Awhile back I picked up an ASUS laptop for $200 at Best Buy on clearance in the open box section and after having used it for over a year I have found it's about the cheapest POS out there. For starters it would freeze up all the time out of the blue but perhaps the worst thing was the keyboard that would automatically erase entire paragraphs as you were typing! Obviously I think this had something to do with the mouse pad just below the keyboard but I was writing a heated article tonight when it did this to me for the very last time.
Computers are the one thing on this planet that seem to be getting worse & worse every year, with more trouble & faults than they're worth.
I honestly blame Windows / Microsoft for creating lesser & lesser operating systems than they use to.
Better luck with the next one !
Rastus
PS. Mine has it's quirks, but I'm lucky it hasn't shat itself just yet. I have not allowed it to up-date since Christmas however...
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
Thanks, now if only I would have thought to back up my data before losing my cool... LOL
Good thing the kid has the newer style hard drive hookups on his computer, I can just purge the drive on there and send the files to the Cloud drive.
I can tell you, there is a big difference when it comes to quality between brands. I agree they are getting cheaper and that Windows 10 has had its problems but for the most part these problems I was having were more or less hardware and poor quality issues. The Windows 10 was really starting to perform like a champ with the updates and I was very satisfied with the OS although I was on the "free" upgrade and was able to swallow what many consider to be privacy concerns. I have even purchased a new version of Windows 10 for the kids computer and I must say I'd have no problems using it again.
I'm on the fence if I should get a Mac or another PC. I'm so pissed at Apple right now I wouldn't buy a mouse pad from them let alone a computer.... So it could be awhile.
-- Edited by SELLC on Tuesday 20th of September 2016 08:59:24 AM
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
First thing the wife said when she got up this morning and saw it on the floor was, "If you think you're going to use that as an excuse to buy a new computer you're crazy"!
LOL.... She's on to me!
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
Before last Christmas, I though I'd give the computer an up-date, ( it had been 9-months, & working fine ), so I let it do its thing & usually it allows me to pick & choose what up-dates to install. The next time I fired it up, it said "Do not turn off your computer, Windows 10 is installing"...
I couldn't believe that it automatically installed, & I was really disappointed...And then I spent the next day adjusting it back to "normal", & then Windows says "You prefer the operating system of Windows 7 by the way you have configured this device"...The funny part is that I had been running Windows 8.1, as that's what it came installed with LOL !
So now my poor little lap-top doesn't really know what's going on... But the problem for me when Windows 10 automatically installed without my permission, is that I lost all my Restore-Points, so there was no turning back...
I guess your trusty old desk-top will be getting some use again !!!
Cheers,
Rastus
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
Yes, the ole' "Vagina" as it is named aka Gateway 2.0 GHZ single core was put back into service yesterday to print a repair order.
Thing is, I may have really screwed myself, because although the hard drive looked okay it wont recognize on my kids supercomputer I built him that has SATA provisions. I wanted to make sure it wasn't the OS, so I removed a hard drive from another laptop I have (this one suffered rain damage from being left outside playing music when a downpour came thru). Dispite the water damage to the other computer, it's hard drive is recognized and instantly is added into the my devices and is accessible.
I think I may have really fu@ked up, because I got a little over a years worth of data on that drive and honestly things were going so smooth I didn't really back up a few things. All my photos are safe because they are in deep storage and any new ones are still on my iPhone, which automatically sends them to my WD cloud drive. But other systems data have been effected.
I'm wondering what options I have to try and access this drive beyond what I have already tried. When it plugs in you can feel and hear it spin up and working, but it just wont mount into the windows. Might have to try some kind of DOS program and see if maybe the partition got messed up if it was writing to the drive when it met it's demise.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
But don't let this stuff nag you to death either...What's lost is lost...
If it's that important however, there are some super-computer-geeks that work in computer stores that will tell you in an instant where you stand with it. And if you're lucky, & they're not busy, they can plug in straight away & tell you where you stand before being charged an hours labor for 2-minutes work...
Cheers,
Rastus
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
I'm going to give it another go and then if that don't work I might just take that advise and go see a friend who's in the computer business. If he says it's dead, I'll swallow my pride and look for a super geek.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
All I meant was that computer stores usually have "super computer" that's meant to be able to open up everything & save what's inside.
You're good with computers & programs SELLC, it's just that at this stage, maybe your computers don't have that program or ability to open-her-up.
Good luck !
