Any computer wizz's here?

[Jerry_Atrick]

No worries.. If its an older version of Linux may want to overwrite with a newer version whhere often driivers are updated. There may well be a LUG (Linux Users Group) near you.. There is one in Noosa and a Sunshine Coast computer club (more general I suppose): https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/linux_user_groups

 

These are usually quite friendly enthusiasts and wil;l be far more up to date that I am on all things Linux (and probably Windows), though you may have to swear eternal hatred of Bill Gates before they will speak to you 🙂

 

On 22/11/2023 at 10:55 PM, spacesailor said:

It Wil boot from 'A ' 'B 'F ' ( F usb ) .' C D & E are the. hard-drives.

As there is four ' usb ' add g h I!  A is standard floppy   B is super floppy 

BUT that bios is looking for ' X ' .

I remember the Old ' boot ' disk had only five lines of command as it usually had 

 ' A ' and ' C ' only .

spacesailor

 

Little out of my league I'm afraid... at least without seeing it and even then I guess it would still be out of my league. There shoudl be a way to do a hard reset of the BIOS unless they fried it. It is usually done on the chip itself by bridging a couple of pins, or sometimes the motherboard will have a BIOS Reset button. Although it is an Aldi PC, it will be manifacturedf by someone else obviosuly, so you should be able to google it and find out.

 

Normally, randsomeware works by encryting your disks contents so you can't get at it without purchasing the keys to decrypt the files or filesystem, otherwise, you can try and brute force guess the keys, but my guess is they will be long and you will be there for quite a while before you get them.

 

[edit]

If they have only buggered your BIOS, you can remove the disk and install it in another PC and your contents shoudl be retrievable. However, the ransomware will probably infect that PC. I am honestly not sure what toi advise to retrieve the contents of your disk without seeing it, but I would suggest it is not the cost of the PC you should be concerned with, but the value of the photos to youi.. You may want to visit a specialist computer shop that does this sort of stuff for their advice.

Edited November 24, 2023 by Jerry_Atrick

[willedoo]

I've previously used freeware file recovery programmes to retrieve files from a dud drive via a hard drive dock. As long as the drive is mechanically capable of working, they seem to retrieve stuff ok.

[willedoo]

The BSOD returned after a trouble free week. It happened not long after downloading a Windows update. It was a two part update; one a security update and the other a .NET Framework update. As an experiment I uninstalled the .NET update to see if it was related. The computer ran great for a day and then started nagging an update notification. It had downloaded the .NET update again pending a restart. I thought that was odd as I had disabled Windows update service after I had uninstalled the update, specifically to prevent it from downloading again.

 

On checking Services, the update service was running and enabled again even though I had disabled it. After a Google, I found out that another app, Windows update medic service, resets the update services back to how Microsoft wants it regardless of the fact that you've changed the settings. I don't know why they have the option of changing settings available when they are just going to override it at the next boot.

 

The Windows update medic service can't be disabled in services but I found a registry hack on line to disable it which allows setting changes in the update service to stick around. I couldn't begin to estimate how many swear words I've directed at Microsoft and Windows over the years. Time to give Linux a try. I think I'll try the Linux USB bootable version I have, as Jerry suggested and if I like it, then check out the volume of different distributions available.

[pmccarthy]

Outlook invited me to try the new Outlook yesterday. It said I could reverse the change if I didn't like it. At the first step it asked for a password I didn't know, and there was no way back. I had no email all day. Fortunately, when I rebooted my computer this morning it had reverted,

[Jerry_Atrick]

On 29/11/2023 at 12:08 AM, willedoo said:

The Windows update medic service can't be disabled in services but I found a registry hack on line to disable it which allows setting changes in the update service to stick around. I couldn't begin to estimate how many swear words I've directed at Microsoft and Windows over the years. Time to give Linux a try. I think I'll try the Linux USB bootable version I have, as Jerry suggested and if I like it, then check out the volume of different distributions available

Up until Windows 10, the way to stop auto updates was to set your network adapter using network properties to think it is on a metered broadband account. In that case, Windows asks you if you want to update.. welll thats how it used to work, anyway. But here are some other ways to try it: https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to/how-to-turn-off-automatic-updates-in-windows-10  (I didn't read it all tbh).

 

 

For Windows 11, try these: https://www.minitool.com/data-recovery/how-to-stop-windows-11-update.html

 

[spacesailor]

My new PC is " windows 10 " .

