One man's computer life.

[badmigraine 0]

A long post for you. Don't worry, not only did I paste most of this in from assorted e-mails, I also type 75 wpm. This all only took me 1/2 a cup of coffee.

 

I don't expect the world to go into agreement with me about my computer problems, because everyone's system and experience are different. I usually get reactions of disbelief, insinuations that I am doing something wrong, or that I should read the Help file or visit the MS site to get a solution. Oh, gee, thanks. That must be it...I didn't read the manual or visit the Microsoft website.

 

Well, my agenda is to minimize the time I lose to crashes and tweaking to avoid problems.

 

I notice in computer-related threads, be they on CNET, PC Magazine or here on SJG, that there's always a few happy people who say "I haven't crashed in a year" or "I solved all my problems by downloading the latest patch from MS..."

 

I used to think this was the norm to which I too could aspire. But no matter what system I had and what tech tips and tweaks I adopted to fix the many problems that I experienced, I could never get close to this pristine level of performance.

 

Next, I thought that maybe those people were the Lucky Ones, and normal people might expect a few more problems, but not as many as I was unnaturally experiencing. These positive expectations gave me motivation to continue striving for a more stable system.

 

Lord knows I've done more than my share in trying to rectify the buggy systems I've had to work with...but in the end, I am still crashing a lot and spending more time than ever trying to find solutions to the system problems I have.

 

I've had to become my own specialist IT staff, which is something they didn't put in the advertisement when they sold me my computer.

 

Now, I no longer believe the people who say they never crash. Maybe they really exist, and maybe they don't. But the reality is no longer relevant to me.

 

Rather, I now choose to believe that such people are very light users whose use profile involves minimal demands on the system, or who have short sessions and frequent reboots that wipe away the cobwebs that could lead to crashes. Or, they are victims of selective memory, too much in love with their new system to accuse it of treachery, and conveniently disregarding or not even noticing problems ascribable to "other software", "previous versions" or what have you. I do not criticize this blissful state of being. It is something to aspire to.

 

Well, let me give you a peek into my own world of computing. I am just one person and no longer know what is the norm. I only know my own experience and that of a few close friends whose home or office computer use I've actually witnessed for any length of time.

 

Here is my story.

 

I'm a heavy computer user but I mainly just browse, burn CDs, send e-mails and use Word..it's not like I'm pushing the limits of the technology or using beta versions of cutting-edge programs here.

 

Aside from IT workers, hackers and my big brother (who published a computer book), I've yet to meet a layperson who knows more about PCs than I've learned in all these years of struggling. Not like I'm bragging. I'm not saying I'm GOOD, just that you'd have a hard time showing me a problem that I haven't already had to struggle with or heard a lot about. I'm like your aged relative who rambles on and on about their health problems, knows the etiology and detail of every disease and disorder, and keeps up on the latest treatments. Nobody should have to do this. NOBODY.

 

I've been using computers since the 80's and have owned/done my daily work on many Windows systems over the years, including 3.1, 95, 98, ME, and 2000.

 

Not a single one of those has worked well for me, though 2000 was less unstable than the others... In any case, I always crashed several times a week, and frequently crashed several times per day. Through bitter experience, I obsessively save my work every 10 seconds or so and I backup frequently.

 

Yes, I've done all the things you are supposed to do to solve your problems. I put in more RAM, a lot more RAM. I got a faster system, I got the next version of Windows, I did a clean install instead of an upgrade. I ran defrag frequently. I ran msconfig and disabled unnecessary junk in the startup menu. I turned off the Active Desktop. I disabled power management even at the BIOS level. I updated all drivers, I cleaned the registry, I got the patches and latest versions of everything. I went to tech sites and implemented fixes when it seemed like a good idea. Leave aside that nobody should ever have to do all this crap, but I did it. I was a good boy.

 

Now the buzz is that XP is better and more stable than older Windows systems. This seems credible to me, but it's not saying much. I thought about looking into XP, and when my stepmom asked for help installing camera software on her new Vaio/XP system, I was happy to spend a couple days playing with it and seeing what it was like.

