Buying a new PC

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 22:29:54 -0400, Paul
wrote:

Mayayana wrote:
"Wolffan" wrote

| Compaq's been dead for a very long time. For a while some systems were
| marketed as 'HP-Compaq', but those have been gone for a good bit as well.
|

I saw some in Staples last week in the $400-500 range.
I thought at least one was Compaq, but maybe it was HP.
Staples has generally had something in that price
range for a long time. Looking around I see that the cheap
ones now are generally HP and Lenovo. I hadn't noticed that
Compaq was gone.



This one is pretty cheap. For a refurb. It's one of those
tool-less ones, so has that stupid plate to hold the PCI
cards in place. That's not the most serviceable box, as the
PSU is likely hard to find as an exact replacement. I like
the larger cases, where a regular ATX PSU fits.

https://www.staples.com/refurbished-...roduct_2431148

Well you can't beat the price, $145 in store or delivered free within
3-8 bus. days.

It's poorly specified, and it's hard to say whether
someone has "toyed" with it too much.

It only has USB2, and if you wanted USB3, you would be
looking at an add-on card,

I have a USB3 card, sitting in my previous dead computer. The current
Optiplex computer doesn't have room for it

Chipset claims to be Q65. That's
one past my Optiplex 780 and its Q45.

Only 4 gigs of RAM and nothing saying it will take more. I could go
there and look at it but then I'd get the virus and die. Well, probably
not, but I have 2 or 3 risk factors and no time to be sick right now.

That machine might have a quad core CPU, suitable for usage
with Windows 10.

So are you saying my duo-core is really not suitable? Maybe the cause
of some of my problems?

It's good to know there are PC's this cheap. Not for me right now but
for someone.

Paul

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 15:50:43 -0500, Sam E
wrote:

On 6/19/20 5:44 AM, micky wrote:
Well, the computer has continued to crash, mostly with the same 4
problems. Other times, it's frozen.

So I need a new one. I haven't had a new one since the PCJr.

Replacing hardware to fix a SOFTWARE problem?

A good question. I guess I'm looking for an excuse to prioritize
purchase of a new PC, that I want anyhow.

And it would include a new install of win10, which should end the
crashing. Of course then I talk about using software to bring over all
the software from this computer. I have to read the manual but I think
that will bring the crashing problem too.

Reinstalling might work as well.

Besides SFC, I ran chkdsk. It says on startup: Press any key to skip
this step. So maybe the time it didnt' run I had pressed a key eeven
before that message showed up.

This time it counted percentages through 3 stages and still finished in
under 10 minutes. Interesting since it used to take hours to do a much
smaller drive, with substantially less data on it.**

I'm sure I'm looking in the wrong place but the reinstall instructions I
found say they're going to wipe out every program except windows. So I
decided to move up my May Windows upgrade to now. It's downloaded and
pending restart but I wanted to post this before that sends me into
windows limbo.


**
Amazing that it can do all this in 5 or 10 minutes, but it doesn't look
to me like it corrected anything that could cause crashes:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Win10-Orig.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
Cleaning up instance tags for file 0x5c77.
840448 file records processed.
File verification completed.
9808 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
10752 reparse records processed.
1062074 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
10752 reparse records processed.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 9288 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 9288 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 9288 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is compacting the security descriptor stream
Security descriptor verification completed.
110814 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.

483288063 KB total disk space.
237265988 KB in 471134 files.
380456 KB in 110817 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
924739 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
244716880 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
120822015 total allocation units on disk.
61179220 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 d3 0c 00 cf e0 08 00 7b 91 0f 00 00 00 00 00 ........{.......
52 29 00 00 ae 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 R)..............

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

On Sat, 20 Jun 2020 04:32:07 -0400, micky
wrote:

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 15:50:43 -0500, Sam E
wrote:

On 6/19/20 5:44 AM, micky wrote:
Well, the computer has continued to crash, mostly with the same 4
problems. Other times, it's frozen.

So I need a new one. I haven't had a new one since the PCJr.

Replacing hardware to fix a SOFTWARE problem?

A good question. I guess I'm looking for an excuse to prioritize
purchase of a new PC, that I want anyhow.

And it would include a new install of win10, which should end the
crashing. Of course then I talk about using software to bring over all
the software from this computer. I have to read the manual but I think
that will bring the crashing problem too.

Reinstalling might work as well.

Besides SFC, I ran chkdsk. It says on startup: Press any key to skip
this step. So maybe the time it didnt' run I had pressed a key eeven
before that message showed up.

