People Are Not Replacing Aging Computers

"People Are Not Replacing Aging Computers"

No, because even the AGING computers are smarter than people!

_HAL

Congratulations on your new 'puter, Walter. Somehow, it seems a shame that replacing a computer, or other contemporary techno-artifact, is often more efficient than repairing one. We do seem to be a "Disposable Society".



timber

Ya know, Timber, i work in the low voltage security industry, and these days, you can't get sophisticated equipment repaired--increasingly, the manufacturers "farm out" the repair work, warranty and out-of-warranty, to companies who could not handle the volume if they tried to repair the items. Instead, you are sent an "advance replacement" which is actually a rebuild, and you are billed an exhorbitant price for a unit with a 90-day, very limited warranty. Ten or twelve years ago, you could take yer box in, and have specific parts analyzed and repaired-- mother board, sound card, etc.--now, if you're foolish enough to waste the extra money on "repairs," all you will have gotten is a cheap "after market" replacement or a rebuild, and paid the money you would have spent to buy a new, warranted part. I don't know this for a certainty, but i suspect this stems from companies moving to an unskilled, low paid work force. When the manufacturer doesn't specify, we send units to a facility for non-consumer electronics repairs and the price difference is dramatic.

I have a 3 yr. old HP Pavilion 6640c with a 500mhz cpu, 64kRam,
and 15 gig hard drive.

I intend to get a memory upgrade in the next few weeks.

My next computer is going to be a Mac - probably an iMac. I'd like to buy it right now but I will probably hold off till the late Spring or early Summer.

I am fed up with Windows; and I have friends and family who rave about their Macs. Everyone says that crashes are virtually unheard of. Plus the Macs great strength is in photo and video editing etc.

My friends say: "If you go Mac, you won't go back!" Pretty soon I'll find out.

jjorge- I have no experience with Macs, only Mac owners. What I have found that there is an almost religious zeal on the part of some Mac owners as they wax rhapsodic about their computers.

On the other hand, according to my friend's husband, mentioning the name of Bill Gates is tantamount to invoking the devil. All I have to do is even make an aside concerning something about my computer, and I am greeted with a diatribe.

Phoenix

Yes, I've noticed the same thing. To some Mac zealots Bill Gates is the devil incarnate!

Oh my god! I can justify the expenditure I made in the fall of 97 for a very high-end computer. I'm running on a P-266 with a Seagate Barracuda SCSI drive and 128 mg of memory. Of course, I don't play many games beyond MahJongg from Moraff (another dated statement!) It works fine with W98 se and a broadband connection. If I feel the need to replace, my sixth grader (currently using a P-90) will inherit the system, complete with a SCSI CD burner. (Of course the kids use a P4 1.6 gh PC in the kitchen to play their games where Mom and Dad can monitor usage.) Its called appropriate technology.

As a former Mac owner, I feel the need to state that its not a religion, but instead a response to the status quo. As a current PC owner, along with the other 4 PCs in the house, its a lot easier to maintain a single vendor. However, if I were to have my druthers, I'd own a Mac.

There's a lot less futzing around with various settings to make the blasted things work<G>. You either eliminate init conflicts or reinstall the system. (This sounds horrendous, but its not as bad as it sounds.)

You don't have to figure out where your e-mail, password lists and other various important things like cookies for the websites you normally visit are stored and save them. One of these days my husband's going to find out that backing up his "My Documents" folder is not enough if we ever have top rebuild his hard drive. I've done this on my current machine twice in the last two years and once on the kids' PC. Its NOT fun. On the Mac , at least when I last had one, it was an easy matter to determine crititcal files and back them up.

I'm ready to throw out my just over a year old machine. I have WindowsME and it blows! All the upgrades I'd have to make to move to WindowsXP (plus the cost of WindowsXP itself), I'm better off buying a new machine!

I probably won't throw out my machine just yet (don't have the fundage to replace it). But I do want to move into the Mac world. I want to wait a bit for recordable DVD technology to figure out what it's going to be (I don't want to get stuck with the BetaMax of DVD burners) then get a Mac.



It's not just Mac users. I curse Bill Gates name daily on my home and work PC's.

Yours is just a baby Chatoyant. Mine must be at least ten years old. But then that is not quite true because I think everything in it has now been replaced. As my son is a B.I.T. and has so far been able to sort out any problems it has developed I really can't see the need to replace it - it still does all the things I want it to.

I'm posting this with my newest computer, a 6 year old 233 megahetrz (Built by a local geek) which still works good on able2know, www.answers.google.com and www.abuzz.com If it fails, I will buy used, for about $300 a whole system, except the printer, that was built by a local geek instead of a big name brand manufacturer. Likely the geek will instal my printer at no extra cost so all I have to do is connect the cables, phone line and boot up to able2know.com. I won't even need to open any boxs. Neil

Well, guess what. Someone took pity on me and bought me a new computer for Christmas. The thing went all over the country before it ended up here. I just got it yesterday. I'm looking forward to when I get it all set up and going, but not looking forward to what's in between. Right now, I should be saving things on discs and trying to figure out what else to do to make the transition go smoothly. I'm a technical dummy, so I think it's best to have someone else set it up for me.

It comes (of course) with XP. I've talked to people who dislike it terribly and others who just love it. I'm excited about having a new computer while at the same time kind of nervous about it. I'm sure in a month or two or four or six, everything will be just wonderful!

I don't sound very grateful, do I? I really am. This gift was a totally unexpected surprise. However, I know there will be problems to work out for a while. What I really like to do is just sit here and have fun! And I will. Yes, I will ... I just know it ... gotta quit worrying so much ... mumble, mumble.