I hate computers.

I

Isaacav2

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 26, 2004
Messages
1,487
Building them / being forced to REPAIR them.... nothing EVER goes smooth. I just bought XP for my "shitty used ca"r of a computer and it can't even install xp right. (Cant copy WMP .dll files)

VERY close to completely buying DELL / whatever else is good instead of headacke after headacke with building your own rig.

anyone else feel the same way?
 
lol everytime i work on my sister's pos computer that was forced on her by a family friend. Every part in it is so old, that when i replace one thing something else breaks. Frustrating to say the least.
 
I usually never have any major problems. One time I did overclock an AthlonXP Barton a little too much and ended up frying it...

Besides, the joy of owning the computer is actually building it yourself.
 
It's gone both ways with me.

I made my mother in law get a dell. It was a great deal and I don't have to really worry about it. The computer I made for her before I put *all* of the driver discs in the mobo box and told her specifically *DO NOT LOOSE THESE* As you can probably guess, she did. Find drivers for a generic PCChips mobo... yeah thats easy...

I made my friend a new system nearly 4 years ago and its running fine.
 
TType85 said:
It's gone both ways with me.

I made my mother in law get a dell. It was a great deal and I don't have to really worry about it. The computer I made for her before I put *all* of the driver discs in the mobo box and told her specifically *DO NOT LOOSE THESE* As you can probably guess, she did. Find drivers for a generic PCChips mobo... yeah thats easy...

I made my friend a new system nearly 4 years ago and its running fine.
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I feel your pain, finding SATA drivers for a cheap PCChips board was a collosal pain in the ass. I spent almost 3 hours researching the internet for it.
 
Yeah, I have that feeling at times. I was even a manager for a tech department and dealing with POS parts day in and day out gets old pretty fast.

I do love the feeling when everything just falls into place, it just feels too good to be true.
 
haha pcchips. pcchips is the only time i ever get angry with computers
 
Me too. Well, I don't "hate" computers. But I did like things better before it became a requirement to have a computer to be part of the modern world.

For one, people's expectations of quality has fallen significantly IMO. Used to be electronics (TVs, stereos, whatever) would last many years. Now it seems as though everything only last a few years before going belly up.
 
Susquehannock said:
Me too. Well, I don't "hate" computers. But I did like things better before it became a requirement to have a computer to be part of the modern world.

For one, people's expectations of quality has fallen significantly IMO. Used to be electronics (TVs, stereos, whatever) would last many years. Now it seems as though everything only last a few years before going belly up.
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Heh, everythings like that, even washers and dryers. How is it that my dad's 25 year old Maytag washer is still kicking with only two belt changes and a new lid switch, but my friend's Maytag Atlantis(?)'s tub locked up after 3 years???

Compaines intentionally do this to force people to have to buy new stuff every few years, it keeps their pockets lined, especially since they still charge for parts and service after the one year warranty has expired. /rant

anyways...I just downloaded PCChips drivers for an M935DLU motherboard assembled in 2003. Was easy as could be, just clicked through the most logical pregression of option until I found what I was looking for.
 
ryan_975 said:
Heh, everythings like that, even washers and dryers. How is it that my dad's 25 year old Maytag washer is still kicking with only two belt changes and a new lid switch, but my friend's Maytag Atlantis(?)'s tub locked up after 3 years???

Compaines intentionally do this to force people to have to buy new stuff every few years, it keeps their pockets lined, especially since they still charge for parts and service after the one year warranty has expired. /rant

anyways...I just downloaded PCChips drivers for an M935DLU motherboard assembled in 2003. Was easy as could be, just clicked through the most logical pregression of option until I found what I was looking for.
Click to expand...

Well I do agree electronics in general don't tend to last as long as they used to, I doubt it is because manufacturers are trying to force you into upgrades faster and faster.

In a lot of ways it is increased competition from previously non-industrialized countries, and the consumer demand for lower and lower prices driving older companies to have to compete by cutting certain corners in their own products to get the same specs for a lower price.

Look at the price of a computer from 1995 vs. 2005. I paid somewhere near $5000 for a Pentium 166Mhz 2 gig hard drive and 128 megs of RAM back then running Windows95 (there was a CD-ROM, tape drive, AWE32 and the other bits too) around then (could be a year off in either direction) and that wasn't a bad deal. Now for $1000 you can get a system worlds more powerful, and most people see the 'sweet-spot' for computers are being around $800 (for an average user). Now, if the price most consumers were willing to pay was still $5000 we would all have name-brand mobos, kilowatt PSUs, very sturdy ergonomic cases, high quality capacitors/chips/and quality-control all around running quad-core or faster systems with quad-SLi.

