New laptop!!

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GOS

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
QQ Supporter
Joined
Apr 23, 2013
Messages
21,361
Location
Central Illinois
My 2 year old DELL is simply wearing me out. I have documented it fairly well on QQ over the last 2 years many of the challenges this lemon has given me. 2 days ago, it was doing an update and when it was rebooting it simply would NOT reboot. That's been the biggest issue with it, even had a new motherboard put in while it was under warranty...same problems continued. AFter about 15 failed attempts, if finally decided to boot up. Out of extreme frustration, and honestly, paranoia...I've ordered a new one and will be picking it up curbside at Best Buy later today.

The challenge with the new one will be figuring out how to get all the programs I own on the new one. I guess, before my DELL totally crashes, I need to locate all the programs I need, figure out if I have accounts, etc.

Or, is there some other way to transfer everything to my new laptop?? Sure, files are easy...programs maybe not.
 
There are lots of ways to do this, but honestly, since you've had so many problems with the old one, I'd take the long and hard route and reinstall programs from scratch. It's very possible some of the issues you've had are virus/malware/configuration related, and this is a good opportunity to make sure you're starting again with a clean slate.

If that's not an option for you, look here, it's pretty comprehensive.
 
We're in what I call "in-between times" with computers right now. The SSD is the new tech. It appeared 10 years ago but seemed unaffordable to most and HDD spinners were still sold as stock drives. Super affordable now. CPU speeds plateaued about that long ago as well. You can buy significantly lower spec computers new vs higher end machines from 10 years ago, for contrast. (I'm not suggesting all new machines are lower spec. Just pointing out that machines with circa 2001 specs are now sold as budget machines.)

I recommend shopping used and being a scavenger right now. And I recommend a 2011 or 2012 15" Macbook Pro with a new SSD installed. You can scare this up for anywhere between $300 - $800 depending on your Ebay savageness (tried to write savvy... going with this autocorrect instead). A similar system new with a quad core i7 CPU and this processing power starts at about $4000. It's a Mac, so you get access to all the software. Or run any OS of your choice. This model also supports OSX from 10.6.8 to the latest 10.15. Last of the genuine Jobs-era Macs.

There's a really unique opportunity with the 2011 MBP with the AMD chip in it's 2nd graphics card. (This model featured dual GPUs with the 2nd one being more of a 'gamer' GPU.) A batch of these AMD chips failed. You can snipe such a machine in great shape on Ebay for often under $200. There's a way to hack the firmware and tell it it's a standard single GPU machine. Get a $4000 system for $300 (with a new SSD).

PS. My opinion of the post-Jobs Macs is that they are the worst possible choice you could ever make! Built to be disposable to the point of soldering the hard drive to the logic board.
 
There are lots of ways to do this, but honestly, since you've had so many problems with the old one, I'd take the long and hard route and reinstall programs from scratch. It's very possible some of the issues you've had are virus/malware/configuration related, and this is a good opportunity to make sure you're starting again with a clean slate.

If that's not an option for you, look here, it's pretty comprehensive.

Actually great advice. Yes, I will start from scratch. The good thing is, my DELL is booted up and I'm NOT going to reboot or restart it until I get all my programs installed on my new one. Ugh...but starting fresh with Foobar and my favorite skin.....I recall spending a fair amount of time getting Foobar/Skin to function the way I want. The critical thing for me is, making sure I figure out my "accounts" with those programs I spent money on.

  • Clickrepair
  • DVDfab passkey
  • DVDAudio Extractor
Actually, that's not that many! Shouldn't be hard.
 
Iā€™ve read, thereā€™s been a lot of boot up problems with some of the recent Microsoft OS updates, especially for laptops.
What brand is your new one?
Picking a brand of laptop is really tough IMO. Sure, you can go the stable route with Apple, but will it ā€œeasilyā€ be compatible with all your software?
Iā€™ve had many Dells in the past, and most have been fine. My last older one is a Samsung and itā€™s Windows 7 and been stable but now too old and slow (processor).
My current favorite is my Win. 10 Microsoft Surface Pro, but has too few connectors, maybe 3-4 years old now.
So Iā€™ll be in the same boat as you very soon, but Iā€™ll never again buy a Toshiba, customer support from them was a nightmare!
 
