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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Bloody Windows 10....(i’m done with it)
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| Alastair Senior Member  Joined: 03/04/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 161 |
@Boppa, I met a recently retired guy who has turned a few 'friends and family' requests for computer help into a small business that keeps him busy a few days per week. He spends lots of time 'decontaminating' systems and rebuilding crashed systems. He said that he has a number of Win10 installs and often finds that he has to repeat an install on the same machine before it works well. Same iso, same machine, ends up quite a different size and load time. Said he often has to return to the person's house a day later when the update/install is completed. Now won't do an install at a home that doesn't have a broadband connection that tests above 20Mbs. Takes it to his place where he has a 50Mbs connection that apparently usually gives 40Mbs. The isp keeps promising more but .... Initially he said he got very frustrated because of all the variability but now claims he enjoys seeing what happens next. For him Win10 has created a small business opportunity. He was a plumber in his former life !! Cheers, Alastair |
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| Boppa Guru  Joined: 08/11/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 814 |
I'm doing it as a bit of extra dosh myelf, I like his style in 'enjoying what happens next' lol Theres a thought, set up a 'tabs bet' style app for computer techs- put down a bet on whether this machine will run perfectly or fall flat on its face- $20 @ 10:1 odds ;-) Where I am atm has a fiber connection with unlimited d/l, so I try and bring them back if possible, yet there still is that variability, network speed may be a factor, but I am not seeing it myself, my sister has a perfect win10 machine on 12/1 plan, another machine is running perfectly on 3g 5/1 and the twin machines are of course on the same shared connection, both wired lan There are even successful win10's on dialup If there is a pattern there yet, I cant see it (personally, I am beginning to think its done by a random number generator by microsofts writers- just to screw with techs heads lol) |
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KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1882 |
Boppa I could not agree more with that fact that a lot of home users only need Net and Email services, as MS tried to make Windows do everything they ended up not doing anything particularly well and that started long before Win 10, so the average user has no idea how to control / adjust it, nor should they have to do so. MS totally screwed some of the updates, but again depending on Hardware it may not cause any real problem for some. I thought the latest build update had finally introduced a problem into my system, but it turned out to be an MS programming upgrade I did shortly after AND it was not the software, but hell it looked like it. Turned out to be that problem where over time the memory modules need to be removed, cleaned and reseated. One or more contacts can go hi resistance due to film build up, various material have been tried over the years by MB and Memory manufactures makers, but I still see it persist in newer PCs and can show up every few years or less depending on environmental location. It can show up in many ways such as boot lock up, random hangs etc. The really flaky type problems happens when, because of memory usage (more), eventually a write to that part of high memory controlled by the faulty Module occurs and bang, the PC freezes or reboots with the blue screen of death, it's extremely hard to pin down for various reasons. That is exactly what caused this problem - bigger memory foot print with the newer version of the application, previous version still worked fine, clean memory modules and bingo - upgraded version now fixed, BTW I have 8 GB in this PC. I'd hate to think how many unscrupulous repair shops just unplug everything from the MB, plug it all back in and charge $250 for 15 minutes work. Alastair I am lucky I have a 50/20 Net connection, could go faster but not worth the extra rip off money for a plan speed boost. Again this MS net integrated OS idea is a total joke and a massive cause of update frustration for most users on the flaky FTTN NBN roll out. NBN co claiming that they are loosing money because many users are opting for the lowest speed plans??? Did it ever occur to these clowns that those same people are "waking up to the fact" that they can't get the faster promised speeds on FTTN with bad copper and have no option but to drop back to the "lowest" speed plan, it's there own fault, but yes! go ahead and blame the users again. NANO Inverter: Full download - Only Hex Ver 8.1Ks |
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
Tell him to be careful what he wishes for - he may get it!  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Alastair Senior Member Joined: 03/04/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 161 |
