Computer Woes

[sebo_fan]

Its touch and go with me. Years ago I bought a second hand refurbished black Macbook 4,1 similar to what I already own and bought it purely for use in schools. Bought from a seller on Amazon UK claiming to be an expert builder... The computer barely lasted three years and when taken to a Genius bar appointment, the computer was opened up only to find that several incompatible boxes had been slotted in for more or less a cheap rip off sale. I was livid but for the price I paid I couldn't have bought a new Mac anyway at the time. Lesson learnt there - I never buy refurbished computers off Amazon UK now.

 

[electrikbroomgu]

Macs and Windows

Working as an IT tech for over 10 years in a middle school I find that both can be a pain in the butt. We have iMacs, Macbook pro laptops, Dell Lattitude series laptops of various models. We also have Dell Optiplex desktop workstations. Of all these the most reliable by far are the Dell desktops. In the 8 years we have had them only 4 have gone out for outright failures such as a bad hdd or power supply. Otherwise it has just been occasional re-imaging and a switch over to Windows 7. The Dell laptops aren't bad either but more of those go out for repair for things like damaged LCD screens and keyboard spills and the ocassional system board issue.

The Macs have had there issues too, especially the Macbook Pro's and the OSX 10.6-10.8 operating systems. The Macbook Pro laptops have suffered the most issues with the vast majority of them needing to be sent out for power supply cable's with the magnetic ends breaking off, faulty keyboards and system boards and the famous no power problem despite being charged up all night. The Macs also do not play very well with either Novell or Active Directory and the Mac server goes down twice as often as the Windows servers. I have also gone through a total of 3 iMacs since 2007 with the past 2 suffering from failed hdd's. My current iMac with OSX 10.8 is suffering from an unresponsive internet lockup issue that nobody has yet been able to resolve leading me to believe that the same issues with 10.6 carried over to 10.8. I'm going to try upgrading to 10.9.5 to see if this problem still occurs. Google searching this issue finds many others with these same issues. Using Chrome, Firefox or Safari all produces the same result.

Windows can be a pain also with the lovely genuine advantage anti-piracy system flashing up telling the user that there operating system may be counterfeit. Then there are the Windows profile issues and I could go on. The point here being that neither is without it's faults. When I ask a tech or admin staff which they prefer they almost always answer that both have there issues and 6 guys might prefer Apple and another 6 could say Windows so it goes without saying.

 

[dartman]

I build my own boxes

Been using one Microsoft is or another since I started with DOS and deskmate from Radio Shack. If you buy quality components a Intel/windows machine can be rock solid reliable. My last box was a AMD hex core running win7 and its still working since built in 2011. My latest build is a I7 980 and Win 10, which I'm still dialing in 10 but the board is a older Asus P6T Deluxe which is a high quality server grade board.
I can't afford a Mac and I can build a much nicer box with all the features I want for cheap.
I spose I could build a hackintosh now that they use Intel stuff but I understand windows and everything is way cheaper to deal.
I have hard drives that still work from 95/96 and all my old boxes still usable are in use by family members and still work.
I've had boxes fail hard with bad motherboards and things, upgrade the board and move on. Most just became outdated or slow so I upgraded and passed em on.
Most hard drives lasts about 5 years too, but some just won't die. I usually run a machine 5 years before I upgrade here.

 

[sebo_fan]

I was a bit annoyed earlier this evening with Windows 8 or whatever the heck they have added to the Nokia Lumia phone that failed to go onto the Mac 10.6.8 on my friend's computer. In the end the Nokia phone and associated software from online sources works fine on 10.11.3 El Capitan but no use on Snow Leopard at all.

No fault of the Apple Mac though, but rather of Windows who have fallen out of favour with Apple and their reluctance to give drivers that would work with the phone. My friend can't abide her Nokia phone and is now looking to get Android since I gave her a quick try out of my old Samsung Galaxy phone.

'end of the day be it a Mac or a PC, sometimes the branding from another device can often be at fault.