I ordered an HP. I'm getting more RAM and bigger SSD than my current one. i7 vs i5. 10th generation, vs much older generation on current. I'm pretty stoked to get it up and running.
Should be plenty fast enough; and you can always just plug an SSD (Samsung 2TB- šŸ˜‹) into an USB Port for more storage.
I feel ya on the Foobar/skin config, took me time on my NUC to get sorted out!
Yup, laptops are tuff to get right.
 
Good luck Gene..my story us not a pretty one..I picked a Lenovo laptop (AMD not intel..BIG MISTAKE!) and it's the slowest (and most filled with unwanted programs) machine I have ever operated in my life.

I know that you already made up your mind but if I had to do it again I'd save up for a Macbook air.."cheapest" one is $1K but , oh, man is there a huge difference.. I know I am not being fair cause I am comparing it to my Mac Mini with all the extra powers which was $2.5K (a PC with the same features would be the same or more expensive) and just turning it on and having it function in less than 30 seconds is such a treat!!!
It also handles anything you throw at it at "ludicrous speed"...my inside joke is that it opens up the webpage BEFORE you hit ENTER..it almost does , really ...and now that it's hooked to my Ethernet (not WifFi, although it fared quite well thru WiFi), it really is ridiculously fast..
As for the programs, well your Foobar on Windoze is wayyy more advanced that on Mac , where it's a bare bones program, but, you have DVDAExtractor , Make MKV (beta) for free..
Ok, it is NOT perfect (no support for Ipods anymore, which are still alive and well), but I think that shelling out the extra cash is definitely worth it...

Here's to you having a great time with your new piece of Tech..which is always good to get...
 
We've all had our share of PC issues over the last 20 years. Simply because my DELL was such an immense lemon, I refuse to buy another Funny thing is, I know that DELL doesn't just dish out lemons. Just bad luck on my part. But, with all the competition, why not buy different? It's human nature to feel that way about a brand when it happens to YOU. I'm hopeful. :)
 
Good job GOS. I've been buying HP's for years, usually replacing/handing down every 2 years or so. I always "build my own" on their website whenever they have a promotion. I never get their bigger SSD because you can get a better one for less from Egghead or Amazon. Once I get the new laptop I rip out the shitty (either small SSD or non-SSD) C: drive in the laptop (opening it each year is different and a bit more challenging) and replace what's in there with a Samsung Pro. Then I'm good to go. This way you install a clean copy of Windows without all of the bull crap they put on there, and if you really want the HP utilities you can just download them from their website.

Here's another good bit of info. If you have an old version of Win7 Pro, you can use that code to install Win10 Pro even though your laptop probably comes with Win10 Home. For some reason, MS allows you to port over your Win7 Pro as long as it was not an upgrade code.

Just download the USB Install media from the MS website, boot the laptop with the new HD in it from USB, install Windows, then enter the code you have from your old Win7 Pro software, not the code for Windows on the laptop. And presto, you have Win 10 Pro!

Good luck and keep it clean. The less crap on there the better.
 
We've all had our share of PC issues over the last 20 years. Simply because my DELL was such an immense lemon, I refuse to buy another Funny thing is, I know that DELL doesn't just dish out lemons. Just bad luck on my part. But, with all the competition, why not buy different? It's human nature to feel that way about a brand when it happens to YOU. I'm hopeful. :)
I bought a new Dell when I retired 3.5 years ago and havenā€™t experienced any major issues with it - certainly nothing like what you have with yours, Gene. Sure I find myself cursing it now and then, but itā€™s served me well.
 
Here's one more tip for you, and for everyone else to. It's concerning email.

I use a program called 'MailWasher Pro', which is a front end for your email. What it does is it goes out and collects all of your incoming email and queue's it up for you to preview. It's still on the mail server and NOT on your PC. You can then see the actual sending email address (That email from 'WalMart' with the $50 Coupon is really from [email protected], things like that) and it allows you to delete it from the mail server BEFORE you take it into your real email program. It's a life and time saver. It also allows you to bounce emails back, and delete the ones you don't want without your interaction.

It's only about $30 and it's well worth it. Check it out if you're interested, you can try it free for a week or so.
 