 

As usual, it seems MS has moved standard features around from one menu or program group to another, so you have to hunt them down. Some features like Windows Explorer have a slightly different layout that frustrates you until you figure it out. Not better, not worse, just different. "New"...I guess.

 

As expected, the XP system crashed regularly in several typical scenarios:

 

1. HEAVY WEB BROWSING (IS THERE ANY OTHER KIND?)

Heavy web browing eventually led to strange IE behavior--the browser buttons turned up blank or else appeared as numbers and martian characters...then a few screens later the computer locked up and I had to hold down the button and pull out the plug and battery to re-boot.

 

Time lost: several minutes for each lockup.

Frustration factor: medium to high.

 

2. DOES MS DO THIS STUFF TO AOL ON PURPOSE? I THINK SO. THEY DO IT TO NETSCAPE AND REAL PLAYER.

Attempting to connect with AOL caused bizarre problems including a never-before-seen error dialog box which went something like "Unauthorized NIC detected...XP will shut down this computer in 60 seconds...please save your work and exit..."

 

This is where the real fun began: in typical Windows fashion, no NIC was installed or in use (we were using the built-in dialup modem)...what a joke. Although the message said we had "sixty seconds" before automatic shutdown, the little countdown clock that appeared started at 35 seconds, not 60. In addition, there was no other program open containing work that we could possibly have saved, but if there had been, we would have been s*** out of luck because the keyboard and mouse were frozen--the system was in lockup. All we could do was sit there and watch it cycle through its own nightmare and shut down.

 

I thought the Mission Impossible-like message and countdown clock was kind of neat and funny, but one look at the expression of horror on my stepmom's face and I remembered how scary computers are to beginning users. For all she knew, her expensive new toy was about to become a $2000 paperweight.

 

Once we had it up and running again, I went to device manager to find out what was going on with the NIC ("network interface card") error message, and found that a phantom network device had been activated and a phantom dialup profile also created. I deactivated and deleted these and tried AOL again, with the same crash results. Upon re-booting, the phantom NIC and dialup profile were back again.

 

Eventually we uninstalled AOL and the problem went away. This was unacceptable, though, because my Dad and stepmom use AOL. So I tried installing progressively older versions of AOL and finally found that 6.0 worked. So now with their brand-new expensive XP system, they can use AOL from 1998. Good thing all they do is e-mail.

 

Time lost: over two hours of fiddling.

Frustration factor: high.

 

3. THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE?! YOU MUST BE JOKING SIR.

Later, I tried to install some third-party software to XP, including a USB mass-storage device. The device, a tiny USB drive, is Plug-and-Play and should have installed automatically. Instead, XP asked us to install the drivers or point to them on the Net. The device didn't come with any drivers and I couldn't connect to the Net due to the problem mentioned above, so I had to go home to my own computer, locate the drivers online, put them on a disk and go back over there.

 

We installed the drivers, but guess what? The device wouldn't work. I re-installed the drivers and magically the device worked for the rest of the day. It was a great moment, and my stepmom was beginning to think that maybe I did know something about computers after all.

 

The next day, however, the device wouldn't work anymore. So I re-installed the drivers and it worked until I shut off the computer, but upon rebooting it wouldn't work anymore. I guess you have to re-install the drivers every time you want this device to work. The damn thing works fine on my 98 and ME systems. Why not on XP?

 

Time lost: about an hour.

Frustration factor: medium.

 

 

4. DIGITAL CAMERA SOFTWARE

This is getting tedious, so let me give you the condensed version. The software installed without difficulty, but kept appearing in the startup menu. I disabled it several times, but upon rebooting it would always be back in the startup menu. Then I took a closer look at the startup menu and saw a bunch of unnecessary crap was also smugly loading itself...AOL, RealMedia, QuickTime, various VAIO, Cybershot, multi-media gew-gaw and assorted MSN crap, etc. I unchecked it all in the startup menu and re-booted.