@KeepIS Interesting what you say about the memory modules. My current system is a 3 yo HP I7 system that has plenty of grunt for me. At the beginning of this year I started to get a memory error on shutdown/sleep. Never caused a problem just announced an error. After a Win10 update about 6 months ago I found that my system was always awake in the morning after being put to sleep at night. I looked through all the settings and changed a few but it continued to happen. I looked on the web for ideas but in the end left it and then just shutdown the system at night. The startup time started to really annoy me and so I installed a 500GB Samsung SSD. Brilliant. Startup now ~15sec and all program loads are very quick. The OS migration was easy but I did have a few issues with Outlook trying to find its folders. No other apps had a problem. Whilst installing the SSD I also installed an extra 4GB of memory removing, the original modules and reinstalling them in a different slot. Since then no memory errors. I hope that this system will last me out as the idea of migrating all the sw to a new system does not thrill me. The SSD was a cheap breath (~$250) of new life. Now even cheaper. My NBN is 25/5 (Telstra) and seems to live up to that. When I measure it I get the right numbers most of the time. Occasionally at kids home from school time, I see some web delays, but I don't spend a lot of time surfing the web so it is not an issue. I put this down to the fact they ran a new line back to the node as the old copper was cactus. This is the quietest landline phone I have had in years - new technology and new installation. I doubt I could ever justify going up in broadband speed. We rarely watch movies and have Foxtel anyway. The few times I have tried streaming Iview it has been fine. Since I bought my wife an iPad, she has finally got the hang of the web and email. She can even send pictures to friends and relatives! This has raised our monthly data use but I have yet to exceed more than 100GB of the 1000GB we get with the bundle. Cheers, Alastair |
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| KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1882 |
The memory thing is more common that many think. I have lost count of the times I have fixed someone's PC with nothing more that cleaning the memory stick contacts with a rubber and reinstalling them. Every few years I normally unplug the memory, all PSU connectors, drives and any cards I may have installed, blow out any dust and use an electrical switch contact cleaner designed to leave no residue, then plug everything back in. Just been a while longer on this particular unit. I make regular disk images and restore the image using Acronis, when migrating to a new Drive I can have everything up and running with "almost" all installed SW working in 5 minutes, I say almost as some sh%$ SW Vendors want you to de-install the SW first with a web connection to verify the de-install, then reinstall and re-authenticate if doing a drive change. NANO Inverter: Full download - Only Hex Ver 8.1Ks |
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| VK2CBH Newbie  Joined: 18/08/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 11 |
I have just had fun with updating windows 10, well not. The update was "Feature update to Windows 10, version 1709". It failed to install on 13 NOV 17. I did have it successfully download and install today. It started about 0800 and finished at 2200 today. My laptop is 4 years old but I did not think it would take that long to do this update  . Not happy with windows 10 if this is going to be the norm for updates.Cheers Brett |
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| kg4pid Regular Member  Joined: 08/03/2015 Location: United StatesPosts: 50 |
I to have seen the simple fix of removing all the boards or modules in an electronic device, cleaning and reassembling and everything started working again. There used to be a product called 'Cramolin' that we tested back in the 70's to clean contacts and it worked extremely well for cleaning problem contacts and preventing futute problems. I don't know if it is still being made or not. Over 40 years ago someone told me that 90% of electrical/electronic problems are due to a loose or bad connection. I have found that true to this day. Max |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
As a sucker for punishment, I bought a new laptop for work. It is a cheap Acer ES1-132 machine with Windows 10 Home 64-bit. I have to say about THIS laptop, that it runs really well on Windows 10. My other machine - as most of you know - did not. Things I did immediately to this laptop BEFORE ever connecting it to the net: 1) Uninstall the Office 365 trial - freed up about 4GB of the SSD! This is a trial only anyway, and they would want you to start coughing up for it sooner rather then later, so....out she goes. I much prefer Libre Office anyway, and I don't need Office on this machine at all - only TT and GFXterm + MMEDIT and some USB-COM port support. 2) Uninstall Microsoft's OneDrive - boy, it pesters the hell out of you with pop-ups. Some of my client have also complained about the constant OneDrive popup notices, so they too have uninstalled it. Much prefer something like Dropbox anyway.3) Install CLASSIC SHELL to replace the tiled start menu with a more conventional one - so you can actually find things. Classic Shell is free. 4) Install SHUT UP 10 and apply all recommended settings to disable telemetry etc. I also used this to DISABLE the automatic updates totally. Some may say that is a bad idea, but currently in my opinion, the automatic updates are unstable and in and of themselves are a bad idea if you ask me - and you didn't. This is more of a laptop for field service work talking to various MM projects, so I don't need the damn thing trying to auto-update when I am trying to do my work.5) Now with Classic Shell installed, go to Control Panel/System/Advanced and change performance settings to 'Adjust for best performance', which really helps the speed of the system by turning off all the Windows annimations and window fading etc - the machine just works for YOU then. 6) In the same settings, STARTUP AND RECOVERY, untick RESTART AUTOMATICALLY. This way if the machine DOES fall over with a BSOD, at least you can read the error code and research the problem. With this ticked as it is by default, the machine will just spontaneously reboot if it gets into trouble, but you have no idea at all WHY. All that done, the machine is actually very responsive, runs well, and I already have all my programs on it like MMEDIT, TT(and now GFXterm). As I mentioned earlier in this thread, the core OS of W10 itself seems fine, but it is all the guff they have padded around the edges of it along with forced auto-updates - that often don't work or take freakin' hours to complete - that make me hate Windows ten. We are lucky as we can change this stuff, but Joe-Bloggs the consumer can't or does not know how to, and they end up with a pretty miserable computing experience 99% of the time thanks to all that crud.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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Quazee137 Guru Joined: 07/08/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 593 |