Rastus
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
Yeah Stoma, I got almost two years out of an open box ASUS laptop. Outside of the annoying built in mouse pad that was too sensitive, it was a pretty good buy considering I see them selling now for over $700. Of course I did buy towards the black Friday and holiday season so obviously there were more deals on returns than what you would find today. I must admit that ASUS had a mighty fine quality monitor as my most recent replacement was not an open box return,
So who is laughing now Stoma? This photo was taken with an Apple iPhone, Air Dropped to the Mac, modified and then hosted. So nice having everything Apple.
Anyway, I am having to learn an entirely new OS but to be honest, I am pretty impressed with what I have learned thus far. Not only that, Apple sent me a magic keyboard, trackpad and two lightning charger cords because they introduced the new OS last week and I had to spend all night downloading that. So I pretty much skipped every Mac OS from ElCapitan on down. I am really impressed with this little mini Mac however. I would like to get a 1 TB solid state drive eventually, along with a thunderbolt HDMI display, but even as is with the kids low dollar insignia TV its pretty impressive! Still getting use to this TracPad thingy
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
SO WHICH ONE OF YOUR HARD DRIVES STORES ALL THAT GAY PORN YOU BE DOWNLOADIN?????????? AHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YOU KNOW REX IS ALL ABOUT CLASS WHEN HES GOT AN INSIGNIA WALMART BRAND TV IN HIS TRAILER HOME....... AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!
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LIKE A PHOENIX RISING FROM THE ASHES.................... HERE TO SHIT ON REX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Insignia is temporary, and I agree it's total $hit! Great green and blue colors but pinkish reds. I didn't realize Apple quit selling their thunderbolt displays, so now I have to try and source one used. So for now, I am using the kids TV he drags around to friends when they are playing some PS4 BS.
I picked up two of them insignia monitors three years ago when I purchased a Frigidaire refrigerator. Got them both for less than $80 each on the bundle deal. Nothing high end about the monitor, but they weren't originally purchased for high end performance considering they were being given to 10 and 12 year old kids. I am glad they held up because even though the reds suck, its been better than nothing. Thing is, I been looking for a few days now and no one local is selling a thunderbolt display. So I figure I'll just wait for the new iMac 27 inch 5k retina to be released in November and hand this Mac Mini and it's Insignia monitor down to the kids. So eh... Yeah... Now what?
I hope to be more profficiant with the Mac OS by November and have all my data properly organized. I really like the way the Mac handles the data and although I was not impressed with some of the specs, once all the uploading and such has been finished the unit really clips along and a nice speed! It's very nice having most all advertisements stripped from my web browsing, and the unit makes virtually no sound at all! Next time around, if I do decide to get the newer 5k Mac, I'd defiantly opt for the solid state drive or just hold off. The speed improvements with SS drives is such that after having used them, I have a hard time with regular 5600 and 7200 RPM disk hard drives.
I'm still a little peeved that the keyboard and mouse pad are white. For a mechanic that's like a total no-no, but they were free so WTF.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
Here's me saying in a few different posts about computers ( lap-tops ) only giving you a confident 2-years work, with a 3rd-year as an added bonus, when my now 3-year old Toshiba didn't want to start....
It hasn't ended up looking like your Asus SELLC, but I was quite disappointed when it dropped-its-load without warning this morning...Just didn't want to boot up...
I write this on a Windows-10 kitted Acer ES-15, that has similar hardware to the old Toshiba, though a 1-Terrabite HD has been added, if anything else, to the quad-core processing. It's not as fancy spec-wise ( Celeron vs Intell etc etc ), but it was cheap LOL ! And its very much more streamlined in an all-black enclosure, though no-where near as flimsy as the now departed Toshiba, may the poor bastard RIP. ( It did have to suffer through 3-Windows operating up-dates remember, & still kicked-on for 3-years relatively well, if not super-stabley LOL, so I'm not being too hard on it)...
Time will tell with this Acer, but so far, I'm impressed...It's only taken me 2-hrs to get it safe & working as it should, when compared with 2-days on the Toshiba. And the RAM installed on the Toshiba swapped straight over to give me my 16-Gb again. Cool.
Ciao,
Rastus
NB. I couldn't find any Toshiba's or Asus's when I went looking LOL !
-- Edited by Rastus on Wednesday 26th of October 2016 10:07:44 AM
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
A quick visit to a friend who made me up a Windows 8.1 starter-disc, has seen a new lease of life resurrected in the old Toshiba lap-top....It seems that Microsoft ( like Apple ) enjoy working-people over LOL ! Now-days, your computer won't come with its own repair disc, so you have to either spend more money on it, or buy a new one...I'm lucky this worked, but who knows for how long ?...
