What computer do you use?

[smc81]

I've got a 2009 MacPro and 2012 Macbook Pro. Macpro has four 1TB drives and one 128GB SSD. Macbook has 600GB drive and 128GB SSD as well. Both have Windows and OS X loaded. I don't use boot camp though. I'm not a apple junkie we use them at my job and I like the way they look, lol. I'm more of an android phone person also.

 

[grapesicles]

The MacBook Pro isn't quite as bad as I'd anticipated - just need an HDMI port!

 

[wyverary]

The MacBook Pro isn't quite as bad as I'd anticipated - just need an HDMI port!

You can get a Thunderbolt to HDMI cable easily enough...I found one for super-cheap off of Monoprice (don't know if you have that in the UK) and it does the trick!

 

[Meistersinger]

Or are you one of those people that doesn't need a computer and solely uses a tablet or phone for internet browsing?

I was using this:

But 6 years later it won't seem to turn on properly - after scouring Google for answers, seems like one of the RAM chips are loose (*shrugs shoulders*), so will have to schedule a hopefully-not-too-pricey trip to Mr Computer Repair Man in the near future. It lasted me right the way through 4 years of university and about the same number of relationships, yet it is still as fast as ever and I could navigate the thing seamlessly in my sleep.

In the meantime I am using this infernal contraption:

Now I know how everyone's grandparents feel - I've used Windows computers since I was 6 and can barely seem to figure anything out on this! Not to mention it's rather slow and keeps freezing on me.


What do you use? With photos, if you like!

I used to work support for Apple about 10 years ago. The first thing to remember is Windows got everything backwards from Mac OS (and Apple stole their ideas from what used to be Xerox PARC). You might want to try the following:

First, restart the computer. When you hear the startup chime, immediately hold down the option key. You should see a screen that has all the partitions on your system. Select the recovery partition. When the recovery menu appears, select Disk Utility. From the disk utility menu, select your OSX partition (usually named MacintoshHD) then choose repair partition. Depending on the size of the partition, it may take up to an hour or more for disk utility to examine and repair the partition. Disk utility will flag any file system errors and will attempt to repair them. When the process is finished, you will see the message the partition MacintoshHD has be successfully repaired. Click on the repair button again, and let disk utility do its thing. If it doesn't flag and repair any file system errors this time, you can quit disk utility and restart your computer. If disk utility flags errors again, click on repair a third time and let disk utility do it's thing. If disk utility doesn't flag any file system errors this time, then quit disk utility and restart your computer. If disk utility still flags error, then it's time to reformat you Mac OSX partition and restore from your backups (you have been backing up the hard drive, haven't you?)

If disk utility does not find any errors, and the system still freezes, then restart your computer. This time, when you hear the startup chime, immediately hold down the command, option, P and R keys simultaneously. The computer will restart. Continue to hold down these 4 keys until the computer restarts 2 more times. After the third restart, release these keys. This process is called resetting parameter ram. Parameter ram is similar to NVRam on a PC.

If, after performing these actions, the system still freezes, it's time to visit the Apple Store or an Apple dealer.

As for system slowdowns, that could possibly be a badly behaved application. From the desktop, hold down command option escape simultaneously. This will bring up the force quit window. The force quit will usually show which application or applications that don't respond. Click on the first application that is frozen or slowing down the system, then choose force quit. Repeat this procedure for each application that does not respond.

After this had been done, you may need to look at those application(s) preferences file(s), which are stored in ~/Library. Search Apple's knowledge base at apple.com in order to find how to troubleshoot preferences files.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

Dell inspiron laptop. Dell sucks on customer service. I screwed it up so much that they were going to charge me $150 to put Windows 8.0 back on it (I had just updated to 8.1). I refused and ended up putting it back to the factory setting on my own which was a disaster because it deleted my Microsoft Office that I paid $175 from Amazon. I about crapped. If I had to tell you how I did it, it would be impossible, but I managed to get it back on the computer with my ID#. Thank you Jesus! I have used it several times since then for my job resume and my stats class. Grumpy Cat nurse is a disaster when it comes to computers. When they work they work very very good and when they don't it makes me grumpy!

