[monochrome]

At 4:46 this afternoon mrs. monochrome's MacBook had a catastrophic meltdown. I made a Genius appointment at the Apple Store and a reservation for dinner.

The Genius described her device as 'elderly' and 'vintage' - something about a swelled battery. Can't be repaired at the Apple Store (MacHQ maybe), but they'll 'Green Recycle' it for her.

mrs. monochrome now has a new 15" MacBook Pro, 1Tb, optical Superdrive, they're transferring data from her Passport as I type . . . . . and I have $00.00 PayPal balance.

Oh well. I really didn't want a FF this year anyway.

[EDIT: I helped mrs. monochrome connect to our Wi-Fi and now she is a happy camper. And so is monochrome.]

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Last edited by monochrome; 05-16-2015 at 10:23 AM.

[dadipentak]

mrs. monochrome's MacBook had a catastrophic meltdown

Macs do that? I was led to believe they were immortal.

[monochrome]

Macs do that? I was led to believe they were immortal.

Well, as the story goes, Adam ate the Apple, and then . . . . *






* ducks

[Canada_Rockies]

Earlier this year I had an "interesting" message on the screen of my T60. "FAN ERROR". By the time that message came up there was no hope of recovering the mother board. The old laptop served me quite well for 10 years. I bought another laptop that is not even in the same league, but has an ASUS motherboard that is decent. Spent the price difference on a nice Dell 24" screen.

To be on topic, my latest acquisition is a set of speakers for the new laptop that are so-so in a good sort of way.

[Steinback]

I went in the other direction with my laptop since I wanted something usable but cheap and disposable. 5 year old computer out of a junk bin (dead hard drive) with a new SSD is fast enough for watching movies and internet browsing without being flashy.

[Canada_Rockies]

Steinback, I use Lightroom, DxO 10 for photos. Needed more memory than I had, and processing power helps, too. i7, Win 8.1 Pro downgraded to Win 7 Pro with 8 Gb RAM. I also earn a bit of camera money with a 64 bit DBMS I work with. Need a bunch of horsepower for that one, particularly when developing complex screen forms.

[ChrisPlatt]

At work they had to pay a premium to buy some PCs old enough to run software written for Windows NT.
Last year I had to do a fresh install of Windows XP on my oldest laptop so I could use the Pakon scanner software.
I'm quite comfortable being on the trailing edge of technology!

Chris

[monochrome]

At work they had to pay a premium to buy some PCs old enough to run software written for Windows NT.
Last year I had to do a fresh install of Windows XP on my oldest laptop so I could use the Pakon scanner software.
I'm quite comfortable being on the trailing edge of technology!

Chris

NT and XP Pro were fabulous operating systems - stable, intuitive and rock solid. I kept a Dell laptop running NT well past the end of NT but - like any Dell - the failure point was the power connector. The solder to the motherboard broke. Had it been a Thinkpad I'd still be running it.

Something along the lines of a KX.

[Canada_Rockies]

NT and XP Pro were fabulous operating systems - stable, intuitive and rock solid. I kept a Dell laptop running NT well past the end of NT but - like any Dell - the failure point was the power connector. The solder to the motherboard broke. Had it been a Thinkpad I'd still be running it.

Something along the lines of a KX.

I agree with your admiration of XP Pro. It was a stable operating system. With my DBMS work, it never caused me any problems. My Thinkpad T60 had an unfortunate overheat "FAN ERROR" which is fatal because by the time it told me things were overheated they had permanently failed. I did get 10 years of hard usage out of it. It didn't owe me anything.

I was in the middle of a time sensitive project, and had to buy a lesser laptop by ASUS the motherboard people, as it was the only one within 100 miles (actually 110 before I found it) that could handle my needs. The motherboard and other systems are fine, but the screen is terrible. It has a very narrow angle of view before the display becomes unreadable. I'm getting used to it, but really miss the trackpoint and the keyboard tactile feel from the Thinkpad.

