The Official Computer Tech Support Thread

[SGR]

Hey Dude, Don't Call Me Dude.

[Trollheart]

[Trollheart]

I had a thread about this somewhere but my quick lazy search hasn't turned it up, and like Homer says, the lesson is, never try.

So anyway, Plankton has been helping me to try to pick the best laptop I can, and I've been driving him nuts I'm sure (talk about "Screaming at an Empty Canvas", huh?) so I'm appealing to you guys.

Ideally, opinions from anyone who has had, or has, a laptop, the purchase of which they either regretted or did not, would be most welcome. Every brand I research I get good and bad (often really threatening/warningly bad) reviews, and I don't know what to do.

So it's basically this: do you, have you, any preference for, or do you or have you owned a Dell, HP, Acer, Asus or Lenovo laptop? I'm not asking for specs, as I know what I want and can afford. It's more about the reliability. I know nobody can stop your laptop from having problems and nobody can predict if it's going to give you hassle or anything, but stories or advice from those who have, or have had, any of the above brands (or others) and how it worked/has worked out would be helpful.

Thanks.
TH

[The Batlord]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I had a thread about this somewhere but my quick lazy search hasn't turned it up, and like Homer says, the lesson is, never try.

So anyway, Plankton has been helping me to try to pick the best laptop I can, and I've been driving him nuts I'm sure (talk about "Screaming at an Empty Canvas", huh?) so I'm appealing to you guys.

Ideally, opinions from anyone who has had, or has, a laptop, the purchase of which they either regretted or did not, would be most welcome. Every brand I research I get good and bad (often really threatening/warningly bad) reviews, and I don't know what to do.

So it's basically this: do you, have you, any preference for, or do you or have you owned a Dell, HP, Acer, Asus or Lenovo laptop? I'm not asking for specs, as I know what I want and can afford. It's more about the reliability. I know nobody can stop your laptop from having problems and nobody can predict if it's going to give you hassle or anything, but stories or advice from those who have, or have had, any of the above brands (or others) and how it worked/has worked out would be helpful.

Thanks.
TH

Oh btw my second to last laptop was an HP and went down due to a known issue with a lot of HP laptops where the... CPU (?) had some kind of short that costs hundreds of dollars to fix and even if fixed may very well happen again, so I'd do some extra homework on HP laptops. It's been awhile so I don't remember the specifics but it was only a year or two old and just died.

[Trollheart]

If I look at refurbished - or what they call renewed: makes it sound like these laptops have all had a sudden religious conversion! - I have these choices. Any advice very welcome.


HP EliteBook 850 G3 15.6" FHD, Core i7-6600U 2.6GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB Solid State Drive, Windows 10 Pro 64Bit, CAM, (RENEWED)

4.6 out of 5 stars 4
EUR679.55 + EUR 31.82 shipping

HP Pavilion 15-EH 15.6 FHD AMD Ryzen 7 4700U 2.0GHz 512GB NVME 16GB DDR4 Webcam Backlit Keyboard Windows 10 Home (Renewed)

3.8 out of 5 stars 5
EUR580.65 + EUR 20.62 shipping

Dell Inspiron 5570 Intel Core i7-8550U FHD 15.6" AMD 530 DVD-RW Windows 10 Pro Platinum Silver (16GB RAM 1TB HDD) (Certified Refurbished)

EUR773.92 + EUR 31.49 shipping


NEW DELL PRECISION M7510 I7 6920HQ 3.8GHZ QUADRO M1000M 2GB 16GB 2133MHZ FHD 1080P 256GB SSD NT0132 (Renewed)

3.8 out of 5 stars 6
EUR601.31 + EUR 29.21 shipping

Dell Precision 5520 15.6" FHD, Core i7-6820HQ 2.7GHz, 16GB RAM, 1TB Solid State Drive, Windows 10 Pro 64Bit, (RENEWED)

EUR645.17 + EUR 30.50 shipping

Dell XPS 13.4" 2-in-1 Touchscreen Laptop, 10th Gen i7-1065G7 CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD (Renewed)

EUR773.92 + EUR 22.62 shipping

Dell Latitude E5580 15.6in Laptop, Core i7-7600U 2.8GHz, 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD, Webcam, Windows 10 Pro 64bit (Renewed)

EUR515.28 + EUR 31.16 shipping

Dell Latitude E5570 Laptop, 15.6 Inch HD Display (Intel Core 6th Generation i7-6600U, 16 GB DDR4, 256 GB SSD) Windows 10 Pro (Renewed)

EUR478.28 + EUR 31.59 shipping

Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15.6" FHD Laptop, AMD Ryzen 7-4700U, Wi-Fi 6, Webcam, Backlit Keyboard, Fingerprint Reader, HDMI, USB-C, Win 10 Home, w/ Tikbot Accessories(16GB RAM | 512GB PCIe SSD)

EUR678.73 + EUR 20.74 shipping
Price dropped 1% (was EUR688.53 when added to List)
Capacity : 16GB RAM | 512GB PCIe SSD

2021 Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Laptop, 15.6" FHD, 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 4700U (>i7-10710U) Upto 4.1 GHz, Wi-Fi 6, Backlit KB, Webcam, Fingerprint, USB-C, HDMI, Win 10 H, 32GB MSD Card (16GB RAM | 512GB PCIe SSD)

2.0 out of 5 stars 1
EUR662.38 + EUR 20.62 shipping
Price dropped 14% (was EUR769.99 when added to List)
Capacity : 16GB RAM | 512GB PCIe SSD

[Stephen]

Anyone used ssh from Windows to Linux and know much about perms? The problem I am having is writing to a network folder. My process was failing on file creation so I tried cp from the command line. The strange thing is the first try creates the file but leaves it empty and fails. If I try again with the empty file already there it is then able to write to it. Any ideas what might cause an issue like that?