I have a Brother printer. All I can say is oh brother! The ink for it is astronomical - you pay about $30 for either 2 blacks or one of each red, yellow and blue. BUT, due to my present economical situation I decided to look for a bargain and boy did I find one! Thank you Amazon! I got 3 of each black, red, yellow, and blue for $10 and that's WITH shipping too! I was hesitant because it sounded too good to be true, but they work! They actually work!

 

[Meistersinger]

Dell inspiron laptop. Dell sucks on customer service. I screwed it up so much that they were going to charge me $150 to put Windows 8.0 back on it (I had just updated to 8.1). I refused and ended up putting it back to the factory setting on my own which was a disaster because it deleted my Microsoft Office that I paid $175 from Amazon. I about crapped. If I had to tell you how I did it, it would be impossible, but I managed to get it back on the computer with my ID#. Thank you Jesus! I have used it several times since then for my job resume and my stats class. Grumpy Cat nurse is a disaster when it comes to computers. When they work they work very very good and when they don't it makes me grumpy!

I have a Brother printer. All I can say is oh brother! The ink for it is astronomical - you pay about $30 for either 2 blacks or one of each red, yellow and blue. BUT, due to my present economical situation I decided to look for a bargain and boy did I find one! Thank you Amazon! I got 3 of each black, red, yellow, and blue for $10 and that's WITH shipping too! I was hesitant because it sounded too good to be true, but they work! They actually work!

First off, is your Inspiron still under warranty? If so, I don't understand the service charge. Besides, with what what I remember with Dell, they usually ship a restore DVD with their systems to restore it the way it came from the factory.

As for the printer, you've just discovered the dirty little secret of computer printers. Nowadays, it cheaper to purchase a new printer than to purchase new cartridges. You might want to start learning how to refill them yourself (and it can be quite messy)

 

[Grumpy Cat]

First off, is your Inspiron still under warranty? If so, I don't understand the service charge. Besides, with what what I remember with Dell, they usually ship a restore DVD with their systems to restore it the way it came from the factory.

As for the printer, you've just discovered the dirty little secret of computer printers. Nowadays, it cheaper to purchase a new printer than to purchase new cartridges. You might want to start learning how to refill them yourself (and it can be quite messy)

That's ok on the printer ink, Meistersinger, cause I can just get those cheapos from Amazon. As for the Dell, it was just out of warranty. I didn't need to use a disc though to put it back to like it was in the beginning. It just said "factory restart" and I pushed that. I figured if it didn't blow up I was ok. I believe what happened is that I turned it off when it was updating itself and it went downhill from there. Its over now so I can laugh about it.

 

[Judge]

Besides, with what what I remember with Dell, they usually ship a restore DVD with their systems to restore it the way it came from the factory.

Dell now puts their system restoration files on a hidden partition on the hard drive. A practice I don't like at all. I prefer an independent disk. Just another reason to keep building my own PCs...and keep total control. But I did once consider getting a Dell laptop.

Yeah Angie...now you know NEVER to interrupt an update or system restoration. Not until the OS prompts you. At least you got it all running again...

 

[Meistersinger]

Dell now puts their system restoration files on a hidden partition on the hard drive. A practice I don't like at all. I prefer an independent disk. Just another reason to keep building my own PCs...and keep total control. But I did once consider getting a Dell laptop.

Yeah Angie...now you know NEVER to interrupt an update or system restoration. Not until the OS prompts you. At least you got it all running again...

Is Dell pulling a similar stunt to what Apple is doing now, and HP (and Compaq) did in the past? Macs nowadays do not ship with install DVDS or even a restore DVD. If you have a hard drive problem, you boot from the hidden partition, run Disk Utility to fix or reinitialize the partition, then boot over the network to reinstall the OS, or if you use TimeMachine to back up to an external hard drive, restore everything from the backup. I do remember Compaq did a similar process with their PC's, but if you had to reinstall windows, you had to boot from the install CD, install Windows, restart from the hard drive, then reinstall everything else manually.

