12 years finally goes kaput

Gundog · Guru

12 years finally goes kaput

Mike Harding · Guru

Forget Microsoft Office, use Libre Office for free.

Tony Bev · Guru

I have that same $400 Lenovo laptop

It kept telling me to upgrade to WIN 11

Now that the warranty has expired, l have installed UBUNTU as a duel boot

When I am using it, I plug a USB thumb drive in, to save any data, and leave nothing on the laptop

Seems to work for me

Mein · Senior Member

"It kept telling me to upgrade to WIN 11"

There is a free utility available called Shut Up 10, which doesnt even have to be installed on your computer, that provides access to a host of Windows services. You can turn off automatic updates, and even prompts to update, as well as many other intrusive and potentially privacy-compromising 'features' of Windows 10 & 11.

www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

Tony Bev · Guru

Mein wrote:
"It kept telling me to upgrade to WIN 11"

There is a free utility available called Shut Up 10, which doesnt even have to be installed on your computer, that provides access to a host of Windows services. You can turn off automatic updates, and even prompts to update, as well as many other intrusive and potentially privacy-compromising 'features' of Windows 10 & 11.

www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

Thanks for that info

I left $MS Windows 10 on that laptop, as it has some sentimental value, (it was paid for)

All things being equal, I should not require it, on that laptop, as Ubuntu should meet my needs

Are We Lost · Guru

Tony Bev wrote:
I left $MS Windows 10 on that laptop, as it has some sentimental value, (it was paid for)

You mean the licence was purchased separately from the laptop? If so, it probably means you can use it on another device, so don't throw away the key. You may find a use for it.

Normally brand name PCs come with the licence tied to that hardware, so can't be re-used on a different device.

dorian · Guru

Gundog wrote:
I reassessed my computer needs, what do I require internet, office, mail and a bit of social media, so I took the cheapskate road and purchased a $400 Lenovo 4 GB of RAM and a 128gb eMMC hard drive which has Win 11 and a 12 month subscription to office 365., from officeworks.

Is it running Win11 in S mode?

Gundog · Guru

yes on initial install

S mode means you cannot install anything that's not available in the Microsoft store, however you can easily switch to windows 11 home, you can upgrade to Win 11 Pro Free.

Today I purchased a 256gb Samsung USB C Flash Drive, which has a transfer rate up to 400mbps. I will stay in the USB C port always the next move is to set it up as a Data and Programs drive thus limiting the amount of space used on the C drive. When this setup and working, I will consider removing Dropbox and One Drive.

Another port that will have a fulltime resident will be the SD Card port, I not sure what size SD Card I will require, to make it the backup drive.

Others who would consider on of these laptops be aware that nothing can be upgraded in the way of RAM and SSD/eMMC, if you want more then you need to look at the other models that have 8/256gb ram and storage, when looking at the specs there are different processors available Intel and AMD. My choice will always be AMD.

86GTS · Senior Member

When we first retired we bought a HP laptop. We haven't used it for the past 4 years.
I do everything that I used to do on the laptop on my wife's Samsung phone now.
I don't own a phone, no need to because we're always together.
We have a home computer that we use just for image processing.

deverall11 · Guru

We have a different problem but none the less annoying. We have a Mac desktop, 24'. Bought in 2010 when we had a business and
from my IT knowledge, Mac had a more robust operating system. Basically less prone to hacking. Probably irrelevant now
as the hacker have probably found a way in.

The issues we have is the hardware precludes the operating system from being upgraded. We need to upgrade said
operating system as we find more and more websites unable to communicate with us. This happened back in 2016 and
had the hardware upgraded to accommodate a newer operating version. According to Apple, any computer older then
7 years is deemed to be 'ancient', is no longer supported and forces one to buy new everything. This also explains the number
of desktop Mac up for sale. The only thing that can be salvage is the external hard drive that is used for backup.
Good chance this can be used to the the new purchase but I do not have the knowledge required to ascertain that, let
alone do it. I worked in IT for 20 years, all of which was on mainframes. Back then PCs were looked upon as a toy. But
by the mid 90's there was more request for PCs to talk to mainframes.

We also understand that Apple has reviewed this policy and may no longer be the case for new Mac computers. So
we are a crossroad. Do we bite the bullet and purchase another Mac at nearly $2000 or go with a Windows computer
at half the cost. How do we transfer all the data on the existing Mac to the new purchase.

Gundog · Guru

deverall11 wrote:
We have a different problem but none the less annoying. We have a Mac desktop, 24'. Bought in 2010 when we had a business and
from my IT knowledge, Mac had a more robust operating system. Basically less prone to hacking. Probably irrelevant now
as the hacker have probably found a way in.

The issues we have is the hardware precludes the operating system from being upgraded. We need to upgrade said
operating system as we find more and more websites unable to communicate with us. This happened back in 2016 and
had the hardware upgraded to accommodate a newer operating version. According to Apple, any computer older then
7 years is deemed to be 'ancient', is no longer supported and forces one to buy new everything. This also explains the number
of desktop Mac up for sale. The only thing that can be salvage is the external hard drive that is used for backup.
Good chance this can be used to the the new purchase but I do not have the knowledge required to ascertain that, let
alone do it. I worked in IT for 20 years, all of which was on mainframes. Back then PCs were looked upon as a toy. But
by the mid 90's there was more request for PCs to talk to mainframes.