Also look at TVs. I have a 32" JVC D-Series TV from about 8 or 9 years ago, and it still gives a great picture. It was expensive at the time, and it is analog, but it gives a better picture than any current analog TVs I have seen in any electronics store, but when you look at price vs. inflation of TVs back then vs. now, you see TVs these days are a lot cheaper, and not only analog, but HDTVs as well. The same goes for regridgerators, washers, dryers, pretty much anything.
 
I very rarely get pissed off with my own computer since I've built it myself with relatively new and quality components.

Other people's PC's do piss me off though. Crappy psu's, flaky ram. You fix one thing and then some other component becomes a problem and you have to try and explain to whoever that they've got to spend more money on it.

Don't get me started on the software side of other people's PCs:

'Spyware' vs. 'Gashware' vs. 'bloated AV software':- It's usually a 3 way tie. :rolleyes:
 
ryan_975 said:
Heh, everythings like that, even washers and dryers. How is it that my dad's 25 year old Maytag washer is still kicking with only two belt changes and a new lid switch, but my friend's Maytag Atlantis(?)'s tub locked up after 3 years???

Compaines intentionally do this to force people to have to buy new stuff every few years, it keeps their pockets lined, especially since they still charge for parts and service after the one year warranty has expired. /rant

anyways...I just downloaded PCChips drivers for an M935DLU motherboard assembled in 2003. Was easy as could be, just clicked through the most logical pregression of option until I found what I was looking for.
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Sad but true. :(

Same reasoning goes for simple products like light bulbs. They don't last near as long as they used to. A couple light bulbs in my basment I'm almost certain are near 30 years old. Think the ones I buy at the store now would last that long?
 
GCK said:
Yeah, scew computers.

I'm taking up knitting.
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oh man, that just opens up a whole other can of worms, you have to worry about the quality of your materials, whether or not your colors are compatibile, or whether or not your techniqie is ergonomically sound. Then there'srisk of breaking your knitting equipment because of poor qiality control during manufacturing. :p
 
Regarding the quality of household appliances, NulloModo partially covered this, but another thing is that then, like with dishwashers and such, they were basically industrial grade. And with inflation, hell, you spend that amount of money on a dishwasher now and it will probably last just as long. :)

*believes in investing in household appliances and doesn't buy cheap*
 
General Crespin said:
Regarding the quality of household appliances, NulloModo partially covered this, but another thing is that then, like with dishwashers and such, they were basically industrial grade. And with inflation, hell, you spend that amount of money on a dishwasher now and it will probably last just as long. :)

*believes in investing in household appliances and doesn't buy cheap*
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An example that belies your theory is the Maytag Neptune washer for over $1000. It had a design flaw that Maytag would not address for years. And then it took a class action lawsuit to get them to take care of it. Then there's the Whirlpool Calypso line of washers, utter crap from what I've read. Frigidaire had an expensive line of fridges that were catching on fire because of a faulty component, of course they had to address it, but if it hadn't such a serious defect, would they have so easliy?


Now to say that to build the same quality appliance/devices a company would have to spend a hell of a lot more money today then they had to in the past? That would be true if the manufacturer's had kept production inside the United States and paid their employess $14-$20/hr. But almost all production jobs have moved overseas because they can pay $3-$4/hr for the same work.
 
ryan_975 said:
An example that belies your theory is the Maytag Neptune washer for over $1000. It had a design flaw that Maytag would not address for years. And then it took a class action lawsuit to get them to take care of it. Then there's the Whirlpool Calypso line of washers, utter crap from what I've read. Frigidaire had an expensive line of fridges that were catching on fire because of a faulty component, of course they had to address it, but if it hadn't such a serious defect, would they have so easliy?


Now to say that to build the same quality appliance/devices a company would have to spend a hell of a lot more money today then they had to in the past? That would be true if the manufacturer's had kept production inside the United States and paid their employess $14-$20/hr. But almost all production jobs have moved overseas because they can pay $3-$4/hr for the same work.
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Two more points -

A washer/dryer/stove from 20 years ago did not have nearly as many features as those of todays high end models, such as advanced settings, digital timers, internal sensors, etc. The push today from most consomers is for features vs. durability, they want the most for their money, not necessarily longevity for their money as the selling point. I worked electronics retail for a while, and usually the item that got the customers attention first was the one with either the cheapest price or the one with the longest line of bullet-points for features on the price tag. GE analog tube TVs for example: very simple designs, simple list of features, but not the highest picture quality by far. Still, they got the job done, and tended to last forever (they were actually the brand listed highest for customer satisfaction at the time, even though a Sony Wega had much higher picture quality). It comes down to what you are looking for, to get super higher quality in build and performance you have always had to pay a premium.

Second point -

A reason that a lot of those things can be made for cheap overseas is because the factories are highering workers from underdeveloped countries who have poor economies. Most of these factory workers have less than a high school education, and take the grueling factory jobs because it is about all they can get. In the US you could have a factory full of people with high school diplomas working the lines and caring about their job due to higher pay, or go to China and get a bunch of people who may not have ever gone to school or understand any more than the instructions for their specific job, getting paid next to nothing, and even with the same instructions and equipment on each line, the US team is going to have far few defects (and the situation would be just the same if the roles were reversed, given a bunch of dropout US kids and qualified Chinese workers, you'd have a superior product from China).