It has stopped allowing me to " shut down " . Only to " update & shut down " .

So I merely press the power button to ' switch off '  .

 I have read the " update " list , and there is  nothing there I need or want, so why

" FORCE "  It down our throat .

spacesailor

[onetrack]

You'll soon get the constant message on your screen, that your operating system is out of date and no longer supported, and your computer system is now exposed to multiple security threats!

 

It will only cost you several hundred more dollars to stay in front with Microsoft!!

[Jerry_Atrick]

A mate of my son doesn't pay for Windows.. Apparently all that happens is a message at the bottom of the screen says it is an unpaid for or something.. all seems to work.. even auto updates... of course can't do that with office

[spacesailor]

As there is no security updates .

Only " split screen" ,  and other add on items,  I don't & will never use ,

Why

Are they pushing more bloatware on to us .

And

Why can't we , the consumers say NO .

spacesailor

 

[onetrack]

Well, I'm going through computer Hell at present. I'm running Windows 7 Pro on both the laptop and the desktop, and every day it becomes obvious I'm a complete troglodyte in the Internet world.

My laptop is a Toshiba L300 from 2009 and it's so obsolete, someone will be seizing on it as collectible soon. I can't upgrade anything, because MS has virtually deemed anything over 5 or 6 years old is totally obsolete and needs to be binned immediately, because its a massive "security risk". But apparently there are 7% of users still on Windows 7 and obsolete machines.

 

I don't know how businesses get on with the level of regular computer obsolescence - it must cost them a fortune. But I guess we're all paying for it, that why prices have gone up so much.

Now, it appears, the axe is coming for Windows 10. Yep, that computer you're currently using will have to be binned by Oct 2025, because that's when MS has deemed that Windows 10 is totally obsolete, and will no longer be supported. I guess Windows 13 will be out by then, and Windows 11 users will be looking at the axe.

 

What staggers me is the sheer number of hardware components for computers that are now useless. There's a massive range of perfectly good CPU's, motherboards and graphics cards that are "unsupported" by WIndows 11.

You can't even try to download Windows 11 onto these components, the OS won't download because, "the necessary security features are missing".

 

I wasn't aware how much the CPU manufacturers and other component manufacturers are in bed with the likes of MS.

Intel, AMD and a host of Asian electronic manufacturers build their components to meet MS's "security features", with inbuilt architecture. 

 

Did you know that the current "secure" range of CPU's, motherboards, and other electronic components are locked into MS servers with encryption, once you load Windows 11 Pro and crank them up?

And you can't buy or use Windows 11 without a verified account and logged in with MS. Talk about Big Brother stuff!

 

What is even more confusing is Windows 11 Home comes without MS encryption. This is apparently because MS has figured that people who buy W11 Pro are more likely to be businesses and more likely to want to protect their computer and its contents.

Add in the fact that MS encryption apparently causes the majority of SSD's to run up to 45% slower than they could, because they're constantly locking and unlocking the encryption.

 

So, back to my current problems. My graphics card crapped itself on the desktop. It's a Gigabyte GT640 and it was released in 2012, so about as current as the Ark in boating circles.

I bought a new GTX1650 graphics card with the intention of using it in a new desktop build. In the interim, I installed it in my dead desktop - and my 10 yr old Gigabyte motherboard spat the dummy, and refused to start.

 

Something about the cache in the motherboard needed to be reset. So I pulled all the peripherals out, removed the CMOS battery for 10 minutes and hoped it would start again. Nope, it just won't accept the new GTX1650.

So I went and picked up a used GT640 to get my desktop going again - and the MB still spat the dummy, ending up with corrupted startup files.

I set up Windows Repair and it got going again - but every morning I have to start Windows Repair again. In the meantime, my email programme, Thunderbird got scrambled and I couldn't get it to work.

 

This happened because I'd been using Thunderbird edition 42 and that is 100% obsolete - and Thunderbird 115 is now the go. But T115 won't load because my desktop is lacking the MS .NET security framework - and I can't download MS .NET security framework, because my CPU and MB doesn't support it!! 

 

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/support/policy#:~:text=NET Framework and will continue,continue to also be supported.

 

So, after I tried to download T115, I got stopped by a Thunderbird message telling me my system wasn't supported by T115 - but it downloaded anyway - and that I believe, is part of the problem that caused my email programme to get scrambled.

Then by pure chance, I discovered T42 download files in my system, so I reloaded T42 from them, and got it working again - sort of. I can't send emails for some reason I haven't yet figured.

