[ptsg]

So far, the only drive failure I've ever had, was a OCZ 60 GB SSD. It was at the very early stages of SSDs, with a lot of improvements to be made. This particular model actually had a reputation of sudden deaths. Of course, mine happened after the warranty expired. Who woulda guess, right?

That being said, SSDs is by far one of the best upgrades that someone can do to a computer. I bought 250GB Samsung SSD right after the other one died, because you know, it's hard to go back to HDD after experiencing faster stuff.

I still have a 20 GB Seagate IDE drive that has to be 20+ years old. It still works just fine but just crazy slow compared to todays stuff.

 

[Donewrken]

This particular model actually had a reputation of sudden deaths. Of course, mine happened after the warranty expired. Who woulda guess, right?

That sounds the same as my last coffee maker. I didn't heed the warnings of the reviews, them being over 60% it's gona fail. Sure did the week after the 30 day return window. Ha!!
At least it was just a coffee maker. I just wired around the bad features. LOL!
Don

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[Joe/GA]

I got a couple of Seagate HDD's that I used to use for backup disks. I haven't put power to them in over 5 years, but I'm sure they would work.

 

[Mark in Portugal]

Many computers, hard drive crashes have been rare for me.
And then I just replaced the hard drive.
Usually it was the motherboard, screen, or unknown.
I did have a big format HD [in an old box I use for downloads] get cooked by power surges recently. When I put it in a new computer, the machine wouldn't even blink [but works fine with another HD]

I had a 1tb laptop HD fail a couple of years ago, but I found it would work if held in a certain orientation; so I was able to recover all the data and fit another HD in there.

It does seem rather archaic to have moving parts in a modern computer. And I have say, the ssd does load up wonderfully fast; even with a lot of open pages, it's maybe 3 seconds.

I have a legacy gizmo to connect to my old Mercedes, and it needs a serial port and a cd player to work. usb-serial cable doesn't do it [something about time lag they say].

I had an old laptop for that but it's dead. Not an HD problem. Something with the power circuits I suspect.
So I'm looking for another old laptop for car diagnosis.

I used to get all that sort of stuff from ebay UK, but now Brexit has happened and it's become difficult.

 

[Donewrken]

Just a quick Google . . . .

Don

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[Donewrken]

Thanks for the nudge, now waiting on my 1TB SSD.
Oh boy requires a bios update too. Painless on this Dell.
I needed more stuff to do indoors so this will fit right in my spare time.
Don

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[Mark in Portugal]

This Asus is the first non-dell computer I've bought.
I was very disappointed with my last 2 dell laptops; I found the build quality lacking. Speakers failed as soon as the warranty period was over, maybe sooner. The battery + HD don't slide out of the new ones either.
Maybe the higher end ones still do that.

 

[Donewrken]

I bought a known basket case. I used to buy components from a broker who buys lots at auctions of end of lease returns. I had purchased a few other Dell PC from him and made out pretty good on them. I'd patch and clean them up and give them away to friends for them and their kids. Then I was sent a new inventory sheet with several Dell AIO's or "all in one" computers, the ones that just look like a monitor. Down the list almost to the end were two or three that were a third of the price of the running units. So seeing a couple that looked like they just needed a power supply or a switch replaced I bid on two of them and won this one.
It ended up not only was the power supply bad the graphics processor was missing. What!! they don't unsolder their selves and jump off the board!! WTH!!
So thinking I'm going to loose the Microsoft free Windows 10 upgrade when I replaced the Mother board I was a little upset with the salesman for not telling the true condition. Naturally that didn't go far, the make a point of saying they do not operate the units and only check to see if they boot. He did offer a hard disc with Windows 7 or 8 loaded for half price.
LOL
I found a board on the bay for $35 - $45 bucks and two power supply's later I was good. I replaced the hard drive just as soon as I was upgraded. The funny thing was the hard drive had the hidden partition plus the bios was enough to get the upgrade even though the m board was replaced. So for less than three hundred bucks I had a $16 - 1800 PC like brand new. It has all the goodies, including WiFi.
The SSD is a challenge right now due to this model doesn't use the SATA format, instead it ties the PCIe slot basically straight to the CPU and multiple lanes are open, not just a four lane highway.
The speakers were never much to brag about anyway. It got surround sound at the get go. I should have gone Blue Tooth.
Funny I even get conflicting information from Dell's support, Intel's and Samsung cannot tell me if it's compatible.
I'll find out next week, if not on this box, it will work in something eventually. Just over a hundred bucks, not bad for 1 TB.

Don

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[Mark in Portugal]

My first computer in 1998 was a tower + bits; after that I've always had laptops for most of my work.
Sometimes I travel.
There's always the question; spend more money and hope it lasts longer, or spend less and just replace it when it dies.
I've treated some terribly; strapped them to the engine cover of my Mercedes van and used as a vibrating nav device. Hot and cold, high humidity, dust.
Others lived a more civilized life.
I can't say that any of that affected the working life of them. But it does seem like the Dell laptop life expectancy has gotten shorter.
This time I did spend more, not too much.

