BBQ joy and computer whinging

[toothycat]

Firstly, thank you to everyone who came to our barbecue, it was absolutely lovely to see you all and I had a fantastic time :) At one point it felt like someone new had arrived every time I went from living room to garden and vice versa. I hope everyone had as good a time as I did, and I'd really like another one later this year :)


Secondly, whinge time (sorry! Feel free not to read ;) My laptop is getting unusable. It's a nearly-9 year old Sony Vaio, and has served dutifully and well for almost all that time. It's light, fast (for what I want it for) and rarely crashes. It's running the lovely WinXP. However, recently it's started intermittently decorating the screen with funky electric blue and vibrant red lines, which is a nuisance when reading/typing, worse than that when comicking and I can't actually imagine how bad it would be for colour work (shows how long it's been since I did any!). Serge reckons it's the video hardware; whatever it is, the computer's long past any hope of repair from Sony, so it's time for a new one.

You can no longer get Vaios running XP. Yes, I know you can get Dells (and probably other makes) that do, but a) I've found this Vaio so good, I don't really want anything else, and b) Microsoft will shortly stop supporting WinXP patches, so even if I could get a computer running it, there would be problems. Now, I'm told Windows 7 is good, and it surely can't be worse than Vista. It emulates XP so I can run all my favourite 10-year-old programs that I use now; that's no problem. But it doesn't imitate XP, so it's not going to look right, and the same is true of any Linux WinXP emulator. I like the classic WinXP interface. I like the way my current machine is set up; that I can get anywhere I want on it with just a few clicks. I also like that it does what I tell it (I get the horrible impression that Windows 7 tries to hold the user's hand. It tries to work out what the user wants, tries to understand what is meant. This is not good, because when I type 'cmd' into the Run box, that means I want a command prompt! It does not mean I want the machine to try and second-guess me! I do not want an OS to understand what I mean, I want it to do what I say, and if I get something wrong, an error message is just fine!).

I want another laptop just like my current one but with patches supported, but I can't have that. I can run Linux, I can run Windows 7. Both will emulate XP; both will let me use my most important programs. But they won't look right, and they won't respond right (although at least Linux won't insist on babying me).

Bah. I'm going to miss this computer ;_;

Comments

[wrh-2005.livejournal.com]

I'd be first to say that it's very likely to be the video hardware, and possibly not the graphics chip itself. I had a similar problem with a large LCD monitor, which eventually got to the point where the thing just shut off and wouldn't come on again. It's own internal processors, it had to be since swapping monitors revealed that there were no problems with the graphics card. You could test this by plugging a spare monitor into your laptop.

I can't see windows7 causing you that much bother to be honest. It runs quite responsively on an EEEPC (though I did put an extra gig of ram in it to sure it up), you can't get much weaker than that, it ran Photoshop O.K too and did just about everything else I wanted it to, just a bit more slowly than my mighty desktop. ;)

To be honest, the difference between XP and WIN7 isn't that much in terms of performance a lot of other stuff is pretty similar too. The main difference I've found is visually and I could get most everything I ran before to run on it and run well, except certain 3d OpenGL games from the late 90s in which the colour pallets are all screwed.

Most things ran as they are and some needed the compatibility settings altering (not a big deal). Photoshop and other such programs just seem to be a case of install and go.

As for the computer thinking for you. It doesn't happen on my machine. I stopped it from doing that, you can tell it to just shut up and be quiet, by turning off user account control, auto play settings and other messages from the action center.

When I type CMD into the run bar (actually labelled as search here) it promptly brings up the command prompt without much issue. It sort of brings up a list of other junk, but if you hold your nerve and just type cmd and enter it does as it's told. :D

[toothycat]

Yes, I know cmd works, but calc does not (I think it was that - it wasn't me who tried it) and you wouldn't believe how much I use that. The Run (now Search) box is how I access much of my computer. It's easier than mousing.

I know that getting a new computer does mean spending a few weeks clobbering the system until it does what I want it to, but still... I'd rather not have to. I'm not worried about performance, I just don't want to change something that's been working so well for me.

[wrh-2005.livejournal.com]

Calc seems to work too, at least for me. I also use that a lot. :D

I wonder though if some of the program names might have changed for other things. Microsoft does that sometimes. :S

Still you can only give it a try. :)

[dock.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the BBQ!
Sorry

The Vaio-Z I just bought had an option of XP disc bundled for free, so its obviously intended to run XP without any problems.

That said, I don't think you need to fear Windows 7. I haven't encountered any parts in which I've felt babied or patronised. CMD works, of course :) Nevertheless, there's XP support on current laptops.

Good luck with your laptop serch!

[toothycat]

Glad you enjoyed it :) Sorry for what? ^^;;

Ooh, the Vaio Z sounds really nice, actually - about the right size and weight, and if it comes with XP I shall be a happy bunny XD Thanks for the tip - I knew Sony used to do XP downgrades, but haven't found any options to do that (looking online) for ages, so I thought I'd missed the boat.

[dock.livejournal.com]

Whoops - I meant to say; Sorry that your computer is on the way out, but it's live a good long life! :)

The Vaio-Z isn't cheap, but I have been very pleased with the performance and form factor - especially the weight! The high resolution screen is amazing too.

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

That Microsoft won't support XP anymore is a bit strange, as the way that Windows 7 (Pro)'s XP 'emulation' feature works is that it actually contains a full copy of XP that runs in a virtual machine.

Is it possible to find the same laptop you have on ebay? Someone might have on available for spare parts because the screen / keyboard etc is broken. If that's the case then you could get that and use the parts inside to repair your existing laptop.

Another option could be to get a laptop that runs Linux but then run Windows XP inside Linux. Modern virtualisation technology is extremely fast and even supports things like 3D acceleration. Sergei could set it up so that when you turned it on it just went straight in to Windows XP, no Linux logins or anything like that.

[toothycat]

Yes, I know - it's a bit weird. I'm aware that I can emulate XP on Windows 7 and also on Linux, but I was thinking if Microsoft are discontinuing support for it, I'd rather not do that. I also don't want to try and repair my laptop from eBay - stuff bought from eBay is often a bit dodgy and wrecking my computer while trying to fix it doesn't appeal either...

I am tempted by the Vaio Z with XP. Even though it's got the same problem with support being discontinued... it might not be for a while XD

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

I doubt it being unsupported is really all that bad. If it's properly locked down, firewalled, with you using a non-administrator account, and anti-virus it almost certainly won't matter that it's no longer supported.

I hope whatever you go for works for you :-)

Maybe it's worth trying out Windows 7? You might like it, and if so it could be a better option than the Vaio Z with XP.

[studio-withbits.livejournal.com]

I got an old vaio and XP too.. and I still cling to it even now it's getting a bit dogeared!!