 

So ... today I lashed out and bought a new Gigabyte MB, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB Samsung SSD - and this is all to go with a new Intel i7-12700K CPU that I picked up off Amazon a couple of weeks ago in a Black Friday sale.

All I need to find now is a reasonably-priced copy of W11 and I can set up a whole new desktop, and become "current" again - under the all-encompassing MS umbrella!

 

What I have done, is I found the the release date of all the components I purchased, and ensured nothing is older than 12 mths in the release date of the product.

This ensures that I will have some modest lifespan out of a new build before I'm forced to start over again with the "current" technology.

 

I'm utterly staggered at the terrific pace of electronic development. Did you know that Bluetooth is up to V5.3? You're all probably on V3.1. There have been multiple upgrades to BT just in the last couple of years.

Similarly, the 802.11 standard Wi-Fi is now up to 6E. You're all probably still on 802.11b. Wi-Fi 7 is due in 2024 - and 2024 is less than a month away!!

 

https://www.netgear.com/au/hub/network/evolution-of-wifi/

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by onetrack

[pmccarthy]

One track you are light years ahead of me in computer knowledge. I bought a laptop less than 12 months ago, a Surface, and it has so much wrong that I can’t fix. Outlook refuses to start about three times a week and I have to ctrlaltdel then shut it down. Etc etc. I used to be good at computers, a couple of decades ago!

[Jerry_Atrick]

@pmccarthy - I woould take it back to the store where you got it from if Outlook was pre-installed. There could be an issue with the hardaware.

 

7 hours ago, onetrack said:

Well, I'm going through computer Hell at present. I'm running Windows 7 Pro on both the laptop and the desktop, and every day it becomes obvious I'm a complete troglodyte in the Internet world.

My laptop is a Toshiba L300 from 2009 and it's so obsolete, someone will be seizing on it as collectible soon. I can't upgrade anything, because MS has virtually deemed anything over 5 or 6 years old is totally obsolete and needs to be binned immediately, because its a massive "security risk". But apparently there are 7% of users still on Windows 7 and obsolete machines.

Linux is your friend. If you're thinking of turfing out your Laptop, may was well wipe it and start aresh with inux. I would have said go Ubuntu, but it has been copping a bit of flack lately for bloating its distro. However, as it is Debian based, it comes with great package management support .  You may want to check this site for best distros for Windows users: https://www.techradar.com/best/best-linux-distros-for-windows-users, or just google best L:inux distro for Windows users; there's a plethora of sites. I guarantee it will keep your laptop running well. And, of coursae, since Thunderbird is (or at least was) part of the Mozilla foundation, it runs natively on Linux. Just check that you machine is 32 bit or 64 bit, and download the correct ISO.. and there will be no such thing as it won't install because of propreitary or special hardware.

 

Out of the box with most distros, you will get Thunderbird, Firefox, a host of programming languages, media players, open source software that does most of what you can do with propertietatry software, and of course, LibreOffice, etc. Although I do prefer Word and Excle to LibreOffie Write and Calc, for the vast majority of things, LibreOffice does the job  well. And, if you need to run Windows programes, you can using Wine, although sometimes you do have to fiddle around a but. And no doubt, there is a LUG (Linux Users Group) near you if yoiu need help.

 

Your desktop BIOS may not have liked your new graphics card, but if it was OK with it, then unless it was a bleeding edge one that Linux engineers haven't recverse engineered (although most of the graphics card manufactureres now write device drivers for variouos Linux base systems), I guarantee your desktop would not have had those problems with Linux. You may have had to manually update a device driver or something, but that would be about it. If you need to stick with Windows, well, that is a company; Linux is maintained by an army of volunteers - and if you think support could be a problem, they turn around issues in about 80% of the cases, within 2 days of being reported (in candidate/alpha releases; and a week or so as part of the base release).

 

However, not all is perfect with Linux, of course; and here is someone who, although an ardent Linux user, is happy to criticise it where it needs to be. And yes, much of what he says is correct. But, the bottom line is you may not have had to upgrade youir desktop using it:

 

(Oh, and because Thunderbrid is made for Linux, the app mamager that is used will automagically update it for you; or it will tell you it needs updating. Runnung such an out of date version must have securioty flaws waiting to be exploited).

[nomadpete]

I second all that Jerry says about Linux.