 

[Donewrken]

I mostly use laptops for gadgets like OBD and navigation, email if I'm out of town. WiFi is nice too. Also for showing pictures. Played music at my wife's service, that was novel.
Laptops were the most used tool for my last 12 year at work, we had the ancient IBM's late nineties early 2000 we ran out of space on them all the time. They would barely fit Windows 95 on them and our Dos tools. We finally got the work book types around 2004.
Ancient history, but that was the tool kit for us that were on Y2K stand by back in the day.
LOL!

Don

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[Mark in Portugal]

Yes, we've come a long way in a short time.
My first tower had an 8gb hard drive. Shortly after that, my first laptop had [I think] 12.
Now Terabyte drive is a regular thing.
My new SSD is only 500gb.

Not enough room for my TV series archive.

 

[Kubota Ronin]

I remember being real happy when my Mac Powerbook had a 500mb HD and a 28k modem card.

 

[Donewrken]

Those drives were huge!!
98 I bought my first HP Pavilion for $2200 out the door it had a gigantic Barracuda 40 mb. hard drive.
Work laptops were 8 to 12 mb. loaded with that new operating system (Windows 3.1) with pictures and things, we didn't really like it at the time, Dos was just fine. Then a year or two later we "upgraded" to Windows 95. That required larger hard drives, 18 - 20 mb. We really didn't like that os, it crashed often but they kept patching it and stayed around for a couple more years. When 98 arrived we figured it would be as bad as 95 was and we were surprised how well it worked compared to 95. Yeah dinosaur here. 🦕Those were the good old days dragging our knuckles🦍 and women by the hair around where ever we went.
🦖
Don

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[Joe/GA]

Got my new laptop!

 

[Donewrken]

I like it!!!!
I had one of those one time, not as pretty and didn't know what to do with it!!

Great photo and post, Joe!!

Don

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[JP Savage]

I had one too!
But could never hook it up. Did not have a manual for it. Library did not have a copy. And no internet yet so could not go find one. Times were tough back then.

 

[Donewrken]

Thanks for that, fellow knuckle dragger.
Yes, times were tough back then. Just the thought of riding your bike to the library and then finding a book with pertinent information while trying to not look like a nerd would be unimaginable now days. Somehow "they" must have recruited the pretty girls to sit around at key positions to cause us to want to return. Even though that only worked for a short time or was that just because of our attention span at the time. Hard one to ponder.

I should be careful, I just recently learned that my life long friend was lured into having a career as a librarian, were talken full brainwashing to where he actually believes he loved the job.

Don

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[Mark in Portugal]

Most of my life I lived in places where I didn't speak the language, so public libraries were no use to me.
When I'd be in the states for a short time, I'd [gasp] buy books in [double gasp] bookstores.

Finding practical how-to books was difficult. Some were useless, some were great.

 

[Donewrken]

I'd [gasp] buy books in [double gasp] bookstores.

Bookstore. Oh!
Yes, I've heard of those.
That does sort of time stamp us doesn't it.
I've been catching up with an old friend lately. We lost communication for decades but picked back up as if it was only a matter of weeks. We've been marveling at the technology that has been achieved since we were kids cruising around in the old 62 Nova. We go way back.
We cover a period of a lot of history being made, you've probably heard of the great Transcontinental Railroad.
Well I'm not quite that old but a little over a hundred years later, I was involved in a similar historic change in transportation. I, along with thousands of others were tasked at our jobs by an order from the Federal government to change something taken for granted now days by most everyone. Way back prior to 1973 all telephones were installed everywhere with wire to a screw lug connection block and to the screw terminals inside the telephone. There was no other way except for a desk phone that could have a large four pronged plug on the wall end of a cord. The FCC mandated that after a certain date every telephone would be installed with a cord that would plug in at both the wall and at the telephone. They also opened up the market for telephones and equipment could be sold at the retail level. I remember hearing the old timers saying how those flimsy RJ connectors wouldn't last a year and we would be going back and cutting them out. So much for their vision of history in the making. I was reminded of that historical little tidbit of how our data is transported the other day when I looked at the controller on my new sub woofer. Guess what kind of plug is on the end of the cable that connects the volume control to the amplifier.

An RJ12, they seem to hold up pretty good for a lot of uses.
At least the Feds gave us a few years to get the job done. We were only required to replace existing connections as they were in need of repair and all new installations.
So if you remember when telephones were connected with screw drivers, your in the same bracket.
LOL!!
Don

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[TnTkr]

For me the telephone has round dial and the connector is about 1½" diameter round three-pole connector, where the wires were connected with screws. RJ12 is modern flimsy stuff 😁