Not sure what I'm going to do when I decide to buy new tech. Well, first we'll need to see new tech! (And not just a $60,000 offering with 64 parallel cores aimed at movie houses!) I already know that I'll go DIY and Linux eventually I suppose.
Picked up a late 2008 C2D machine in early 2009. Ran it 24/7 for 9 years or so. Upgraded to that 2011 quad i7 that I like.
Picked up a 2009/2010 Mac Pro in late 2009. It has at least another 10 years in it if I want. I could upgrade the CPUs if I wanted to as well but the original 2.93 - 3.33 quad i7's are still overpowered for my use. So I'm going to keep coasting for a while before jumping ship here.

I recommend two apps no matter who you are or what OS you run with:
Carbon Copy Cloner
Little Snitch

Clone your system and data drives 1:1 with CCC. Live volumes or disk image files. Live volumes boot just like your primary because they are bit for bit identical. Use this for a safety net as well as backup. Make sure your backup clone is current before any, shall we say, R&D. Boot into your backup and overwrite the primary if anything goes weird. A magic reset button and you don't have to figure out what you did.

LS is a network monitor. Anything connecting to a network needs your permission. Make rules as connections come up. Nothing gets to call home in the background without your permission. Basically you're locking the door instead of running performance crippling virus scans continuously. Little bit saner. (You'll catch anything funny because funny stuff likes to call home.) These are each like $40.
 
Good choice with HP. Don't ever buy an Asus laptop though, biggest pile of cr*p I've ever bought. The Asus laptop is an i7 even running at full speed it is slower than a 10 year old Acer i5, plus Asus has 'mucked about' the Windows, even after a W10 upgrade it still behaves differently to my other Windows 10 PCs!
 
I use a program called 'MailWasher Pro', which is a front end for your email. What it does is it goes out and collects all of your incoming email and queue's it up for you to preview. It's still on the mail server and NOT on your PC. You can then see the actual sending email address (That email from 'WalMart' with the $50 Coupon is really from [email protected], things like that) and it allows you to delete it from the mail server BEFORE you take it into your real email program. It's a life and time saver. It also allows you to bounce emails back, and delete the ones you don't want without your interaction.

An old but still maintained email client called Pegasus will also do this for free. It's got a cultish fan base but seems a bit outdated these days. Though allegedly a new release is coming.
 
jimfisheye speaks with great knowledge, however "Little Snitch" is for the MAC O/S only! :(

That's too bad, because it looks great. For Windows, you can use a program called NetLimiter 4, which does almost the same thing but not as elegantly!
 
skin.....I recall spending a fair amount of time getting Foobar/Skin to function the way I want. The critical thing for me is, making sure I figure out my "accounts" with those programs I spent money on.

I save the registration emails and any relevant files on a NAS that gets backed up. Also just started maintaining a spreadsheet with registration codes out of an abundance of paranoia.
 
Good job GOS. I've been buying HP's for years, usually replacing/handing down every 2 years or so. I always "build my own" on their website whenever they have a promotion. I never get their bigger SSD because you can get a better one for less from Egghead or Amazon. Once I get the new laptop I rip out the shitty (either small SSD or non-SSD) C: drive in the laptop (opening it each year is different and a bit more challenging) and replace what's in there with a Samsung Pro. Then I'm good to go. This way you install a clean copy of Windows without all of the bull crap they put on there, and if you really want the HP utilities you can just download them from their website.

Here's another good bit of info. If you have an old version of Win7 Pro, you can use that code to install Win10 Pro even though your laptop probably comes with Win10 Home. For some reason, MS allows you to port over your Win7 Pro as long as it was not an upgrade code.

Just download the USB Install media from the MS website, boot the laptop with the new HD in it from USB, install Windows, then enter the code you have from your old Win7 Pro software, not the code for Windows on the laptop. And presto, you have Win 10 Pro!

Good luck and keep it clean. The less crap on there the better.
Definitely the way to go. I just did same thing a few months ago. Nice not having to pay for Windows 10 Pro. A clean install ensures the fastest running machine. In fact, doing a clean install every few years gets rid of the bad stuff that invariably collects on your machine.
 
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