wherein Liz gives up on her computer

[edenfalling]

I had a car for four months and a bit. During that time, my computer behaved itself.

The minute I gave the car back to my parents (well, okay, the next day, but still!), my computer went back to its old tricks. More than half the time, it refuses to start at all, just whirrs and makes distressed beeping noises at me. When it does start, it often crashes within five minutes. Even when it seems to be working just fine, it will occasionally freeze or just flick to black and beep at me. And when I wake it from sleep, it's as if I've just started it, and it plays out the same crash-within-five-minutes game.

This is a hardware problem. I am 99% sure of that, because the only way to fix it is percussive maintenance -- literally, I hit the computer tower, or pick it up and drop it, and whatever part of the hard drive is ever-so-slightly misaligned will slip back into place and start working... until it slips out again and cuts to black.

Also, it's getting on to summer and my computer deals very badly with heat. I do not have air conditioning, and fans only do so much.

The last straw, though, was my complete and utter failure to make my computer function so I could talk to Vicky via Skype this morning. I spent 9:30 to 10:30am trying to get the damn machine to turn on and stay on, and got less than nowhere.

So I am admitting defeat. It's time to buy a new computer. Something that is much more physically robust and can function regularly in temperatures over 85% (and stifling humidity), or in utter bone-dry winter, and also will not pitch fits if and when I move to a new apartment, because moving is what really did in my current computer -- it was only mildly temperamental in my old place, as compared to its utterly infuriating prima donna diva fits these days.

Vicky thinks I should get a laptop this time, and says she will email me with lots of thoughts, but second opinions are also good. Any advice would be appreciated.

Bear in mind that I all I can do with a computer is use it for word processing, accessing the internet, listening to music, and watching DVDs. Maybe once every two years, I scan a picture or make a journal icon. That is also all I care about doing with a computer. Any bells and whistles will be useless waste, and I cannot and will not build anything myself, no matter how much money it would save.

ETA: I get kicked off the library computer in half an hour, and there is no telling when my computer will deign to start this evening, but I really am interested in advice even if I won't get to read it for a good while!

Comments

[theodosia21]

The last time I looked at Consumer Reports, they had this brand reliability ranking list, from best to worst: Toshiba, Acer, Apple, Lenovo, Gateway, Sony, HP, and Dell. *shrugs* My current laptop's HP, and it's served me pretty well for the last four and a half years, but it's getting rather creaky now. The next laptop I buy will probably be a Toshiba, but I haven't decided which one yet. But if all you want is the bare basics, there's probably not that much difference from one laptop to another.

You might find this list of budget laptops helpful: http://reviews.cnet.com/laptop-reviews/?filter=1101502_8660184

[edenfalling]

My current computer is also HP... *ponders* I don't want to buy Apple because I have been using PCs so long that I find Macs somewhat counterintuitive, but I think I have seen Toshiba and Lenovo machines in this area. I will keep them in mind.

Thank you for the link!

[pineapplechild]

so first question: how much do you want to spend and second, do you really want a laptop? I am slightly spoilt by being able to build mine, but unless you really want a laptop for mobility reasons, desktops are generally longer lasting as the components are not under S much stress.

[pineapplechild]

that's an as, not S

[edenfalling]

I don't want to spend more than a thousand dollars, and would prefer not to spend over 800, but I am not desperately seeking the cheapest options.

I don't personally care whether I get a laptop or desktop, since the computer will effectively act as a desktop no matter what. It might be nice to have the option of taking a laptop on vacation, but I've done just fine without up 'til now, so that's not especially important. Vicky is the one who thinks I should get a laptop.

The thing is, neither my current desktop nor my previous desktop were what I would call long-lasting or particularly resilient machines. And laptops, which are intended to be moved around, are presumably built to withstand temperature shifts and being banged into things as part of moving from one place and environment to another. So I'd think a laptop that wasn't moved much might actually do better at surviving me than desktops seem to.

[pineapplechild]

Without knowing what exactly you had before, I can't speak specifically to that, but in general laptops, having all of the parts crammed in in such close space, tend to suffer from either over heating (there's just not a lot of heat dispersion you can get in a laptop case, and while there are better set ups, not only do a lot of motherboards overheat, but I have my suspicions that the heat leads to a lot of the harddrive failures before their time as well.)

Looking at laptops, if durability is key, I have found Lenovo ThinkPads to be absolute truckers. Dells, in my experience, have the worst problems with shoddy parts and heating, even in the Alienware stuff. Acers are generally pretty good, although recently I've been hearing that they're getting a bit hit and miss-- when they're good, they're very very good, but when they're bad they're horrid, sort of thing. Toshibas, also generally pretty good. Not a fan of HP.

Looking at desktops, Lenovo and Acers are my favs. Dells tend to last forever, but generally get a bit shambling zombie at the end.

