PC – Mostly Harmless

September 17, 2015

My small Windows 10 review

It was my 240GB SanDisk SSD Plus drive that bit the dust. I’m calling the manufacturer because I got the drive in July.

I’m getting a lot of practice rebuilding my PC. With that drive out I move the 3 TB into the first slot. Once that was done I re-installed Windows 10 and I’m back and running.

If you have Windows 7 and haven’t upgraded yet then you should. On my setup since there was no touch screen it’s defaults to acting and behaving like the previous versions.

There is one new feature I like: built in virtual desktops. If you use that you just click the Task View icon on the task bar and add a new desktop. The only thing I changed was as follows.

In the lower right hand corner is the notification icon, click that and you’ll get to see the “All settings” box. Click that then navigate to System -> Multitasking and change the Virtual Desktop settings from “Only the desktop I’m using”

to “All desktops”.

That way you can alt-tab through all your programs. When I created multiple desktops and could not see the other running apps in the task bar I did a double take.

Aside from the new look, Windows 10 runs just as well as my old Windows 7 did. It’s a free upgrade and I’m glad that I made the switch.

September 15, 2015

I was all set to write a small Windows 10 review too

Yesterday I came home and did my usual routine.

Ate dinner (I get home after 7 PM).
Changed and watched some quick TV.
Eventually headed to my PC to check the Interwebz (meaning: play FPS video games, my son wanted to show me something he earned on Steam).

I turned on my monitor and my PC was frozen at the BIOS boot screen. Weird. A quick reboot and I received the following message on my screen.

The SSD you put into this PC less than 2 months ago is about to suffer imminent and permanent death. Please back up all of your data again and press F2 to continue. Press F10 to enter the BIOS.

P.S. You suck.

That may not be the exact wording. You get the idea.

That PC is soon going to turn 6 years old. When this happened with the original drive a couple of months ago I believed it. I leave my PC on all the time and the old HD was slowing down and giving me grief.

Now it seems like there is something screwy with the system itself. Either that or I hit the jackpot and my SSD is dead but I find that unlikely.

I turned off the whole works, unplugged the PC and contemplated running to Best Buy and getting a new one right there. Then Lily got home and a calmer head prevailed. I explained what happened and in between my outbursts she got the idea.

Lily: “Don’t just get one right now. Do some research first and then decide.”

Grownups. They just don’t understand the thrill of instant gratification.

Except for being able to play Windows games, the dead PC isn’t that big a deal. Almost all productive work can be done on my old MacBook Air. I have a separate work laptop so my work from home days are not effected. Still, it’s a major pain and will kill more of my down time.

Oh, Windows 10 is good. Except for changing 2 settings and not having any use for the animated start menu, it really is a sensible upgrade from Windows 7.

December 17, 2009

New PC vs old

81 lb monster? Meet your 32 lb replacement.

The old PC was a Core 2 Duo with two 150 GB hard drives and 8 GB of RAM. The video card is a Nvidia GTX-260 (forgot how much RAM that has).

The new one’s specs can be found here. If the old worked reliably I would not have gotten a new one. But as we say at work “It is what it is, and we are where we are”.

I’m probably going to clean off the old keyboard as I don’t like the new one too much. The new PC is fast and I like it.

December 6, 2009

That’s all I can take!

After my complaining and moaning for months my Dell XPS 720 refuses to boot up this morning. Again. That’s the final straw and I ordered a new PC this morning.

I was planning on building my own PC but the fact is I don’t have time to do that. Building a PC from parts is not really fun for me anymore and I just want the flipping thing to work.

I have been purchasing Dell equipment for years and recommend them to people all the time. But lately the Dell experience has soured. Even my buying a budget Ubuntu based Mini from Dell turned into a horror show.

In my basement I have a HP/Compaq Presario 8000. It’s 8 years old and has never given me any problems. That’s the sort of experience I’m hoping for with this new model so HP gets the nod from me today.

So with a budget in hand I purchased the following PC online from HP.

HP Pavilion Elite e9280t PC

    • Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
    • Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-920 processor [2.66GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache]
    • 12GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [6 DIMMs]
    • 1.5TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
    • 1.8GB NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260 [2 DVI, HDMI and VGA adapters]
    • LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
    • Integrated 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) Ethernet, No wireless LAN
    • 15-in-1 memory card reader, 1 USB, 1394, audio
    • No TV Tuner
    • Integrated 7.1 channel sound with front audio ports
    • No speakers
    • HP multimedia keyboard and HP optical mouse
    • Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
    • Norton Internet Security(TM) 2010 - 15 month
    • HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Estimated build date: December 16, 2009

I came in $43 over budget. Lily will forgive me.

I’ll remove most of the HP consumer software and put on my own. This will be a drop in replacement for the 81lb behemoth next to my desk. It’s not a top of the line PC gaming rig but it is a good upgrade from my existing PC. Hopefully I will get it before Christmas.

I can’t wait for my XPS 720 to come out of it’s drunken stupor and give it the news of it’s replacement.

November 1, 2009

IT Band-aid solutions

This is what happens when you want to save money. You work around problems. See that power strip above my PC? It’s super velcro’ed to my desk.

it-band-aid

My PC has been acting up for a while this year. After a few hours of usage, it gets to a point that if I need to restart the PC, it’s 50/50 if it will come back to life. The common denominator is that if I leave my PC plugged into the power socket over night, I won’t be able to use my PC in the morning.

I would have to reach behind my PC and pull the cord out of the power supply. I don’t know if it’s the power supply or the mother board, but I don’t want to spend any money on this machine. I just got into the habit of pulling the plug when I shut the PC down.

That’s not very technical so today I went to Radio Shack and picked up a power strip and some super velcro. I stuck the strip onto the side of my desk and have my PC, speakers, monitor, and WD MyBook plugged in. When I shut down the computer, I wait till it’s fully off and toggle the strip’s on off switch.

It’s low tech but does the job for now.

September 14, 2009

PC really does need replacing

I was playing the new F.E.A.R.2 add on when my PC froze up hard again. Looks like I’ll be getting a new one in October.

Tag: PC (page 1 of 1)

My small Windows 10 review

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I was all set to write a small Windows 10 review too

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New PC vs old

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That’s all I can take!

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IT Band-aid solutions

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PC really does need replacing

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Jan Dembowski