I won't buy a replacement; it does the job. I will replace my K10D with a K-3 or K-3 II first. WANT overrides NEED in this case. I only have two systems left where I am the support guy, and at 75 next month, I'm not looking to add any others. It would cut into my Recreational Vehicle time with the big backpack in the bottom of the closet.

[magkelly]

I still have an older laptop running XP. I had two at one point because I inherited one from someone else but I eventually sold one. I'm also running a fairly new Win 8.1 PC, but I'm really not crazy about that OS and I can't wait to see if Windows 10 is more tolerable. I would take Win 8.1 off and run XP Pro or Win 7 Pro if I could but I don't have a legal copy that's not branded to my old Dell and I don't feel like paying over $100-300 just for a legal copy of an older operating system. I had Win 7 Pro on the Dell that died last year. I miss it. XP Pro was better in some ways, but Win 7 Pro was pretty stable and I didn't mind it.

Win 8.1 is a horror. I can work around it's flaws but I still do not like it. Supposedly the things I don't like I will be able to get rid of with Windows 10 and the things I do like and want back from Win 7 will be back. Sounds good, but I'm a bit worried that Windows 10 will be all about cloud computing like the new Adobe suite is. Sounds like it from the preview reviews I have read so far and if so I'm really not happy with that. I loathe cloud computing and the security risks that seem to inevitably come with it and I don't want to have to go there. I'm hoping the cloud stuff is optional and that I can just make it go away once I've activated my Windows 10 for the most part because I don't want anything to do with it otherwise. If Win 7 Pro didn't cost so darned much I think I'd likely get a copy and just do that instead but anything cheap enough to be able to afford is bound to be bootleg 7 and I don't want that on my PC...

[Canada_Rockies]

Mag, if your operating system is 8.1 pro, it is downgradable to 7 pro interface. It is still 8.1 pro under the skin, and you need 8.1 firmware, but it acts just like 7 pro. The shop where I bought my ASUS did it. Those of us that work with our computers prefer 7 pro by a long shot. My wife bought a Dell pre loaded with 8.1 and it is a buggy overbearing pile of bovine exhaust.

[dadipentak]

it is a buggy overbearing pile of bovine exhaust.

Eloquent review!

[Canada_Rockies]

Eloquent review!

Thank you. It was my honest opinion, too.

[magkelly]

I honestly think Windows 8.1 is the OS equivalent of horse manure. I've looked into getting a copy of Win 7 pro though and it's still a bit expensive for my wallet. I don't want to go bootleg so I'm either stuck with Win 8.1 or with Win 10 when it comes out. They say it's better and it's going to be free so I'm going to wait until the Fall when it finally comes out and see. It's got to be better then 8.1 but if it's not then I will likely go back to Win 7 64 bit somehow. Most of what I've seen online though is very obviously bogus. You have a lot of people on Amazon, Ebay and that selling hacked Windows 7. It's been hard to tell which isn't and those that I can tell most of them are still pretty expensive. I really wish I could use my Dell CD. I have a totally legal copy of Win 7 64bit that came with my Dell that I don't even have anymore, that has been scrapped but it's not usable at all with any other computer. It's hooked into Dell bios or so I am told and can't be used on anything else but a Dell.

[Canada_Rockies]

Mag, I selected cows as the source of the manure in my post above, but you are absolutely correct. On the other hand, don't blame Dell for the problem. When the operating system is activated, it is registered against the MAC address of the computer that it is installed on by Microsoft.

The second problem you would have is that your computer might no longer work if you installed a clean copy of Win 7. Win 7 uses different hardware drivers than Win 8.1. It is, however possible, and enabled by Microsoft, to downgrade Win 8.1 Pro to Win 7 Pro. That is what I am typing on right now. The drivers are still 8.1, but the whole interface is Win 7. Works for me. I bought my laptop already downgraded by the computer shop. You might first determine that you have 8.1 Pro, and if so, get a shop to downgrade things for you. You might still have problems with third party software installed under 8.1 and have to reinstall some of it.

I'm not trying to diss your concerns in any way. I just happen to believe that you might just be stuck with 8.1. And it is a reliable source of road apples and prairie Frisbees.