 

I have been running Ubuntu on my old laptop for years. I installed it alongside  Windows so I still had the old windows available just in case there was any problem. There wasn't. It was simple to install and simple to use. Everything works.

 

As Jerry mentioned, check if your old laptop is 64 bit capable - if it still boots up with Windows, it can tell you. Then go online and print out the 'how to install Ubuntu' page. There is a step by step guide.

[Jerry_Atrick]

BTW, OT, if you have enouch space to have two desktops (with one monitor and one keyboard/mouse), you can rebuild your old computer with Linux and it should work fine. You can connect the one monitor/Keyboard/.Mouse to both desktops using a KVM switch, such as this: https://www.amazon.com.au/KCEVE-Selector-Computers-Wireless-Keyboard/dp/B08P1GL4L5/ref=sr_1_55?crid=1SIUM6ZO9KF5T&keywords=kvm+switch&qid=1702241797&sprefix=kvm+switc%2Caps%2C251&sr=8-55

 

That way you can still use your old desktop as well as your new one. This is what I do.

[red750]

A wife asks her programmer husband to go to the store
‘Can you go down to the store, and get a gallon of milk, and if they have eggs, get 6.’
Later on, he returns home and she looks at his purchases and says
‘ Why the fck do you have 6 gallons of milk?’
He responded
‘They had eggs.’

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes.. guilty! (well in the same way, anyway)...

[nomadpete]

2 hours ago, red750 said:

A wife asks her programmer husband to go to the store
‘Can you go down to the store, and get a gallon of milk, and if they have eggs, get 6.’
Later on, he returns home and she looks at his purchases and says
‘ Why the fck do you have 6 gallons of milk?’
He responded
‘They had eggs.’

Call the Grammar Police!

[onetrack]

All my current computers are 32 bit, I was reluctant to go over to 64 bit, as it immediately makes a lot of useful old programmes and devices, useless.

 

I've got a photo-imaging programme from 1998, called iPhoto Express. It was produced by Canon and is one of the simplest and best photo-imaging programmes around.

But I can pretty well guarantee if I go over to Windows 11 (which is 64 bit by design), it will not accept iPhoto Express. I read regularly about the huge benefits of 64 bit over 32 bit, but I still can't see where the benefits are that great. Thanks for the links and advice.

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by onetrack

[Jerry_Atrick]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/do-32-bit-programs-work-on-new-computer-with/133800b1-13bc-49c0-9669-5cbe6d2332da

 

Or you can try and create a virtual 32 bit machine with vmware and load win7 onto that if you have the installation media... not sure you can register the keys anymore.

[spacesailor]

My PCs are wanting to " up-grade " so I diligently read through all the crape. Only to find nothing wanted or needed in that download. 

Now How to say " NO " to " HIM " .

spacesailor

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Againb, that's why I prefer Linux.. Nothing is forced.. You select what you want to upgrade unless you certain items (like the kernel) to auto-update. And it rarely requires you to reboot.

[onetrack]

Well, I've paid the price and joined the MS Brotherhood again, with Windows 11. Didn't actually realise my Windows 7 and computer build was so old - I thought it was 2017, but it was actually 2012.

As money is still a bit tight, I just bought a new Intel i7 CPU, a new motherboard, new graphics card, new RAM, and a new SSD - and simply ripped the old components out of my 20 yr old case and installed all the new components in there. So, sort of like slipping a Holden motor into a 105E Anglia.

 

I picked up an i7 12700K CPU for $374 off Amazon. They normally want about $500 for one. Stepson and wife gave me a $100 Amazon gift card for Christmas (the Christmas we had back in November), so I promptly spent that, and the CPU only cost me $274 in direct outlay. 

I went with a Gigabyte B760 Aorus Elite AX M/board, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM, and 1TB Samsung 990 PRO SSD - all on sale, and the total for the three items was $677.

The Gigabyte GTX1650 graphics card that I previously mentioned, I picked up for $199 - so all four components set me up for a whole new guts for my desktop for $1,250.

My monitor, keyboard and mouse are all just fine, so I'm continuing to use them.

 

Then came the problem of acquiring Windows 11 (I decided against Linux, simply because I don't have adequate programming skills to bugger around with Linux and all its necessary add-ons and programmes).

So I bought an online copy of W11 Pro from a Pommy business calling themselves "Software Supply". $26, and I got a link to the MS page where I could download W11 Pro and they gave me a Product Key.

Then the fun started. With Windows 7 it was impossible to load W11 onto a USB stick - the only option given was to burn a DVD. So I did that.

