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I have no Photoshop, and I must scream

scream

Well, I have Photoshop now. I got it working in the end, but I had to reboot several times to do it. And one in three times I reboot, the computer does its best imitation of a brick. And has taken to freezing up randomly when it does run.

I wasn’t sure I’d be here tonight.

It sounds like a serious hardware problem, but the issues I’ve had with it track every new Windows update. New updates, new slew of misbehavior. Then it settles down for a while.

I’m well overdue for another one. This machine is about eight years old. But I always buy the highest spec machine I can possibly afford, so I’ve been putting it off until I hafta.

So, it sounds like the perfect day to change my cellphone provider, yes?

[gentle sobbing]

Comments


Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: November 15, 2017, 9:09 pm

Hmmmm.

Sounds like dust accumulation in your wires.
Place your device in a suitable receptacle, such as a trash bin, the older your machine, the larger the bin is best.

Then contact your internet provider and give them your ip address and tell them you need the dust blown out of the wires. Usually they have to put on you a schedule so don’t anticipate it being done ‘on demand’.
Contacting them on Friday so they can blow the dust out over the weekend is usual.

And…yes, that sort of memo was circulated at “a college” when I was a lad, only it referred to the phone lines, and asked the reader to put their handset in the trashbin by the desk so the phone lines could be cleaned over the weekend without leaving a huge pile of dust all over the desks.

And…phones, wires attached of course, were found in trash bins the following Monday.

Seriously though, your hard drive may have crap sectors on it. I’m assuming you still have a spinny mag hard drive since it’s 8 years old. What you describe with it sometimes acting like a boat anchor instead of an electronic device sounds similar to my machine a few years back before computer wizard son dragged me kicking and screaming into the new millennium and installed SSDs in my tower machine.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: November 15, 2017, 9:59 pm

I spent hours last weekend waiting for Windows updates to complete and now my computer is slow, the cursor hangs at the slightest use, and the touchpad is touchy as hell. Also, I have to go through the opening sequence twice. The screen pops up for me to type in my password—which I do—then and the wait cursor spins brainlessly, after which the password window pops up again. I enter my password a second time, and it all finally opens.

I also tried to change my password and it would not let me. And I have Grammerly plaguing me, and can’t seem to ditch it, either.


Comment from Nina
Time: November 15, 2017, 10:41 pm

Technology is great…until it isn’t. 😜


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: November 15, 2017, 11:37 pm

Add me to the disgruntled list. Half an hour ago, I wandered away from my machine to feed one of the cats. When I came back, Gates had decided to take a dump on my hard drive, regardless of the fact that the cubicle was already occupied by several programmes (note spelling) busily doing stuff.

One day I might meet a high-up from those arrogant, incompetent crapwizards at Microsoft. I hope I am not carrying a heavy blunt object when I do.


Comment from AliceH
Time: November 15, 2017, 11:47 pm

Y’all are all on Windows 10?

I’m feeling pretty good about refusing that “free upgrade” every day for 8 or 30 months. It’s Windows7 for me until it goes unsupported or my hardware dies and needs replacing. I may end up with Apple then. That’s how much I hate all the crap and ubercontrol they put in Windows10. Gates can just get off my lawn.


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: November 16, 2017, 12:16 am

I also had a bit of bother with Windows latest update. It took most of a day. Fortunately, I don’t use my Windows laptop much these days. After an ugly, ugly months long experience with Windows 8, I ended up with an Apple Air book for her as well as iPads for each of us. Yes, when I want to do something serious, I return to Windows, but for basic Email and web surfing I much prefer Apple. I never have to muddle around with Apple. The stuff just works.


Comment from Pupster
Time: November 16, 2017, 1:06 am

I saw Scream Weasel open for Electronic Brick at the Paladium in 08.


Comment from David Gillies
Time: November 16, 2017, 4:27 am

I’ve been putting off moving to High Sierra for a while since it is a total replacement for the filesystem and I’m scared. Everything’s on Time Machine but if I have to back it out I’ll have wasted half a day. And Ubuntu 18 is looming on the horizon. Linux upgrades tend to be relatively painless, thankfully.


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: November 16, 2017, 11:45 am

I’d be interested to learn how you get on, DG. Her Stoatliness (who is more of a tech than this poor badger) dabbled with Linux a long while ago but pronounced it too fiddly. I keep hearing its recent incarnations are much better and the worse Microsoft gets the more tempted I am to jump ship.

But not to Apple.