[SGR]

Originally Posted by Stephen

Anyone used ssh from Windows to Linux and know much about perms? The problem I am having is writing to a network folder. My process was failing on file creation so I tried cp from the command line. The strange thing is the first try creates the file but leaves it empty and fails. If I try again with the empty file already there it is then able to write to it. Any ideas what might cause an issue like that?

Are you trying to copy the file from a Windows machine to a disparate Linux machine (VM or otherwise)? In that case, I'm guessing you're using something like pscp to do the copy?

have you tried making the path that you're writing to completely open in terms of permissions? e.g. chmod 777 /path/to/folder - it's possible that the issue could be coming from permissions on the folders that are parents to your target directory.

Have you messed around with the setuid/setgid bits?

This isn't an NFS share you're writing to, is it?

What kind of process do you have that's writing to this location? Is it a program? PHP? Python or something? Bash script set up as a cron job? For some reason, I remember having an issue very similar to this, with a PHP program doing a SFTP transfer using PHPSECLIB - not sure if it's at all related (I think it was a permissions issue), but if you haven't figured it out by now, I'll try to dig through my notes for ya. Let me know.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by SoundgardenRocks

Are you trying to copy the file from a Windows machine to a disparate Linux machine (VM or otherwise)? In that case, I'm guessing you're using something like pscp to do the copy?

have you tried making the path that you're writing to completely open in terms of permissions? e.g. chmod 777 /path/to/folder - it's possible that the issue could be coming from permissions on the folders that are parents to your target directory.

Have you messed around with the setuid/setgid bits?

This isn't an NFS share you're writing to, is it?

What kind of process do you have that's writing to this location? Is it a program? PHP? Python or something? Bash script set up as a cron job? For some reason, I remember having an issue very similar to this, with a PHP program doing a SFTP transfer using PHPSECLIB - not sure if it's at all related (I think it was a permissions issue), but if you haven't figured it out by now, I'll try to dig through my notes for ya. Let me know.

It’s a rather convoluted process. We have a Windows service that queues print uploads for preflighting. That launches a bat file which passes everything to a command line exe I wrote in C# that uses renci ssh to talk to a Linux box running cli preflighting software which outputs the results to a Windows network folder (the part I was having trouble with).

Anyway we managed to get it working by using smb instead of nfs to write the files to the Windows network. Thanks for the input.

[Trollheart]

I'm having issues with my monitor. It keeps flicking off for a second, blank screen then back. A few moments later it goes again. I've checked the connections, changed the refresh rate several times, uninstalled, reinstalled and tried to update the drivers but it persists in happening.

I don't think it's any issue with the graphic card, as I also run a second monitor (my TV) through a HDMI cable and that works fine. When the main monitor flickers, the TV does not. I've also been getting messages about a power surge in the PSU every time I boot up, though some comments have been not to put too much store in that, as it may be the software just being overprotective.

Before I go replacing the monitor, any advice? I tried to hook up an older monitor to try to confirm if there was an issue with the current one, but it told me there was a different signal ratio, advised me to change it (don't know what it is or how to do that) and remained blank, so that was a failure.

If I need a new monitor I'll get one, but the last thing I want to do is buy one and then find the problem is still there, that it wasn't the monitor that was the issue at all.

Any help very much appreciated. I can use my TV as a monitor for now, but it's at the end of my bed and not too easy to read text off, so not ideal for being used as a primary monitor.

Thanks
TH

[Trollheart]

Update on my monitor woes: it turns out, or seems to have done, that it wasn't the monitor but the cable.

A while back I considered this but had no other cable to test the monitor with, so I ordered a DVI cable. When it arrived it turned out I had ordered the wrong one. Did not know there were different ones, but there are. I had got a single-link when I needed a dual. D'oh!

I went about ordering the right one, but meanwhile my search for a not-too-ridiculously-priced 24-inch monitor was running aground, so when I finally found one that suited me (refurbished HP, 105.00 Euro) I went for it. If the cable arrived and it changed things, well, great, but if it arrived and didn't, and I hadn't ordered the monitor, went back to get it and it was no longer available, not so great. So I ordered the monitor.

Unsurprisingly, the cable arrived first (this morning) and I plugged it in. Lo and behold! My screen did not jump. It did not, in fairness, do anything. It was entirely black. After some fiddling about with settings achieved through the connection with my TV (which is serving as a second monitor) I was able to get it working, and so far there hasn't been a flicker.

So the new monitor is yet to arrive, and when it does I guess I'll put it in storage until this one actually dies. At the moment, this one is going great, and I do like it, so there's no real need to replace it, but at least when I do need a new one I have one.

So in some ways I made the wrong decision and could have saved myself money, but in the long run it's not money wasted, as this monitor surely will not last forever. But one way or another, it seems my days of trying to get work done in between the blips and flashes are over. Hallelujah!