An hour or more later, the burn is finished, and I do a "verification check" on the download, and it tells me there are "errors" on the DVD. HTF could I get download "errors" from an MS official site - unless the software is buggy??

 

So I downloaded it again and burnt another DVD - and got precisely the same result. This W11 download arrangement is like banging your head against a wall, if only feels good when you stop.

So I thought I'd try to load W11 on the new build, anyway. F*** me with a raw pineapple, it only got worse and worse. First off, there's about 10 different choices of settings in the boot choices for the M/board, to try and get Windows to load.

 

Typically, "Windows 10 or other"?, "EUFI or Legacy BIOS?", "Extreme Memory Profile" - Disabled or Enabled? Turns out it needs to be Disabled. And so on and so on. Boot sequence has to be correct, I didn't know if my Samsung DVD player was fully operational or not, so I borrowed SWMBO's LG plug-in portable DVD player, and used that to boot.

 

Then I find "Windows 11 has a known bug - it can't be loaded through a USB3 port, it has to be a USB2 port". Only took me the best part of a day to find out about that bug.

Every video on the 'net shows "experts" showing you how to load Windows 11 - when they already have Windows installed on their computer!! - none of them show a new build load!!

Then I got advice the M/board should be upgraded, because there are M/board upgrades available, and there may be known bugs involved in loading Windows 11 with the M/board Revision I've got.

 

So I go to the Gigabyte site and download the revision upgrade files, onto a USB stick. Then came more fun. I got Windows to start loading, and after it was about 10% loaded, I got an error message - "A Windows Media Driver is missing. Please load the missing driver and proceed. So I go looking and find the supposedly missing media driver and download it to the USB stick. Then I crank the loading up again, get to the error message about the missing driver - install the USB - and Windows doesn't even recognise or find the driver on the USB stick. It finds all the other files on the USB, but not the driver. F(*&&&***$%^&!!&***!!!!

 

So then I try the M/board upgrade. Same result. Windows fails to find the M/board upgrade files. I tried everything I knew and got to the stage of thinking about taking a hammer to the desktop.

At that stage, I thought I'd try to get help from "Software Supply", because they bragged about their brilliant support for their product.

 

I emailed them from the laptop, complaining about the bug-ridden DVD download - and the support I got was, "Well, we only sell the product, we don't actually manufacture it". Thanks for nothing, then. So then she gives me another email for their "technical support dept".

And bugger me, when I email their "technical support dept" looking for advice on the loading blocks, I get a return email saying, "I can't help you with that, but we'll give you your money back if you remove that negative Google review". F*** me, what a bloody useless bunch of pr*cks.

 

So, I thought - well, maybe the internet download of W11 Pro is where all the problems are, so I bought a genuine OEI W11 Pro DVD off eBay. $70, and with Express Post it still took 4 days to get to me from the East Coast.

 

I inserted the OEI version of the DVD into the DVD player, started the W11 load again - and it got to the same point as before - and promptly gave me the same message that a media driver was missing!!

Totally frustrated, I dragged the desktop around to a little Asian bloke in a nearby mall, who fixes phones and who reckoned he fixed computers, too. His English was bloody awful, I don't know how he gets by, reading instructions in English. Maybe he only reads the Chinese or Vietnamese instructions? Then he tells me, he doesn't actually fix computers - he has a mate who comes in at night time to fix them!!

 

He said his mate could fix it, and it would cost $120 to fix. I think he simply charges $120 for everything. This was Friday afternoon. On Friday evening after dinner, I get a call from an Asian bloke whose guttural English was about as hard to understand as the bloke in the shop. Maybe it was his brother!?

 

I left him the OEI DVD and a list of the new components when I dropped it off. When he rang, he says, "This is a very old case?"  I said, "Yes, I know it's an old case, but it has all new internals, I left you a list to help you!"

He says, "There is no graphics card listed?" S***! I'd forgotten to write down the graphics card model info. I said, "It's a Gigabyte GTX1650". He says, "Oh, I don't think that is powerful enough for Windows 11? You really need GTX3000, 4000, something like that, if you want to play games!"

I said, "I don't want to play games!! I'm not a gamer! I just want to surf the 'net, do photo imaging, scan photos, do PDF files, look at websites, and buy things from businesses!!"

 

"Oh", he says. "But I'm getting message that there is inadequate storage or graphics card power to load Windows 11?" I said, "That's probably a built-in known bug in Windows 11, it seems it's full of them!! The graphics card is more than adequate to load and run Windows 11, and to do what I want!".