We also understand that Apple has reviewed this policy and may no longer be the case for new Mac computers. So
we are a crossroad. Do we bite the bullet and purchase another Mac at nearly $2000 or go with a Windows computer
at half the cost. How do we transfer all the data on the existing Mac to the new purchase.

You should be able to extract the internal HDD and RAM from the Mac, from memory they are SATA HDD which you can get USB to SATA cable and use it like a external HDD, which I am in the process of doing with the 2 HDD's from my old laptop.

deverall11 · Guru

Gundog wrote:
deverall11 wrote:

..... You should be able to extract the internal HDD and RAM from the Mac, from memory they are SATA HDD which you can get USB to SATA cable and use it like a external HDD, which I am in the process of doing with the 2 HDD's from my old laptop.

Thanks for the info. Will investigate.

Mike Harding · Guru

That's the problem with Apple products; they may be good quality but they are grossly overpriced and lock you in to both their hardware and software. However they do have a little merit for people who don't understand computers.

Caveat emptor.

Tony Bev · Guru

Are We Lost wrote:
Tony Bev wrote:
I left $MS Windows 10 on that laptop, as it has some sentimental value, (it was paid for)
You mean the licence was purchased separately from the laptop? If so, it probably means you can use it on another device, so don't throw away the key. You may find a use for it.
Normally brand name PCs come with the licence tied to that hardware, so can't be re-used on a different device.

Hi, Are We Lost

I do realise that the $MS Windows 10/11 licence, only stays with that laptop

But...

It has sentimental value, as for as long as I own that laptop, then I own that licence

It could well be that in the years ahead, I may be given the option of upgrading to Windows 14, or whatever new number they pick,

My old computer at home, was upgraded from Windows 7 to 10, and still accepted my $MS Office 2007

I am led to believe that Windows 11, will not accept Office 2007, as they want you to purchase MS Office 365

Tony Bev · Guru

Gundog wrote:
yes on initial install
S mode means you cannot install anything that's not available in the Microsoft store, however you can easily switch to windows 11 home, you can upgrade to Win 11 Pro Free.
Today I purchased a 256gb Samsung USB C Flash Drive, which has a transfer rate up to 400mbps. I will stay in the USB C port always the next move is to set it up as a Data and Programs drive thus limiting the amount of space used on the C drive. When this setup and working, I will consider removing Dropbox and One Drive.
Another port that will have a fulltime resident will be the SD Card port, I not sure what size SD Card I will require, to make it the backup drive.
Others who would consider on of these laptops be aware that nothing can be upgraded in the way of RAM and SSD/eMMC, if you want more then you need to look at the other models that have 8/256gb ram and storage, when looking at the specs there are different processors available Intel and AMD. My choice will always be AMD.

Hi Gundog

I may have a slightly different model Lenovo laptop

Although it (like yours) only has 128 GB hard drive, and 4 GB soldered in, ram

The specs say that it also has another ram slot, to take a other 8 GB ram

It also only cost me about $340, about 14 months ago

The method behind my madness, (I have placed Ubuntu, alongside Windows 10, and Office 2007), is to place my data on USB thumb drives

Time will tell if I have enough hard drive capacity, from past experience, it is Windows, which bloats the hard drive

dorian · Guru

Mike Harding wrote:
That's the problem with Apple products; they may be good quality but they are grossly overpriced and lock you in to both their hardware and software. However they do have a little merit for people who don't understand computers.
Caveat emptor.

Listen to Louis Rossmann. He'll tell you all about Apple "quality".

For example, he has one video where he shows Apple's "fix" for a BGA soldering problem. Instead of removing and reballing the BGA IC, Apple glues a rubber sandwich to the top of it, the idea being that the sandwich is compressed by the laptop's frame which pushes downward on the IC for the remaining life of the warranty.

-- Edited by dorian on Monday 2nd of January 2023 12:43:55 PM

Whenarewethere · Guru

I have had Macs since 1998. First one 272mb of ram $600 for each of the four 64mb ram cards. The graphic designers next door were extremely envious of the computer. Also had an Magneto Optical rewritable drive 640mb per disc.

I have some PCs as well for 3d rendering farm. My current Mac Mini is from 2009. When it dies I will lose some software that I like & will be a whole new problem to replace & learn.

A shop in Manly that repairs computers. I have asked if they have any old Macs, Mini specifically, no, all these Macs are dead. They were plenty more dead Macs outside this photo.

Santa · Guru

My better half gave me a new Asus laptop for Christmas, replaces my 8 YO Asus laptop which was showing signs of age.

Pretty impressed with the new one, 512 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM, I7 processor with an Oled screen.

Windows 11, found it east to come to terms with, I've always used Windows operating systems, nothing vastly different, if you know what your looking for its all there.

Have moved from Office 2007 to Office 365, similar horse different colour.

Overall I'm very pleased.

Mike Harding · Guru

Don't let go of that woman Santa! :)

Santa · Guru

Mike Harding wrote:
Don't let go of that woman Santa! :)

Thanks Mike, I realised a long time ago she's a keeper.

Mike if if you pick up on this give me a shout on 7.150, listening now.