My Grandson does IT at two hospitals and one is switching to Linux and running the already paid for and can not replace custom packages in a VM running win3 and 7. At the 2nd they did move to win10 with new systems and are having lots of issues. He team is doing exactly what you did to 500 or so systems. They do not trust the Intel management system right now so it one on one with each system. They also put a Linux server between the different networks so the x-ray machines will not hear any thing out side but can send information on as needed. And the finance side can not talk to the other networks but can receive data. They had a partial ransom ware hit them last year due to open usb ports in the ER. Now anything USB has to be on a need/request basis. I did MS Corporate support back in the day and was why I went to linux. So many times it was like MS pushed it out and then we'll fix it when enough complain about it. If they made cars we'd all be walking due to the safety regulations. LOL I remember booting a floppy to a cli building the 1st stage then booting it and building every thing else from 15 floppies. But now its soooo easy with the live versions just boot and run/install. And you can make it your way without to much work. @Grogster Thanks for walk down memory lane. Need that every so often to see where are and where we was. Boy what a journey it been. |
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disco4now Guru Joined: 18/12/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1003 |
Well looks like I now have 'Feature update to Windows 10, version 1709' Looks like it has stopped my Outlook 2003 from working. I get and "Invalid Operation" message box with just an OK button when I try to send/receive or create a message. Can view all existing emails. Have googled a bit but no answers yet. Might have to look for another email client. PS. Googled again and found this fix. 'Hi have sorted it now by going to control panel add and remove programs (programs and features) and office 2003 offers repair as long as you have the original installer to browse to etc.' I just did a 'Detect and Repair' and it did not ask for the disk and just did the repairs.All back and running again. Latest F4 Latest H7 FotS |
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| djuqa Guru Joined: 23/11/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 447 |
Office 2003! methinks it is time you upgraded I just yesterday did the "fall Creators Upgrade" No hiccups, No problems. I love Windows (especially Win10) VK4MU MicroController Units |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4044 |
Noooo. Just yet more grief and expense. No wonder people abandon Mickeysoft stuff. John |
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MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
I find the latest office offering very price competitive with other cloudservices that offer only storage. Basically i get more storage and the use of office as a bonus. The price alone for the storage capacity on onedrive did actually make me purchase it as i do not really need office (But for my kids it becomes more necessary for their schoolwork, and the normal practice in Thailand to just install a copy is not my cup of tea). I had storage on Amazon drive first but they changed from unlimited to 1TB, and i was not pleased with that. If they changed to 5TB or 10TB i could have lived with that. Instead i opted for a 'family' package from MS Office that offers 5TB for each family member. This gives me a single place to manage it and for each of us (Wife: Pictures from her phone uploads automatically, two kids: same for their pictures and their homework which often includes work to be done on Word/Excel/Powerpoint and for me to store my files). Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4044 |
That's lovely if that suits you. However, the idea of spending money on a more recent version of Office to cope with a Win10 update is dreadful. (Well, I suppose M$ like it.) John |
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| MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
Even office 97 still worked on Win10, as is office 2003. So there is no need to update office at all. Running a 'repair' after basically installing a huge update to the OS is to be expected and hardly a nuisance. I was just pleasantly suprised with how the new Office worked (also on my phone!). Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4044 |
Only in M$ land!! John |
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| MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
I know. :) Aint it great, it is just one click, ok maybe two. In Apple land it just doesn't work at all. Buy new! And in Linux land you need to update the application too. So all in all, not too bad from Microsoft. :) Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4044 |
I don't get the same issues with Linux as you say. John |
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| MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
I guess the one you use most will cause the least problems. Never had unexpected downtime with windows. (I skipped ME). Linux never agreed with me. From non existend drivers for my particular hardware to unsolvable crashes, etc. I just wanted to get some feeling for it, but never felt the need to invest more time in it. For me that is perfectly fine because i can do everything i want and need already. Even my CNC and lasercutter run on windows without a problem, so maybe i am blessed by the windows gods. :) :) Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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