I thought about reinstating it for main duties, but seeing the 8.1 lay-out again, & the 2-day head-ache getting it to look like a regular computer lay-out, I'm going to pass it on to my older brother...
It seems that my older brothers computer had a dump too a few weeks ago, though on a permanent basis, so he'll be getting the old Toshiba, running 8.1, with the up-dates turned off...
Let's see how long it lasts now LOL.
BTW, this new Acer actually is an improvement on the Toshiba, as it has I-5 architecture...The same model is not available in the US-of-A ( as yet ), so it's actually an up-to-date technology-wise work-horse...I hope it lasts, as with the Toshiba.
Cheers,
Rastus
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
Glad to hear that your old laptop pulled thru! I went to extremes trying to get mine working again, even changed the platters from one drive to another to see if I could save the data. In the end it was all a waste of time as it would not read the platters once transferred. It was pretty cool getting into the insides of a hard drive once again, but the last one I took apart was the older ones which were much bigger. I tell you what, there is some pretty tight clearances in there! Not quite as high tech as say, opening up a newer iPhone, but pretty delicate let me tell you! Upon removal of the last platter, after I tried to swap them back to their original drives, the bottom platter bound up and literally shattered like glass! They must be making these discs out of ceramic or glass because I have never seen that before! In the old drives you couldn't even cut the platters with a pair of good quality dikes!
So, I gave it an honest try... I lost some data but nothing that was on my Apple phone, my Western Digital book drives or the old computer I call the "vagina". The data loss is of course my fault, but the poor quality of the mouse pad being too sensitive lead to that machines ultimate demise. I like the fact you handed the unit down to family! That's the best IMHO, I would have really like to hand down the old ASUS to the wife, but obviously that wasn't an option. The only option was the trash can. Overall the ASUS wasn't a bad computer for only paying $200 for it! Not bad at all! But I really do enjoy this new Mac, there is just a lot more to learn than with Windows. Really miss solid state drives as I am used to my phone, which by the way is the new 7 plus 256 gb in Jet Black... Yeah, I went and got one when they had some in the stores. Checked today and they are already sold out again. At least I was able to hand down my old iPhone 6 plus to the wife so now she has a bigger screen and a much better phone with adequate storage.
Glad to hear your computer woes were resolved with a happy ending! I am sure your brother will appreciate the hardware and just knowing it's still in service still feel like you're getting your moneys worth out of it, even if you're not using it.
On a side note, the Mac Mini runs off an Intel i5 processor too. I was mulling getting the kid an i7 octacore back last December when building his gaming desktop but the $1200+ price tag of just the processor made it cost prohibitive. He still uses his 8 core AMD Black 4.0 GHZ gaming computer every day. He's got a real fine setup and even though I don't get to use it, it feels good to know it's still plugging along. I have always been an Intel guy, but I have been impressed with AMD for the money. There is just something about value that tickles me in all the right places! LOL
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
Too bad you couldn't save the data mate ! It looks like you went to a lot of trouble to get it out, but the breakage says-it-all...Great photos too BTW, I'm sure plenty of people would be surprised to find that their hard drive resembles the old record player LOL !
The Toshiba arrived at my brothers yesterday, so no more stress about postal theft LOL. My niece is at Uni studying to become a teacher ( I think ), so I recommended that he give it to her, so she can have the "I.T."-persons set the ****er up, so that it stays away from updates & Windows-10. Fingers crossed...He only uses it irregularly anyhow, so it should turn into a great family pet over time. I just hope it hangs in there for a few years at least, before the next big dump. At least it's a software issue, not a hardware problem.
My new Acer is working well, but swallowing the data at twice the rate of my old one. Delving deep into Windows process-manager & services "should" stop the automatic updates...I've "stopped" the processes, but all I could get as a response was "shutting down", so I'll have to wait until my next reboot to see if I've succeeded....But something tells me that it won't be a success.
I should have the right to choose how my money & data is consumed. ( It's expensive here in Oz, nearly as bad as fuel )...
I'm glad your boys computer is still firing away with no issue ! It's really only the lap-tops that can / do cause you grief more often IMO. The only reason that I don't get mine fixed, is simply due to economics & age. Computer repairers here charge around $120:00 per hour, & that's just to look at your computer with no fixes, but a possible diagnosis...Assuming a further 2-hours is needed to repair, & say a $100:00 sata-disc is fitted, you're up for a total of $460:00 for a repaired 3-year old lap-top. My new lap-top with a 1-year warranty cost me $495:00...So you can see why I opted for a new one !
Cheers,
Rastus
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
$200 OPEN BOX SPECIAL!!!!!!! AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