 

Guess what? It was all back again. I guess the startup menu is meant as a placebo or joke.

 

I called my brother to ask if he has the same problem with his XP startup menu. His response? "No, you must be doing something wrong. But have you noticed that no matter how you resize your IE window, it always goes back to some other default size the next time?" Actually, I hadn't had that one. "And my favorites won't alphabetize, even after trying all the usual fixes to get them in order..." No, I hadn't yet seen that problem in my stepmom's XP, though I've got it on my Win98 system and can fix it sometimes but then it goes back to non-alpha order.

 

Oh well. You see the issues. Everyone has their own labrynthine computer story, and thank you for reading mine.

 

Some have suggested using the MS error reports and auto-update feature.

 

Re error tracking and auto reports from your system to MS, even if this is enabled, nothing ever seems to happen from the user point of view. Maybe the next patch issued by MS months later, to fix your and a host of other bugs, contains something to fix the problem, but it's not like you can fix the problem yourself based on this feature.

 

Furthermore, if your problem is related to non-MS software, forget it. The MS site usually just tells you that this is a "known issue" and you can disable the offending program. No fix. Finally, my typical crash is the "blue screen of death". Nothing going into or out of the computer at that point, so no error report ever gets to MS. I have to hold down the power button for 5 seconds, reboot, cancel ScanDisk ("your computer was not shut down properly..." Uh thanks) or wait for it to complete, then I am up again. MS never knows about my 3-4 crashes every day.

 

Hyperlinks to MS knowledge base haven't worked well for me either. I can spend a long time searching around in there without finding my exact problem. Most often, my searches end up with: "The page to which you linked has been moved..." It doesn't say where it was moved to, of course.

 

I've had better luck just googling my problem, to find out fixes or workarounds.

 

Furthermore, MS patches and updates lead to system decay and poorer performance. This is something I noticed about my ME system, heard an IT guy at my company tell me about 2000, and here is PC Mag\'s current article about XP decay from MS patches.

 

You may be better off not using the patches and turning off auto-update.

 

As for my wish list item #2 in another post being scary, I assume people are referring to info being sent out of their own private computers and viewed/analysed by outside parties including MS?

 

Well, this already happens, particularly if you use XP. There are many benign and intrusively annoying (i.e., non-virus, non-hacker related) programs in addition to your XP OS that continually access (or try to access) the Internet to send information to someplace. Various event launchers, commercial trackers, push content devices, "web-bugs", programs that exploit port 135 (the foolishly-enabled Windows Messenger port) to send pop-ups, web browser header requests that leak personal information and tell a site which other sites you've come from...

 

Try a firewall product that flags you each and every time a program you didn't designate tries to access the Net. After one web session, you'll get tired of clicking "Don't permit access" and you'll set the default to "Don't notify me and don't permit access".

 

Not to mention that overall online privacy is a great myth that should be reversed, i.e., your assumption should be that nothing is private online unless you have taken active, proven steps to ensure that it IS private. For an eye-opener, visit one of the online checkup sites like ShieldsUP at Gibson Research\'s site to check your system vulnerabilities.

 

Well, this is one man's story. Thanks for reading this far. It's 11:55 a.m., and I haven't crashed yet. It's a good day in Walled Lake, Michigan.

[nekobi 0]

you are really getting annoyed at your computer, eh? seriously, it's time to switch to mac!!! yes, you will have occasional crashes, but not bad ones. i run into much more problems with the pcs at work. the worst on my ibook are with imovie, so i save constantly as i work. other than that, i have no compaints. just excitement about safari, itunes, imovie. am gonna buy an ipod tonight. switch and make your life much less stressful.

[Ocean11 0]

migs, you're hurting there.

 

Having read that, I can only assume one thing - you're doing something wrong.

 

Actually, I don't say this with any confidence, but I suspect that what you're doing wrong is buying a computer from the wrong maker. As I understand it, the OS behaves differently on different computers, due to the different components within the computer. Some makers are better at matching up what's going to work.