 

[Etzelaire]

Some sort of Vaio.

 

[Judge]

Is Dell pulling a similar stunt to what Apple is doing now, and HP (and Compaq) did in the past? Macs nowadays do not ship with install DVDS or even a restore DVD. If you have a hard drive problem, you boot from the hidden partition, run Disk Utility to fix or reinitialize the partition, then boot over the network to reinstall the OS, or if you use TimeMachine to back up to an external hard drive, restore everything from the backup. I do remember Compaq did a similar process with their PC's, but if you had to reinstall windows, you had to boot from the install CD, install Windows, restart from the hard drive, then reinstall everything else manually.

Yes, that's essentially what you have to do with a current Dell computer. Sure, they save money but they're also taking up valuable disk space, not to mention leaving a user open to something between frustration and disaster if those particular sectors of the hard disk should ever become corrupted.

IMO it's a bad practice, no matter how much corporate overhead is saved in the process. I'll always want a physical disk I can safely store away to reinstall the entire OS if need be, along with the motherboard software and all pertinent hardware drivers.

 

[CJBR]

I built my own computer. i5 3570k, asus P8Z77 V LK, gigabyte gtx 970, 8GBs Ram ddr3 1600, 1 TB 7200RPM on Windows 7. Just recently got the gtx 970, upgraded from the gtx 660. So far it's performing great. I don't have the time for it now, but at some point I want to sleeve all the cables(blue and white). The gigabyte 970 has a cool led light on it that says windforce. I want to get this case to go with it, since I love the color blue. It would go great with my blue backlit mechanical keyboard(cherry mx blues). I love my computer.

 

[Chew Magna]

I've been building my own pc's for about 10 years or so (I used to be huge in doing custom cases).

Here's my current rig:
AMD FX6300 oc'd to 4.3ghz (stock 3.5ghz)
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
16gb Corsair ram
Gigabyte GTX 760 2gb version
Corsair 750w RM750 power supply
2 Hynix 128gb ssd's
Couple old platter drives for storage

My secondary monitor recently took a crap on me so I'm hoping to get a triple setup for my tax return treat.

Here's some I've done (top one is my current build)

 

[musclecarman]

Toshiba satellite pro C50-A Windows 8.1 with a Intel CORE I3 processer also my mum is good with computers I mean really good she used to do programming back in the day.

here's a picture.

 

[Aurore]

I bought a Retina iMac 27" two years ago and I love it!

 

[Southern Discomfort]

A custom built Cyberpower PC. I didn't trust myself at the time to put together a £1000 computer as I was going through a rough time in my life. Anyway, it's got a i7 4790 and a GTX 970 and that does my gaming for me.

 

[EndSerenading]

I don't use a computer, I'm able to connect directly to the internet with my mind

 

[Judge]

I'm almost embarrassed to post an image of my machine here since everyone has such nicer stuff; it's a used machine I bought from Mr. Hong. He runs a little computer shop down the road and sells some good "pre-owned" stuff. On the front of my computer it says "Howard," but I don't know if that's the manufacturer or previous owner. Here are the specs:

Pentium 4 3.00 GHz
2.00 GB RAM
320 GB HDD
DVD-ROM
Windows 7 HP 64 bit

Well, it works and you're here. Well done.

 

[Mr Allen]

I have a Chromebook Desktop at Home and Laptop at my Parents'.

Yeah OK Chromebooks may not be considered "cool" but they work, there's some good apps available, most of which are free on the Google Web Store, and most virus authors leave Chrome OS alone, mainly attacking Windows and Macs, so all is good security wise, only disappointment is that there's not much available games wise but I use my Xbox for gaming.

Wouldn't mind a Windows PC though, want Windows 10 for Xbox One streaming and Unity for game development, or a cheap Mac or IPad for animation and video editing.

 

[nowwhat]

One I built myself, as has been the case in my house for the last 15 years. My wife has a work-provided Mac laptop, and my daughter bought her own. My son and I game on machines I built for that purpose.