posted by commodorenutt

When you drop a brand new clay bar on the ground.......

Still annoyed....

Rip em in half before you use it, you only need one third of a 100gm bar to work effectively. Put a clean towel or sheet under your work area. If it is dropped, throw it out, no buts.

[GXL078]

Originally Posted by commodorenutt

When you drop a brand new clay bar on the ground.......

Still annoyed....

It's just trying to get back where it came from.

[commodorenutt]

Originally Posted by xr8cam

Rip em in half before you use it, you only need one third of a 100gm bar to work effectively. Put a clean towel or sheet under your work area. If it is dropped, throw it out, no buts.

It was the 2nd half (the still new half) of a Bowden's one. I like them because they come as a 2-pack, and the size is about right for larger hands.

I started trying to pick a couple of bits out, gave up, tossed it in the bin, and reverted back to the old bar....

Not real practical at my place to put a towel down - I clay them after a decent wash, and everywhere is soaking wet. Mind you it's the first time I've ever dropped one, and I do 2 cars about every 6 months or so, with the occasional added attention on the front end after an interstate trip.

[.:4:.]

People who instantly forget how do drive because it starts raining. Negotiating the flooded roads in Alexandria today and twice cars jumped out of the left lane with me up to their back doors, causing me to lock up (abs but still) and come within a whisker of a prang.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

People who instantly forget how do drive because it starts raining. Negotiating the flooded roads in Alexandria today and twice cars jumped out of the left lane with me up to their back doors, causing me to lock up (abs but still) and come within a whisker of a prang.

It's amazing isn't it!

[Sar4890]

What's even worse is when it starts raining some drivers think they are wet weather "experts" and start weaving in and out of traffic like the road is a rally special stage.