 

The computers I use are made by Tsukumo - they use the best components, put them in a simple case, and sell the products at reasonable prices in plain cardboard boxes with no monitor. And they work really well. I get the picture that you're using laptops mostly, no? I expect that the corners that are cut fitting stuff into that small size lead to many of the problems you describe - too many compromises.

 

Obviously this won't satisfy your perfectly reasonable demand for something that a. matches your preferences, and b. works. But if you want something that works, I'd recommend getting a good, non-brand desktop computer, and turning it off at night. As somebody who uses heavy and complex programs literally all day, I can say that this has worked for me.

 

Cold comfort, I know.

[mogski 0]

The only solution to this problem is to lose a computer and go back to life as it was befire the 80's when you started using computers. Obviously life using a computer for you has not become simple so therefore is not benefitting you in any way at all.

 

Go analog and be free!

 

Or you could try a Mac. If you don't like that shift to Unix based OS or Linux.

 

Better yet GET JOB! Then you won't be at home so much to experience the problems!

[badmigraine 0]

I think any new computer would be better than this old turd.

 

Ocean, right about the laptops. I also have this Prius desktop which is a cobbled-together parts-bin exercise as I found out when I tried to reformat the HD and install US Win 2000. Even this computer's maker couldn't identify half the components or point me to the correct drivers for them ("we change suppliers monthly based on market factors" [ = we buy the cheapest parts available]). After a weekend of puzzling through, I just gave up and reinstalled the factory setup from scratch.

 

As for Linux or Unix on a home PC, forget it. That's impossible stuff for me. Unix requires a big manual and I won't be able to use my favorite software on it. Linux is still only a computer hobbyist's system and requires tons of tweaking--probably as much or more as my current system, and why would I throw away my decade of experience and knowledge to plunge into another hell? Visit a Linux site to see what you'd have to go through.

 

It's gotta be either WinXP or a Mac. Mogs, I'm leaning toward the Mac. You've always encouraged me and shown me the cool stuff they do. However, my sis, everyone I met at her company, and an architect friend of mine report all kinds of problems with those, too.

 

One thing's for sure. Nobody I've talked to has as many PC roblems as I do.

 

And to think I got this system to get away from all the problems I was having with my other one. Third time I've tried that ploy, heh.

 

I wonder what guarantee I have that it won't be the same next time around, too?

 

Maybe I should ask Mr. Grinch what he uses.

 

[mogski 0]

What problems relating to the useage as you put it above that you would put a Mac through have your sis and architect freind endured?

[badmigraine 0]

Sis has frequent lockups and system crashes on her home systems, a desktop and a laptop Mac. On the desktop she's had to re-install or restore her system or whatever Mac-heads do, 2-3 times this past year. Her home use is limited to Web browsing, e-mailing, downloading songs and burning the occasional CD, not running heavy graphics programs or beta software. I can't detail her exact problems from memory, but they sound like the usual apps that gradually slow down or fail over a long session of use, the computer forgetting system settings or going back to defaults no matter how many times others are selected, locked up individual apps and occasional scary messages or symptoms suggesting hard disk errors that turn out not really to be there and so forth or that require the full restore, that PC users also know. She thinks some of these problems are just from Mac software, and other problems are legacy code and screwups thanks to third-party software written for the Macs. She's had years of experience using both platforms and always says she's noted no big difference between either in terms of robustness. At her graphic design company (admittedly not our home use profile), they have all sorts of regular problems of every kind imaginable with every Mac OS version they've owned so far, from weird speaker issues to OS X wiping out their entire font server. Their IT guys are as busy and as hated as any at our favorite Japanese automaker heh heh.

 

My architect friend has a PC and a Mac at his office. He uses both for work (word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail/Net and some kind of CAD programs I guess) and both crash often enough. He says he can't see system reliability as much of a real factor in deciding which platform to have. After several Macs, he's going with a PC at home now for unrelated reasons. Right now he's enjoying the hobby platform aspect of PCs, tweaking, adding new hardware components and customizing hardware and software. He says his home systems, whether PC or Mac, have never really crashed enough to make this an issue for him.