He tried to convince me that Windows 10 was a better programme and he could load that, and I could sell my copy of Windows 11 if I wanted. I said to him, "But Windows 10 is nearly obsolete! Why would I want to load W10, when Microsoft want us to use W11??"

 

So he says, "O.K., I will try to load Windows 11, if I succeed, it may be ready tomorrow". I said thanks, and he hung up. About 10:00PM, he texts me a screenshot of W11 and says, "Job is done, you can pick up tomorrow".

I didn't get back to the shop until this morning, and promptly found the lights on, the sign in the window blazing, "OPEN" in LED lights - but the door was locked!? No sign on the door to tell customers anything! I hung around for about 20 mins - when all of a sudden, the little Asian bloke appears from the direction of the nearby shopping centre, carrying a drinks cooler and waving to me, saying "I had to get my lunch!"  

Well, you could've at least left a message on the door telling us what you were doing, and when you'd be back!!

 

We get into the store and he has the computer on the floor, I pay him his $120, and go home with it. I hook everything up - and glory be!! - it all works, just as it should!! God only knows what stunts his mate pulled to get this bug-ridden MS crap to load, but he obviously knew all the work-arounds!!

 

Now, all I have to do is try and get away from the constant MS demands to sign up to everything MS, and to ignore everything else in the world, because only MS works best!! Yeah, right!!!

 

Couldn't believe it, I went to download Chrome and promptly got an MS message advising me that I didn't need to download any other programme or browser, because MS supplies all my needs with a superior product!! What a pack of BS-artists they've become!!

 

Anyway - bottom line is - I'm up with current level technology and works just fine for me. No constant messages that my system can no longer be upgraded, that it's dagngerous because of all the security flaws, messages that my version of Chrome is 2 years out of date and won't work properly on many sites.

I even downloaded Thunderbird and Mailwasher and they work just fine with no glitches. The computer is deadly fast, and the image processing time is quite impressive.

 

Edited December 31, 2023 by onetrack

[red750]

I understand your frustration OT, and I only read about a quarter of your post, it was too depressing.

 

When I powered up my Acer laptop this morning, the first thing I saw was that curly blue logo thing - I thought I had Win11 on my system. No, it was just an invite to download it. A quick look around the screen I found a link named Remain with Windows 10, which I quickly clicked. 

 

Win10 does everything I want, and I have never, touch wood, had a system crash. When things get out of hand, I'll probably buy a new laptop with Win11 already installed.. Most of the files that mean anything to me are stored on an external hard drive so I can use them with any PC. I take it back and forth to the Men's Shed with me.

 

I don't use anything Microsoft but Windows and some Office modules - Word, Xcel, Paint, Snip and Sketch for screen prints, and once in a blue moon, Powerpoint. I can't even remember the name of MS browser. I use Brave because it cuts out a lot of the ads, and Chrome for downloading videos from Yahoo emails. They have a problem because of JavaScript, so I have it disabled on Chrome..

 

I've mentioned a number of times that my image editor is PhotoScape. It has some handy tools. The other day someone posted a very dark photo taken with an iPhone. They said they couldn't see a lot of the details. I downloaded it and adjusted exposure and brightness. Both versions below.

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

3 hours ago, onetrack said:

F*** me with a raw pineapple,

- I never heard that one before, but it did make me larf!

 

But, what made me laref even more was this:

3 hours ago, onetrack said:

(I decided against Linux, simply because I don't have adequate programming skills to bugger around with Linux and all its necessary add-ons and programmes).

 embedded in this:

3 hours ago, onetrack said:

Well, I've paid the price and joined the MS Brotherhood again, with Windows 11. Didn't actually realise my Windows 7 and computer build was so old - I thought it was 2017, but it was actually 2012.

As money is still a bit tight, I just bought a new Intel i7 CPU, a new motherboard, new graphics card, new RAM, and a new SSD - and simply ripped the old components out of my 20 yr old case and installed all the new components in there. So, sort of like slipping a Holden motor into a 105E Anglia.

 

I picked up an i7 12700K CPU for $374 off Amazon. They normally want about $500 for one. Stepson and wife gave me a $100 Amazon gift card for Christmas (the Christmas we had back in November), so I promptly spent that, and the CPU only cost me $274 in direct outlay. 