This time it counted percentages through 3 stages and still finished in
under 10 minutes. Interesting since it used to take hours to do a much
smaller drive, with substantially less data on it.**

I'm sure I'm looking in the wrong place but the reinstall instructions I
found say they're going to wipe out every program except windows. So I
decided to move up my May Windows upgrade to now. It's downloaded and
pending restart but I wanted to post this before that sends me into
windows limbo.

Your experience sounds a bit like mine when I addled the registry.


**
Amazing that it can do all this in 5 or 10 minutes, but it doesn't look
to me like it corrected anything that could cause crashes:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Win10-Orig.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
Cleaning up instance tags for file 0x5c77.
840448 file records processed.
File verification completed.
9808 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
10752 reparse records processed.
1062074 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
10752 reparse records processed.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 9288 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 9288 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 9288 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is compacting the security descriptor stream
Security descriptor verification completed.
110814 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.

483288063 KB total disk space.
237265988 KB in 471134 files.
380456 KB in 110817 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
924739 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
244716880 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
120822015 total allocation units on disk.
61179220 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 d3 0c 00 cf e0 08 00 7b 91 0f 00 00 00 00 00 ........{.......
52 29 00 00 ae 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 R)..............

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

"micky" wrote

| If you precisely google a store, so that it comes up first, a box on the
| right gives interesting info about the store, like average number of
| people there any specific hour of the week, and the "actual" number
| there this hour, if they're open then. (based on cell phones)
|
| For Microcenter it had two interesting lines:
|
| In-store shopping
| In-store pickup
|
| Wait, aren't those the normal methods? Nothing changed for the virus.
| Even though they have a detailed online catalog and really big shopping
| carts so they could bring it out to you.
|
| Maybe I could negotiate it in advance. Or maybe somoene checked the
| wrong boxes.

Where I live they nearly closed for the virus. Few
people allowed in, you had to know what you wanted,
jumping through hoops to pay cash. I worry the virus
will be used as an excuse to start refusing cash.

Now it's more relaxed. No line when I was there.
Though a man at the door wanted to spray my gloves
with disinfectant. (I'm often wearing winter gloves
into stores, that I keep in my truck. He was confused
by the new variable in his protocol. I took off a glove
so that he could complete his mission without a panic
attack or blown circuit.

The prices are interesting, though. I recently bought
some shirts and shorts at Kohls, after retail reopened.
They were half off. But in Best Buy, Staples and
Microcenter I didn't see any notable good deals. So
there doesn't seem to be much in the way of "welcome
back" sales.

"Yousuf Khan" wrote

| So I would go with a known brand name, but I wouldn't necessarily go
| with the highest brand names like Intel or Samsung. I've had good
| success with this Western Digital, so mid-tier mfg's are fine too.
|

I've bought only Samsung EVO. They've been fine.
I think it's $80 for 500GB recently. (Or probably $120
at Staples or Best Buy, but they won't have it in stock,
so you'll be offered something else for $190.)

To me that's not a big cost once in awhile, for the
sake of data. I actually bought a hard disk recently,
on sale for $35, just as extra backup. At that price I
couldn't afford not to buy it.

Char Jackson wrote:
[...]

My laptops have SD card readers. One was most recently used about 5-6 years
ago and the other has never been used. I thought I might use them when I
added microSD cards to my phones, but nope.

I use the SD card reader in my laptop for second-level incremental
backup. And during travels it's my first-level incremental backup. So I
don't have to have a dangling USB HDD connected to it and still have the
most important stuff in case the HDD in my laptop dies. Have been doing
this since my XP days (now 8.1).

[And yes, I do have other 'real' backup, both onsite and offsite.]

On 6/20/2020 4:32 AM, micky wrote:
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 15:50:43 -0500, Sam E
wrote:

On 6/19/20 5:44 AM, micky wrote:
Well, the computer has continued to crash, mostly with the same 4
problems. Other times, it's frozen.

So I need a new one. I haven't had a new one since the PCJr.

Replacing hardware to fix a SOFTWARE problem?

A good question. I guess I'm looking for an excuse to prioritize
purchase of a new PC, that I want anyhow.


If your computer is that old I would not think of mirroring the old disk
to the new one.

In your situation I would get the new computer configured as I want,
reinstall all of the programs that I wanted on the new computer, and
then transfer the data folders to the new computer. For items like
browsers I would down load the latest 64 bit versions and install them.

You could make the computer to computer transfers through an external
disk, connecting the two computers directly, or make the transfers
through your LAN. Another way is to remove the old hard drive put it
in a USB enclosure and copy the folders from the old hard drive in the
enclosure. Whether you are keeping the old computer or not, the old
drive can be reinstalled in the old computer with no problems.