I know you said you are not a Mac person, but my personal favorite, laptop and desktop, is Apple, and if you don't want to go Apple, Lenovo.

Nice thing about the laptop is that if you've already got an old external you can hook it up so the laptop displays on the monitor or extends on it. Dual monitors all the way!

All of this advice is culled from four years of university tech support (and the things the law students do to their computers...!), and years plus of personal techiness.

[edenfalling]

My first computer was a Dell something or other... Optiplex, maybe? My current one is an HP -- I think it's called a Pavilion.

The other thing about laptops, which only occurred to me after I posted, is that I could take a laptop with me on the bus to a repair shop. I cannot do the same with a desktop. So even if laptops break down more often, I might get more usable life out of one, all things considered. *wry*

From what I'm hearing, Lenovo and Toshiba seem to make the best laptops. I will definitely keep that in mind!

[autumnia]

Do you have a preference for Mac or PC? If the former, then go get yourself a Macbook Pro. I think from your light usage, the 13" should work very well.

I am more of a PC user myself but I own both. My Mac is the 13" Macbook Pro and I just bought a new Dell (XPS 15") laptop. For me, the Mac is my "light" machine -- it's small enough to tote around and can do heavy-duty work if needed as well as watch movies and such. Also wonderful is that the battery power on a Mac is much better than a PC; I can keep the Mac unplugged much, much longer than the 2 hours or so the PC gives me.

My Dell is probably more than what you would need it for (I do design work personally/professionally so it's a bit more souped up in terms of graphics and such). Dells have been my go-to machines though I'm not really in love in with my new one but it does do what I need (and 95% of my current software is Windows only).

Also, laptops are so much preferable to desktops. There's the portability factor but I love it for the fact that it only requires one plug instead of taking up so many slots on a power strip.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Good luck on the computer/laptop hunt. Percussive maintenance - never heard the term but I understand! *nods*

[drich.livejournal.com]

Staples and Office Depot regularly have reasonable sales on various desktop and laptop computers. Not sure if you have either store in your area to physically view and handle the machines but they both have online sites.

[chibirisuchan.livejournal.com]

I love love LOOOOOOVE my netbook. Asus EEE that gets 11 hours of battery life, for around $350 a couple years ago, so probably even less now. It's got a keyboard with full size keys so I'm perfectly fine shifting between it and another computer for typing, but it's tiny and lightweight and I can actually fit it in my purse and did I mention the 11 hours of battery life? :D It's literally half an inch longer than a stenographer's notebook and very little wider.

I love it to bits, especially when I compare it to the 20-pound 18-inch-screen "laptop" that work officially provides but which sucks up so much power that I regularly have meetings that run longer than its battery. I bought the EEE as a replacement work machine, and have never regretted it.

I can use it all day at work whether or not I see a power plug, and still have some juice left over for weekends. While it's not intended as an intensive high-speed gamer machine, it does have the oomph to be able to watch videos (YouTube, Hulu, an external DVD player, etc).

Really, what I do with it sounds a lot like what you do with it. It's my portable word processor, web page designer, music collection, email access point, and occasional video watcher. Mine's XP Home Version because it's a couple years old; you'd probably want to get Windows 7 now.

To me, netbooks hit the sweet spot between smartphones and full-size laptops/desktops. Small and portable, but also with a full-size hard drive for music collection storage and an actual keyboard. I write way too much to deal with a smartphone keyboard or a tablet touch panel!

Them's my two cents anyway... /geek hat

[vehrec.livejournal.com]

Too bad about scratch building. I've personally had quite a bit of luck with that, but to each their own. I think cooling systems are obviously something you're going to be interested in, so all I can say is an over-sized heat sink will be your friend. Obvious advice but really, I'm hard pressed to think of anything else you've posted that can make any demands of modern equipment.

Macs have always struck me as style over substance, and if you're doing fine with a PC and aren't doing heavy media editing or creation, then avoid them.

If you really truly want toughness as the final arbiter of your computer, and military styling is no obstacle, then look no further than the toughbooks. After all, a computer that can still function in Iraq or Afghanistan after being shot is certainly overkill for your needs. The price is likewise overkill.

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

I'd go with a laptop if you aren't needing a ton of memory such as what a designer or something would need. Its nice to be on the go with a computer if needed and because they are built to be moved, they are likely to be much more resiliant.

This will really depend on what you yourself like, but...Personally, I love macs. I'm equally familar with both PCs and macs (I work at an elementary as a computer lab manager and use both), and think most people like what they are most familar with. Both my laptops were macs, and had my first laptop for over five years and it was still running absolutely fine when I bought my new one (the only downfall was the five year old one was no longer comatible with the newer versions of photoshop, which I used a lot.) I have the old one around as a back up and in those five years I only ever had one problem with it (needing more memory). No viruses or anything. Today I've got a Macbook pro. Because it is lighter weight than my old laptop, I do use a laptop case but the things still been to different continents with me.

