Novices' sluggish PCs

[Rob9874]

I was just thinking, most of us on this board are always trying to find the best way to tweak our PC to get the most out of it. But how many people do you know who just know nothing about PCs? My mother-in-law is always calling about PC problems. She has 56MB RAM (Compaq OEM), never installed a Windows update, never deletes spyware, never defragments, has tons of crap in her startup that runs constantly. I would think there would be a good market for teaching people how to maintain their systems. Most of my family is like this, and I would bet most of America is. Just think, over half of all PC's in America are probably bogged down with spyware and background running programs. Not to mention security holes and outdated software. What a shame. (Sorry, there's no question to answer....just wondered if others thought the same thing.)

 

[pennylane]

Yup. I know others do.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Rob9874
I was just thinking, most of us on this board are always trying to find the best way to tweak our PC to get the most out of it. But how many people do you know who just know nothing about PCs? My mother-in-law is always calling about PC problems. She has 56MB RAM (Compaq OEM), never installed a Windows update, never deletes spyware, never defragments, has tons of crap in her startup that runs constantly. I would think there would be a good market for teaching people how to maintain their systems. Most of my family is like this, and I would bet most of America is.

I'd have to disagree. Well at least slightly. The majority of the world is always calling about PC problems, has 56MB RAM (OEM), never installed a Windows update, never deletes spyware, and has tons of crap in her startup that runs constantly - but defragments religiously since they think that solves every possible problem.

 

[fs5]

if I see someone with 100 tray icons I just laugh... then they usually ask me to "fix" their computer.

Then they complain that their computer is "broken" because it runs slow, like they say it's physically BROKEN! It's not broken you fool, you just have 1000000 million programs and spyware fscking up your comp.

/end rant

 

[Rob9874]

Originally posted by: dullard
I'd have to disagree. Well at least slightly. The majority of the world is always calling about PC problems. She has 56MB RAM (Compaq OEM), never installed a Windows update, never deletes spyware, and has tons of crap in her startup that runs constantly - but defragments religiously since they think that solves every possible problem.

LOL, exactly. Since I've been helping her, she knows about defrag and scan disk (which she calls "san disk"). They had their harddrive replaced last month (the guy charged $100 to install a used 2.5GB harddrive). I'm pulling my hair out!!! Now, she says "san disk" is saying she has physical errors on sectors of the used HD. So she wants to pay a better company in their tiny town $80 to install a 10GB harddrive. I told her I can get a 30GB harddrive for $50 at newegg, but she's in PA and I'm in AZ, so I have no way of installing it for her. And I'm not about to do it over the phone!

 

[fs5]

just tell her to spend about $300 on a new dell, check hot deals.

 

[SnailBoy]

Well, you've definately got a point. I seen machines in my shop every day that are identical to your mother-in-laws, totaly abject of maintenence. My first thought is usually, "How can people live like this? It must be driving them crazy to have such a crappy machine, especially when they are responsible for the way it's set up!" However, you've got to look at it from another perspective.

I've got an old Volvo 240DL. Let's make one thing straight - I know jack about cars. All I care about is that it gets me to work and anywhere else I want to go. I'd don't tune it up or do anything with it period, except possibly for filling up the gas, because a) I don't have time to learn (full-time work and college) and b)I don't really think about it to much (readon't care) as long as it does what I bought it to do.

Now, there's obviously tons of other people way smarter than I am who can tweak and tune and get every last ounce of preformance out of their cars, like I can with my boxes. But like most computers users are with their boxes, I simply don't care or know or have time to bother with even basic maintenence of my car.

I think there is at least a bit of a market for maintenence training, because there's bound to be people who WANT to know how to do it, but for the most part, I think people just want their machines to work.

 

[Luagsch]

my old man is such a case. every time i visit my parents (all 2-3 month) i'm cleaning his computer.

 

[0roo0roo]

yup, most people have not a clue. yesterday i heard a couple pass over a centrino notebook because they wanted more GHZ!!! its all about the ghz baby! i think intels eating a little of their own medicine with the mhz