It is obvious how to transfer Word Processing, Spread Sheet, etc. files

With your newsreader, email, and browser, it as as easy as copying the
profiles from the old computer to the new computer, and every thing will
be as on the old computer. At least with Mozilla products.

This will take a little more time than mirroring the disk, HOWEVER, it
will give you a computer with a clean installations of all of your
programs. It is also a good time to clean out all of those things that
are on your computer that you should have deleted years ago, those old
unused games, that program that you tried and was not what you wanted, etc.

There is one problem that you may have. My current laptop has a GB
drive, and I have a lot of pictures, genealogy data, correspondence,
etc. that takes up a significant percentage of the disk. In looking at
the new computers, especially laptops, they come with solid state drives
that are just not big enough. This may be the first time in thirty
years that I will be forced to buy a new computer that will be less than
the computer it is replacing and cost more.

knuttle wrote:
[...]

There is one problem that you may have. My current laptop has a GB
drive, and I have a lot of pictures, genealogy data, correspondence,
etc. that takes up a significant percentage of the disk. In looking at
the new computers, especially laptops, they come with solid state drives
that are just not big enough. This may be the first time in thirty
years that I will be forced to buy a new computer that will be less than
the computer it is replacing and cost more.

I don't (yet) need a new laptop, but I've seen the 'small' capacity
SDD-based laptops you describe. However I've also seen laptops which
have a SSD *and* a HDD (and also some with just a HDD). But, as you say,
they're probably more pricey than your current one.

On Sat, 20 Jun 2020 09:29:21 -0400, knuttle
wrote:

There is one problem that you may have. My current laptop has a GB
drive, and I have a lot of pictures, genealogy data, correspondence,
etc. that takes up a significant percentage of the disk. In looking at
the new computers, especially laptops, they come with solid state drives
that are just not big enough. This may be the first time in thirty
years that I will be forced to buy a new computer that will be less than
the computer it is replacing and cost more.

Drive upgrades are among the easiest tasks, so I wouldn't worry too much
about what a new laptop comes with. If it's too small, just factor in the
price of a larger SSD as part of the purchase.

Also check the specs pretty closely and check reviews. Many laptops have
second or even third drive bays these days, so you may be able to
accomplish your data storage goals by simply adding a drive.

My last laptop, a Lenovo, had two 2.5" drive bays, but the second bay could
alternatively be used to hold two m.2 drives, so you could have a total of
3 drives in that model. Other laptops may still come with CD/DVD drives,
which are all but obsolete now. Fortunately, it's usually a very easy mod
to convert the optical drive bay into a another HDD/SSD bay with a simple
adapter.

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

| For Microcenter it had two interesting lines:
|
| In-store shopping
| In-store pickup
|
| Wait, aren't those the normal methods? Nothing changed for the virus.
| Even though they have a detailed online catalog and really big shopping
| carts so they could bring it out to you.
|
| Maybe I could negotiate it in advance. Or maybe somoene checked the
| wrong boxes.

Where I live they nearly closed for the virus. Few
people allowed in, you had to know what you wanted,
jumping through hoops to pay cash. I worry the virus
will be used as an excuse to start refusing cash.

many stores are refusing cash, including microcenter.

the good thing is that stores who haven't updated their payment
terminals for contactless payments are doing so, although it's
unfortunate it took a virus to do that.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 20 Jun 2020 23:07:44 +1200, Eric
Stevens wrote:

Micky wrote:
I'm sure I'm looking in the wrong place but the reinstall instructions I
found say they're going to wipe out every program except windows. So I
decided to move up my May Windows upgrade to now. It's downloaded and
pending restart but I wanted to post this before that sends me into
windows limbo.

Your experience sounds a bit like mine when I addled the registry.


Well installing the May Windows upgrade went smoothly. I'm hoping I
overlaid/replaced whatever file was causing problems.

I think I went to bed last night at 1am and it was 50% installed and
this morning it had a new version Welcome screen. I've been using it
for 2 hours without crashing.

The one interesting thing: The Settings / Update screen at one point
said Getting ready 100%

But when I looked a little later, it said
Getting ready 70%

???

Maybe the 100% was left over from the previous step, not for Getting
Ready, but it stayed there at least 20 seconds

Other than that everything worked fine but the final step took hours, I
think.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 20 Jun 2020 08:17:38 -0400,
"Mayayana" wrote:

"Yousuf Khan" wrote

| So I would go with a known brand name, but I wouldn't necessarily go
| with the highest brand names like Intel or Samsung. I've had good
| success with this Western Digital, so mid-tier mfg's are fine too.
|

I've bought only Samsung EVO. They've been fine.
I think it's $80 for 500GB recently. (Or probably $120
at Staples or Best Buy, but they won't have it in stock,
so you'll be offered something else for $190.)