I went with a Gigabyte B760 Aorus Elite AX M/board, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM, and 1TB Samsung 990 PRO SSD - all on sale, and the total for the three items was $677.

The Gigabyte GTX1650 graphics card that I previously mentioned, I picked up for $199 - so all four components set me up for a whole new guts for my desktop for $1,250.

My monitor, keyboard and mouse are all just fine, so I'm continuing to use them.

 

Then came the problem of acquiring Windows 11 (I decided against Linux, simply because I don't have adequate programming skills to bugger around with Linux and all its necessary add-ons and programmes).

So I bought an online copy of W11 Pro from a Pommy business calling themselves "Software Supply". $26, and I got a link to the MS page where I could download W11 Pro and they gave me a Product Key.

Then the fun started. With Windows 7 it was impossible to load W11 onto a USB stick - the only option given was to burn a DVD. So I did that.

An hour or more later, the burn is finished, and I do a "verification check" on the download, and it tells me there are "errors" on the DVD. HTF could I get download "errors" from an MS official site - unless the software is buggy??

 

So I downloaded it again and burnt another DVD - and got precisely the same result. This W11 download arrangement is like banging your head against a wall, if only feels good when you stop.

So I thought I'd try to load W11 on the new build, anyway. F*** me with a raw pineapple, it only got worse and worse. First off, there's about 10 different choices of settings in the boot choices for the M/board, to try and get Windows to load.

 

Typically, "Windows 10 or other"?, "EUFI or Legacy BIOS?", "Extreme Memory Profile" - Disabled or Enabled? Turns out it needs to be Disabled. And so on and so on. Boot sequence has to be correct, I didn't know if my Samsung DVD player was fully operational or not, so I borrowed SWMBO's LG plug-in portable DVD player, and used that to boot.

 

Then I find "Windows 11 has a known bug - it can't be loaded through a USB3 port, it has to be a USB2 port". Only took me the best part of a day to find out about that bug.

Every video on the 'net shows "experts" showing you how to load Windows 11 - when they already have Windows installed on their computer!! - none of them show a new build load!!

Then I got advice the M/board should be upgraded, because there are M/board upgrades available, and there may be known bugs involved in loading Windows 11 with the M/board Revision I've got.

 

So I go to the Gigabyte site and download the revision upgrade files, onto a USB stick. Then came more fun. I got Windows to start loading, and after it was about 10% loaded, I got an error message - "A Windows Media Driver is missing. Please load the missing driver and proceed. So I go looking and find the supposedly missing media driver and download it to the USB stick. Then I crank the loading up again, get to the error message about the missing driver - install the USB - and Windows doesn't even recognise or find the driver on the USB stick. It finds all the other files on the USB, but not the driver. F(*&&&***$%^&!!&***!!!!

 

So then I try the M/board upgrade. Same result. Windows fails to find the M/board upgrade files. I tried everything I knew and got to the stage of thinking about taking a hammer to the desktop.

At that stage, I thought I'd try to get help from "Software Supply", because they bragged about their brilliant support for their product.

 

I emailed them from the laptop, complaining about the bug-ridden DVD download - and the support I got was, "Well, we only sell the product, we don't actually manufacture it". Thanks for nothing, then. So then she gives me another email for their "technical support dept".

And bugger me, when I email their "technical support dept" looking for advice on the loading blocks, I get a return email saying, "I can't help you with that, but we'll give you your money back if you remove that negative Google review". F*** me, what a bloody useless bunch of pr*cks.

 

So, I thought - well, maybe the internet download of W11 Pro is where all the problems are, so I bought a genuine OEI W11 Pro DVD off eBay. $70, and with Express Post it still took 4 days to get to me from the East Coast.

 

I inserted the OEI version of the DVD into the DVD player, started the W11 load again - and it got to the same point as before - and promptly gave me the same message that a media driver was missing!!

Totally frustrated, I dragged the desktop around to a little Asian bloke in a nearby mall, who fixes phones and who reckoned he fixed computers, too. His English was bloody awful, I don't know how he gets by, reading instructions in English. Maybe he only reads the Chinese or Vietnamese instructions? Then he tells me, he doesn't actually fix computers - he has a mate who comes in at night time to fix them!!

 

He said his mate could fix it, and it would cost $120 to fix. I think he simply charges $120 for everything. This was Friday afternoon. On Friday evening after dinner, I get a call from an Asian bloke whose guttural English was about as hard to understand as the bloke in the shop. Maybe it was his brother!?