 

The Church of Mac vs. the Wintel PC Hobby Brigade has been done to death a thousand times, and I don't have anything new to add to it. After all these years everything is still smeared all across the board with no clear answers and no clear winner, and I'm not seeing any astoundingly different news about the reliability of either platform.

 

I see dollar signs, time and inconvenience. I think a brand-new XP or OSX system would be light years better than this steaming hunk of shite I use every day, and maybe that alone would be enough for me.

 

I'm ready for a change and like the idea of Macs as a tool that simply do what they are advertised to do. In some sense they are Idiot-proof and we are the Idiots. Some turn this into a complaint and say they are like the Time Magazine or Disneyworld of computers because they keep you on the glossy outside and don't let you go off the prescribed track...unlike PCs which are fully customizable with zillions of hardware and software tweaks, customizations, etc. that you can do if that turns you on.

 

It doesn't turn me on, I don't want a hobby platform to tweak, I just want a tool that does what it is supposed to do and Apple seems to have that.

 

One downside is having to buy again some of the basic software that I already own for PCs: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and various bells and whistles. So add probably another $400 or $600 to the price of whatever Apple product I buy, and you are already more than doubling the cost of a Wintel system that would probably be good enough. Can you help me out with free copies of your application install CDs?

 

Might be time to start using some of those free office suites like Star Office etc. Are they capable of handling Japanese?

[badmigraine 0]

From PC Magazine\'s 2003 survey results:

 

"And the users of Win XP machines are considerably happier with their desktops than respondents running other versions of Windows.

 

The higher satisfaction levels of Windows XP users may also be due to newer, more advanced hardware. But our readers agree that on machines two years old or younger, Win XP crashes less frequently than other Windows versions. 37 percent of Win XP users say their systems never crash. Among Windows 98 and Me users, only 7 percent make the same claim.

 

The stability of Linux and Mac OS may have also helped with the rise of overall user satisfaction. These OSs, our readers say, crash even less often than Windows XP. They aren't as prevalent as Win XP, though: Fewer than 1 percent of the desktop PCs in the survey are running Linux, and fewer than 2 percent are running Mac OS."

 

 

This is nice to know.

[Ocean11 0]

If you're going to be using a computer to work at home, and you're buying it on your own tab, I strongly recommend you get the very best thing within the range of specs for what you do. Don't even think of getting a Pentium III when there's a IV on sale. The time and money saved from marginal improvements in speed easily offset the initial investment. (I used to have so much unhappiness using crappy computers at work that I wasn't allowed to configure for efficient use.)

[peaker 0]

Geeks geeeks geeks geeks geeks

Super geeks !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[badmigraine 0]

We're the Ghostbusters of computers!

 

[mogski 0]

I think my computer is afraid of leaving home and heat.

 

I came to Dubai with about two weeks back and well all of a sudden my Nortons Antivirus software decides to stop working. The funny thing is I did not upgrade any other programs or do anything out of the ordinary and it just decides to stop working. Strage, but nothing a reinstall and update won't fix.

 

I love the way computers do this to us. Without we would be just major vegetables in front of another picture box.

 

In other news the worst thing about working in Shinagawa is Osaki trains!

[badmigraine 0]

Boys, I think my computer heard all the complaining I did on this thread.

 

Today when I came back from lunch, there was a horizontal line running all the way across my screen about 5 cm from the top.

 

The right half of it is all black, the left half fades from tan to whitish-invisible. It's there even in BIOS and during boot-up.

 

Googling this problem appears to be a bad transistor in the LCD panel where the line is. If that's the case, nothing can fix it.

 

Other possibilities are a bad monitor cable, but I have little hope for that.

 

I never touch this damn monitor! I didn't break the damn thing.

 

What treachery!