Thanks to those who inquired about my absence | Your stories | Discussion forum

Loonie. A short story.
I have owned some prehistoric stuff over the years.
TI99 4A
Apple II + clone
A few of what were called an IBM clone desktop computers
A Sony desktop computer.
A Toshiba laptop
A Hewlett Packard laptop
Company supplied computers IBM desktop and laptop. And Dell desktop.

All pretty good except the Sony Desktop that I bought along with a Sony Clie PDA. I will never buy an over rated crappy Sony product along with their extremely unhelpful customer service.
And except the Hewlett-Packard laptop. They, Hewlett-Packard, never upgraded their operating system when Windows 10 made changes. Do you remember MS Windows was quite forceful for the Windows 10 upgrade? Making the machine useless. Luckily I had “out of the box” backup and put it back to Windows 7 and got rid of it.
And the company supplied Dell machines proved to be a poor purchase. Broke down frequently.

So, in my opinion, the best that Microsoft ever developed was MS -DOS, Windows 3 and 7.

The best computer I ever had was, the no longer produced, Toshiba laptop.

I only paid to have a computer repaired once when I was in deep
depression and just could not concentrate enough to fix it. All other computers I have fixed myself.

MS Windows used to irritate me so much and it came to show on my bill paying day. So many hours of updates, reboots because it froze and on and on and on week after week.

So I bought a second hand 2010 iMac. Software upgrades are free. Freezing and reboots are very rare. The iMac needed a new hard drive and I should have done it sooner. Was easy to do...just check iFixit. I later bought a second hand 2011 MacBook Pro. I have maxed out memory on both, my self. I have replaced the hard drive on the MacBook before it crashed, just to be safe. 1 TB hard drive on Amazon was about $89. If I ever owned a small company, I would go with Apple...less repairs and less downtime due to Windows software.

So all those old TV commercials about MS Windows causing computer users to change to a Mac were true.

I would like to hear what parts are replaced for $900.

Ps. No longer have depression.

The one I had before this was a Sony laptop. Worked great, had it about five years. The only reason I had to get rid of it was that the connection to the power supply wore out and they could not supply another. It had already been replaced once. The worst thing about Sony, generally, is that everything is proprietary and they don't keep parts in stock long enough - and that goes for everything they make - but at the time it was the best available for my needs.

Not so....proprietary...... They would like you to think a Sony product is full of genuine high quality parts made and developed by Sony. In my working days hired a contractor that was previously a Sony store manager. He said there may be a few Sony parts in the computer but the rest will all be generic parts that will be found in any other computer. When I opened my over priced Sony computer I confirmed what he said. Sony = crap and their days of being leaders in the electronics industry are far in the past. Don’t be fooled by brand names. And keep in mind that often Costco will sell electronics with an extra year of warranty.

Best Buy.....are you a victim of ageism?

AltaRed said
Don't think any particular brand stands out from the rest these days. I won't buy high priced proprietary Apple products so that is a 'no go' in this household as a boundary condition. Just like buying a Tesla we would be a ' no go'.

I have had good success in all my computer purchases over 30 years, perhaps because I buy at least middle range or a bit above, or am just lucky. Today that would be about $1500 with 512GB SSD and 22-16GB RAM. I expect laptops to last 6-8 years buying at that level. Current laptop is a Dell that is now 4 years old and I want 2 more years out of it.  

Me too. I won't buy over-priced Apple products and $1,000+ monitor stands. 😉

I used to always own Dell, but then they more or less abandoned the consumer market relatively speaking (fewer models, options, less profile in stores, etc.) before re-invigorating themselves in that market. Was happy with the Dell and the Hitachi laptop I had before that. However, since then, we've always owned HP laptops and desktops. They're OK, but a lot of unnecessary bloatware. I think my next computer will be either an ASUS or a Lenovo, though leaning more towards Lenovo (former IBM PC division).

Cheers,
Doug

Doug, Lenovo Thinkpad comes recommended by a number of techies I know, so that is a pretty good default pickm

That's a lot of money to fix a computer. My high spec Dell cost that a few years back.

I had good luck with custom built desktops. One was local and one from Ebay. They were indestructible and eventually given away. I always wanted to build my own but the customs came cheaper with hardware I wanted.
I did experience a bad one from ebay. It was quite cheap and did last a few years but not without issues.
I would not hesitate to buy another Dell product .

Welcome back Loonie !! I'm not sure what's happening with Asus these days. example: Lots of people loving their ASUS RT-AC86U wireless router but having to send their first model back after it breaks and second one ends up working.

I have a Mac Mini from 2010 but it's horribly slow after receiving updates to newer versions of the Mac operating system. I think nowadays once you apply all the updates to Windows or Mac operating systems, the computer ends up after 5 yr or possibly longer being too slow to be comfortable to use.

I went to purchase a laptop years ago ( used ) in Toronto at a laptop repair shop.
I asked the owner what's the most dependable laptop. Behind him the wall had about 50 bins for laptops being dropped off and laptops repaired. He told me look in the bins ,you won't see one Lenovo (IBM) they don't break. I then asked him what's the worst "Asus" , then Gateway, dell, hp. Toshiba ,Sony , Panasonic he also gave low repairs to. Dell makes great desktops and so does hp .
I bought an expensive router that was recommended ,it was great for about a year ,then the wireless kept dropping "Asus" never again. He told me Asus uses cheaper parts undersized ,that last about a year then fry. I also read a story NASA uses Lenovo Laptops on the space station and has had not one break. I now have 3 upgraded ram myself and never any problems. Myself, wife and one on the boat.

Loonie....this is an American article. Would not be surprised if it is happening here too. You can’t trust any one any more, especially some of the big and supposedly trusted companies. That is why I do so much myself.

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