This goes beyond just manufacturing though, look at how people look at tech-support outsourced vs. local tech support. People get better answers from well-trained staff with good morale due to good working conditions and good pay, motivated workers provide more.
 
While it's true that 3rd world economies usually provide lackluster quality in products, the majority of defects in items that I've researched are traced back to a design flaw.

In the case of the Maytag Neptune, it was a wax motor that would short out and fry the logic board that controlled it. With the Frigidaire refriderator, it was a switch that couldn't handle the current flowing through and would start a fire, Same thing happened with a GE model of dishwasher a few years ago, a poorly designed switch started fires. The Whirlpool Calypso (I may be wrong on this model though), just a bad desihn overall would be my guess. The Maytag Atlantis: Maytag tried to cut costs and use a cheaper bearing seal in the tub. After a few months or so that sear would fail and allow walter into the tub bearing and it would seize up.

The on the electronics side, think about all the capicators from a few years ago that were bad, not because they weren't assembled properly, but because the formula for the electrolyte wasn't right. Or the IBM Deskstar hard drive, wasn't bad assembly, but another design defect.
 
ryan_975 said:
While it's true that 3rd world economies usually provide lackluster quality in products, the majority of defects in items that I've researched are traced back to a design flaw.

In the case of the Maytag Neptune, it was a wax motor that would short out and fry the logic board that controlled it. With the Frigidaire refriderator, it was a switch that couldn't handle the current flowing through and would start a fire, Same thing happened with a GE model of dishwasher a few years ago, a poorly designed switch started fires. The Whirlpool Calypso (I may be wrong on this model though), just a bad desihn overall would be my guess. The Maytag Atlantis: Maytag tried to cut costs and use a cheaper bearing seal in the tub. After a few months or so that sear would fail and allow walter into the tub bearing and it would seize up.

The on the electronics side, think about all the capicators from a few years ago that were bad, not because they weren't assembled properly, but because the formula for the electrolyte wasn't right. Or the IBM Deskstar hard drive, wasn't bad assembly, but another design defect.
Click to expand...

I can't really say anything for appliances as I have never sold nor purchased one (being an apartment dweller means the most I have ever had to buy was a microwave).

As for capacitor thing - I haven't really followed the news of bad capacitors, I know I have never had one blow on me, but that is just me, and I have had a large variety of various home-electronics and computers in my posession. I will say one company that I used to have huge faith in, that I am not starting to lose faith in, is Panasonic due to two consection DVD players from them that both have started to have disc-read issues after only a year or so.
 
In the past two weeks:


Got a new motherboard and video card.

Installed both and broke Windows. Repared Windows.

Finally managed to overclock video card. Broke Windows.

Fresh install w/format. Forgot to back up 8+ gigs of Stepmania songs and Oblivion mods. (>.<)

Manage to recover almost all of my important Stepmania songs, EXCEPT the ONE that I cared most about getting!

Windows works.

Begin working on a case lighting scheme.

Fry the controller board of my second HDD with EVERYTHING important on it (backed up from the format and my 30+ gigs of music), due to a combination of me stupidly shorting out my PSU and unknowingly overvolting the HDD.

Purchase an identical HDD model to replace the board.

HDD arrives next day. Thank you, NCIX shipping!

HDD has a new design of controller board (Thanks, Seagate, for buying Maxtor! /sarcasm) and therefore doesn't work.

Send old HDD in for recovery; hoping they don't find my copious porn stash that has some, shall we say, questionable images in it, that I've never been bothered to delete... (stupid Hentai torrents... grrrrrrrr, but I'm not too worried, there were only a couple pics, and there was 4+ gigs of just regular messed up shit :p).

Sit here listening to the *3* songs that I have on my computer because FrostWire refuses to connect to the network so I can get more.


I'm pissed off too. Dumb computers.
 
Can't be bothered. I'd rather pay $100 for someone to do it than have to wait another week to FIND one with an identical board who's willing to give it up, then pay out of my ass for it (which knowing me would probably happen). The, just because it hates me, I'd find out that some freak magical wizard destroyed my data and I have to send it in anyways. ;)
 
> "Purchase an identical HDD model to replace the board.

HDD has a new design of controller board (Thanks, Seagate, for buying Maxtor! /sarcasm) and therefore doesn't work." <

Not to derail this thread, but I was afraid of things like this when I first read of the buyout some time ago.
 
I know the feeling of frustration when a computer isn't working right. God it makes me want to shove it all in a dumpster and kill it all completely.

However, that's outweighed by the joy of hearing that post beep when you first boot it up. I never thought a simple beep could be so damn exciting.
 
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