Comment from AliceH
Time: November 16, 2017, 6:34 pm

If it weren’t for Quicken/TurboTax and a family tree app, I’d be able to ditch the whole desktop/laptop platform altogether. For them, I don’t need a bloated bells-and-whistles umpty-eleventy Gigabyte OS behemoth that needs security patches and fixes every week. I want a Camry but the only thing on the market are space shuttles. Which reminds me; time to enroll in egregiously priced unusable health insurance for which I’ll again not meet a deductible in 2018. Yay. We’re now all so damn rich, the market for bare-bones-functionality has been regulated out of existence.


Comment from Armybrat
Time: November 16, 2017, 8:15 pm

I got rid of my windows computer several years ago when it crashed and took me several days to recover it. I looked thru everything and realized I was spending over half of its resources on protection. I had switched long ago to the iPhone and was on my 2nd iPad. I replaced the windows pc with a Mac and haven’t looked back. Best move I ever made! We both have iPhone 8, Apple watches, the latest iPad and every time something upgrades or we replace it, I don’t have to fuss or fiddle. I bring it home, plug it in and it all talks to each other.


Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: November 16, 2017, 8:36 pm

Sheesh, you (old) people who just want a Piper Cub to hop around in.

Don’t you know you NEED the whizbang StarShip Microsludge Enterprise! It can do your homework, answer your phone, pick up your laundry, eavesdrop on your conversations, deliver your secrets to southeast Asia and Saratoga Springs Utah. It tells your future, determines your past and toasts your bread.

Quitcherbitchin! This is the new cool age! If it doesn’t work right we’ll just push out some new code at you when you’re in the middle of doing something you thought YOU wanted to do. We graduated from college last semester! We’re hot stuff!

And you shall have all that, even if you don’t want it, and even if it breaks down and has to be towed back into the Microsludge fleet dock every other day at oh-dark-thirty.


Comment from QuasiModo
Time: November 16, 2017, 11:08 pm

I disable the Windows Update service in the Services Manager, problem solved.

If you make a point of ‘sleeping’ your computer instead of rebooting, you can try that…installing updates and sleeping can cause havoc.


Comment from Pupster
Time: November 16, 2017, 11:42 pm

I’m kind of sort of in the technology business, anytime I have to deal with Linux I’m just frustrated by the bare bones of it all. Take me back to XP or ’98 for that matter.

*get off my lawn*


Comment from peacelovewoodstock
Time: November 17, 2017, 12:39 pm

Once you go Mac you never go back.

“But I have xyzware that only runs on Windows”.

You can run Windows on a Mac, in a window (via VirtualBox or equivalent) or standalone (via Bootcamp that comes with MacOS). It runs as well as it would on any PC.


Comment from technochitlin
Time: November 17, 2017, 2:48 pm

I’m gonna be ‘that guy’. I have a Windows 10 PC, latest build, and I love it- it has capabilities light-years beyond any XP or 7 machine I ever owned. The difference between me and ya’ll is, I think, that when I built my last computer (my previous one lasted six years before the motherboard finally succumbed to age) I made sure each component was rated to run Win10. Putting 10 on an older machine is a guaranteed pain, as I learned the hard way.

I run games (old and new), Office, Photoshop CC, SketchUp, Reason, and pretty much anything else I can think of with no problems that cannot be traced to the app itself. So it IS possible…


Comment from AliceH
Time: November 17, 2017, 3:48 pm

I forget the details, but doesn’t MS OS10 give Microsoft direct access to your harddrive? However constrained and limited in design capability, and however benign the corporate intent, that seems like a feature just screaming to be exploited by evil people. Plus, it creeps me out.


Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: November 17, 2017, 5:00 pm

‘UNIX’ (in all it’s forms) is a virus with a user interface.


Comment from Surly Ermine
Time: November 17, 2017, 9:13 pm

Hey Sweas, If you have an IPad Pro and an Ipencil I’ve found that Procreate is an awesome painting program. It won’t replace Photoshop but for drawing and painting its fantastic. I don’t even use my Wacom anymore. The IPad is a big investment but the freedom to work wherever I want is great.


Comment from technochitlin
Time: November 18, 2017, 1:53 pm

I forget the details, but doesn’t MS OS10 give Microsoft direct access to your harddrive?
It’s called OneDrive, and you have the *option* of mirroring files on your hard drive to the cloud, or storing them there only as on-demand. But it is a User choice, not a requirement. Not all that different than Dropbox.


Comment from BJM
Time: November 19, 2017, 3:35 am

Like technochitlin I have no problem with Win 10, but I am running it native, not an upgraded version on an older machine, which IMHO, is just asking for aggro.

I suspect the problem Stoty is having with PS may be an 8 yr old bus. You can add memory and upgrade various cards but you’re still constrained by a slower bus.

BTW- Apple products are not exempt from exploits. What kept you safe was a miniscule market share, now there enough users with financial info on their devices to make it profitable.

Trust No One.

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