[edenfalling]

I prefer PC to Mac -- not for any great philosophical reason, but because I am so used to the way PCs are set up that I find Macs somewhat counter-intuitive to use.

I have been opposed to laptops in the past because I find their keyboards and touch-pads maddening (also, they are murder on my wrists), but you can plug in a real keyboard and mouse to a laptop these days, so that is not really an issue anymore. *wry* Also, I doubt I'd be carrying it around with me except on vacations, so battery life shouldn't be much of an issue either. And yeah, a single plug is much more convenient than half a power strip!

[edenfalling]

Thank you! Percussive maintenance is a polite way of saying "I hit it until it works again" -- not usually recommended for delicate electronic equipment, but in this case, it works. :-)

[edenfalling]

...I think we had an Office Depot out on Rt. 13 by WalMart, Wegmans, and the rest of the box store infestation, but I am not sure if it survived the recession. Ditto on Staples.

We do have a Best Buy at the Ithaca Mall, which is where I tend to go because the bus routes make more sense. (The #13 bus to the mall runs right past my house. To get down to the box store section of Rt. 13, I'd have to walk twenty minutes into town and catch a bus, or take one of the infrequent #16 busses into town and then transfer, or, you know, take a forty-five minute walk in summer heat. :-( I put up with that rigmarole when I need new glasses, since the place out there gives me discounts, but otherwise I tend not to go to that part of town.)

[edenfalling]

I have been using PCs for so long that I find Macs somewhat counter-intuitive. And since I don't really use graphics programs (which I hear Macs are generally better for?), I think I will stick with a PC this time around.

[edenfalling]

Hmm. I think, on reflection, that I want something bigger than a netbook, because I have no television and therefore my computer is my only way to watch movies and TV series. That means I want a larger screen. Also, I will probably not be carrying the computer around with me much, since I hardly get any time to use one at work -- when I write stuff at work, it's very rarely more than a few hundred words over the course of several hours, because I am a clerk and therefore constantly interrupted, even on slow nights. A small notepad (with actual paper) is the most cost-effective way to get any thoughts pinned down. So battery life, while nice, is not the deciding point for me.

I do want Windows 7. My current computer came with Vista -- they weren't selling XP anymore when I got it, or I would have gone with that instead. *sour face*

I actually find even full size laptop keyboards impossible to use at length. In order to have the screen at the right height for my eyes, the keyboard is set so high that the angle at which I must hold my wrists in order to type is hideously painful after an hour or so. And I hate their touchpads, too. So I am planning to get an external keyboard and mouse to plug in and use instead, in the interests of murdering my hands and sanity. *wry*

[edenfalling]

You wouldn't think I would have computer troubles, because yeah, I am a very undemanding user. Except I always do have troubles.

My first computer had a spectuacular breakdown after a couple years -- I suspect it was software related, because it went peculiar one summer after I brought it to NJ and it was no longer automatically connected to Cornell's ethernet, which seemed to bollix Cornell's university networking program. Anyway, I spent the next three or four years running it in safe mode and only accessing the internet via public computer labs at the local library and Cornell University, because it still word processed and I didn't care enough to get it fixed or replaced.

When I finally got sick of that, I got my current computer. It was basically okay for two years in my old apartment (barring occasional heat-related freakouts), but turned glitchy as hell after I moved to my current apartment. I am convinced something broke in the moving process, even though I freaking babied the machine all the way through the move. Hence my desire for a computer that will not break on me.

I will definitely ask about heat sinks when I start shopping around.

[autumnia]

Like you, I find using a Mac is counter-intuitive. I've learned my way around computers solely on PCs and when I got my Macbook last autumn, I hacked it as much as I could to make it function like a PC -- it's frustrating to waste time learning a new system and I find it really counterproductive.

Actually, I found Windows 7 to be very counterproductive as well, coming from XP. But since you're jumping from Vista, it's probably less of a learning curve for you then.

Touchpads will work in a jiffy but I almost always have a mouse (in my case, a graphics tablet) plugged into one of the USB ports. If you do end up getting a laptop, make sure it has enough ports for you to use. My old Dell laptop had 4, and I was very disappointed to find this new one only has 2. And if you are having air circulation issues, I recommend getting either a cooling stand or a cheaper solution I use: set the laptop on top of a small baking rack while in use.

(And with regards to your comment below about graphics program being better on a Mac -- I don't find that to be the case. You can get/build a good system on a PC that works just as well. In my case and in my work, I can run Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, & several browsers simultaneously on the PC and it can work very well.)