 

I left him the OEI DVD and a list of the new components when I dropped it off. When he rang, he says, "This is a very old case?"  I said, "Yes, I know it's an old case, but it has all new internals, I left you a list to help you!"

He says, "There is no graphics card listed?" S***! I'd forgotten to write down the graphics card model info. I said, "It's a Gigabyte GTX1650". He says, "Oh, I don't think that is powerful enough for Windows 11? You really need GTX3000, 4000, something like that, if you want to play games!"

I said, "I don't want to play games!! I'm not a gamer! I just want to surf the 'net, do photo imaging, scan photos, do PDF files, look at websites, and buy things from businesses!!"

 

"Oh", he says. "But I'm getting message that there is inadequate storage or graphics card power to load Windows 11?" I said, "That's probably a built-in known bug in Windows 11, it seems it's full of them!! The graphics card is more than adequate to load and run Windows 11, and to do what I want!".

He tried to convince me that Windows 10 was a better programme and he could load that, and I could sell my copy of Windows 11 if I wanted. I said to him, "But Windows 10 is nearly obsolete! Why would I want to load W10, when Microsoft want us to use W11??"

 

So he says, "O.K., I will try to load Windows 11, if I succeed, it may be ready tomorrow". I said thanks, and he hung up. About 10:00PM, he texts me a screenshot of W11 and says, "Job is done, you can pick up tomorrow".

I didn't get back to the shop until this morning, and promptly found the lights on, the sign in the window blazing, "OPEN" in LED lights - but the door was locked!? No sign on the door to tell customers anything! I hung around for about 20 mins - when all of a sudden, the little Asian bloke appears from the direction of the nearby shopping centre, carrying a drinks cooler and waving to me, saying "I had to get my lunch!"  

Well, you could've at least left a message on the door telling us what you were doing, and when you'd be back!!

 

We get into the store and he has the computer on the floor, I pay him his $120, and go home with it. I hook everything up - and glory be!! - it all works, just as it should!! God only knows what stunts his mate pulled to get this bug-ridden MS crap to load, but he obviously knew all the work-arounds!!

 

Now, all I have to do is try and get away from the constant MS demands to sign up to everything MS, and to ignore everything else in the world, because only MS works best!! Yeah, right!!!

 

Couldn't believe it, I went to download Chrome and promptly got an MS message advising me that I didn't need to download any other programme or browser, because MS supplies all my needs with a superior product!! What a pack of BS-artists they've become!!

 

Anyway - bottom line is - I'm up with current level technology and works just fine for me. No constant messages that my system can no longer be upgraded, that it's dagngerous because of all the security flaws, messages that my version of Chrome is 2 years out of date and won't work properly on many sites.

I even downloaded Thunderbird and Mailwasher and they work just fine with no glitches. The computer is deadly fast, and the image processing time is quite impressive.

 

 

Unless you rigged it up wrong, virtually every Linux desktop distro would have worked out of the box with that setup (good going on the hardware prices by the way).. And I learned those extra add ons (which are usually grpahics drivers for NVDIA chipsets and codecs) are no longer required as both are now avaiklable out of the box for Linux. And I am not sure you would have needed to be a programmer of have the same skillset as the fly-by-nighter you needed to employ for installing any additional softweare since most ditros provide a GUI interface for such stuff - point and click - to do it these days... Certainly would not have had to shell out $120 + $70 + $20 extra to get it going.

 

The most you may have had to do after installing would be to get better codec drivers.. something you may want to think about for Win 11, anyway.

 

Here is a vid for what to do after installing Win 11 for laptops, but equally applicable for desktops. Even he updates his codecs (note, I haven't watched the whole vid yet...):

 

 

Yeah - Getting Windows over Linux because its easier - totally get it.. 😄

Edited December 31, 2023 by Jerry_Atrick

[nomadpete]

5 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

F*** me with a raw pineapple

5 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

- I never heard that one before, but it did make me larf!

 

But, what made me laref even more was this:

 embedded in this:

 

Unless you rigged it up wrong, virtually every Linux desktop distro would have worked

Here is a vid for what to do after installing Win 11 for laptops, but equally applicable for desktops. Even he updates his codecs (note, I haven't watched the whole vid yet...):

 

 

Yeah - Getting Windows over Linux because its easier - totally get it.. 😄

Funny thing is, over on the RHS of the big island, the quote is

"........with the rough end of a pineapple".

 

And we should know about that 'cos  we grow heaps of pineapples.