LOL

Mayayana wrote:
"Rene Lamontagne" wrote

| I routinely have about 250-350 tabs open in Firefox, arranged into
windows
| by customer and project, and I haven't seen any slowdowns or UI issues
| since I bumped the RAM to 64GB. Even when the number of open tabs climbs
| above 400, the most RAM Firefox has used is about 14-16GB. That's
heavily
| site dependent, of course.
|
|
| I guess having sufficient memory as in your case really makes more tabs
| viable, But with only 4 or 8 GB it would be best to hold the number of
| open tabs to a reasonable level.
|

I think the trick is just not to live with someone like
that. They're the people who leave the sink full
of dishes, the driveway full of wrenches, coffee cups
in their car back seat, and a dried paintbrush on
the kitchen table from that little odd job they did
last month.

A bit judgemental, aren't we?

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 20 Jun 2020 08:09:36 -0400,
"Mayayana" wrote:

"micky" wrote

| If you precisely google a store, so that it comes up first, a box on the
| right gives interesting info about the store, like average number of
| people there any specific hour of the week, and the "actual" number
| there this hour, if they're open then. (based on cell phones)
|
| For Microcenter it had two interesting lines:
|
| In-store shopping
| In-store pickup
|
| Wait, aren't those the normal methods? Nothing changed for the virus.
| Even though they have a detailed online catalog and really big shopping
| carts so they could bring it out to you.
|
| Maybe I could negotiate it in advance. Or maybe somoene checked the
| wrong boxes.

Where I live they nearly closed for the virus. Few
people allowed in, you had to know what you wanted,
jumping through hoops to pay cash. I worry the virus
will be used as an excuse to start refusing cash.

You have a point.

OTOH, with the virus, when I get cash change, I touch it in only one
spot and put it on the passenger seat, covered with someething and don't
touch it for a few days. (Hmmm, will the darkness cause the virus to
multiply?)

I have long paid for most stuff with cash, but after a triip abroad
where many people I saw charged as little as $2 worth of stuff and the
cashiers didn't bat an eye, I've taken to charging my groceries and Home
Depot stuff, everything but take out food. And now I don't have to get
cash very often, so I tend to like it.

Now it's more relaxed. No line when I was there.
Though a man at the door wanted to spray my gloves
with disinfectant. (I'm often wearing winter gloves
into stores, that I keep in my truck. He was confused
by the new variable in his protocol. I took off a glove
so that he could complete his mission without a panic
attack or blown circuit.

At the supermarket 6 weeks ago, a guy at the door was reminding me to
follow the arrows on the floor, but he's not there now.

The prices are interesting, though. I recently bought
some shirts and shorts at Kohls, after retail reopened.

Those are summer clothes and they stop selling them when, in June maybe.
Try to buy winter clothes in winter or summer clothes in summer. It's
not easy. (another thing driving me online, not that I buy many
clothes.)

They were half off. But in Best Buy, Staples and
Microcenter I didn't see any notable good deals. So
there doesn't seem to be much in the way of "welcome
back" sales.

I did complain about Microcenter but I sure like having them here. I
hope they dont' close like their predecessors. I don't buy much but
they have it and not expensive afaict. Plus I got a battery pack backup
at a really good sale price and iirc they gave me a cable for some
reaosn.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 19:23:57 +0100, ? Good
Guy ? wrote:

On 19/06/2020 18:14, micky wrote:
I should have said that I was talking about a desktop.

But whatever was said about laptops was useful too, because I was
thinking about getting another one. I'll start a new thread about in a
few months.

Do you have to keep coming here to ask about everything?* when will you
grow up and learn to solve problems for yourself?

Maybe never. But if people didn't ask questions, what would be the
point of this newsgroup. Just to give you things to complain about?

I bet you don't even know what you use the computer for?* When you know

That's not true. 22 hours a day it's a doorstop. 2 hours a day I watch
cartoons.

your daily tasks then the solution would be quite simple.* At you ripe
age* of 86, you don't need to worry about the future as there won't be
future for you in a few month time.* Not everyone is Dame Vera Lynn who
died at a tender age of only 103.

Do you have to keep coming here to ask about everything?

Ask yourself if you have to complain about everything, if maybe you
should stop reading my posts and others if they bother you.

I've filtered you so all your posts are marked read, but I thought I'd
check to see if you said something worthwhile for once. Silly me.