Tag Archives: laptops

hola galga!

19 Thursday Sep 2024

Posted by in computers, devices

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laptop 2024

Not the best time for my laptop to need replacing, but hey, is it ever? It’s been six years since I bought Boquerón and my two previous ones before that only lasted three years apiece, so I guess maybe I lucked out this time (??). A quick google tells me the average life expectancy for a laptop is 3-5 years, which seems like not much time, but what do I know? Anyhow, I think I also got lucky finding this model at El Corte Inglés, as there seem to be very few 17 inch models available these days. Plus it was 80 euros off (a “back to school” special offer).

And now begins the looong process of setting it all up. I was able to copy most of the important files, photos etc onto an external HD between crashes over the past couple of days but there’s still a lot to sort out. It’s a bit like housecleaning in a way. I’m realising how much STUFF was on the old computer that I can actually do without.

Of course I had to name her… galga is Spanish for greyhound as she is sleek and silver-grey. And she weighs just slightly less than Morcilla.

The specs…

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adiós sterling, sayonara loki!

01 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by in casa azahar, cats, computers, friends

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Ever since I upgraded to the Boquerón I have been planning on wiping the drive on Sterling so that my friend Tomoko could buy it. To be honest, I kept putting it off because I’d never done this before and it seemed more than somewhat daunting. But when Tomoko said she would be in Sevilla for a couple of days and wanted to take Sterling home I was forced into action. And well, it wasn’t that bad after all, but it did take a very long time (approx 10 hours). The first attempt failed after a couple of hours and I had to start over again. But second time lucky and when I got back from my tour in the evening there was a squeaky clean laptop ready for its new home.

So Tomoko came over yesterday and we set up the newly-named Loki to make sure everything was working okay. After that we went shopping for a case and then Loki the Laptop was gone. Though of course Tomoko didn’t leave without giving Loki the Cat a thorough belly rub.

If anyone is interested, these were the instructions I followed…
How To Reset Your Windows 10 PC

anchoa revived!

10 Monday Sep 2018

Posted by in computers, work

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In other home computer news… about two years after buying La Anchoa as a travel notebook option back in 2014 (instead of lugging my big 17″ guy around on trips) I began having problems with her screen. It starting flickering on one trip to Málaga, and in the end it got so bad I had to give up and just use my iphone. Then one day it went flickery-flickery-flickery and totally died. Damn. At the time I thought that it probably wouldn’t be worth taking her in to be fixed, but I also didn’t want to fork out for another small travel option. So oh well. It was adiós Anchoa and back to either taking massive laptop with me or working from the iPhone (NOT ideal) on trips.

Then the other day, while reading the specs on El Boquerón (shit, I’ve already named him!) I noticed that he has a touch screen, something I hadn’t noticed at the store. And then I thought… hey, Anchoa has a touch screen too. Hmmm, I wonder…

So after not having used her since 2016 I took my little Anchoa out of hibernation, revved her up, saw the old flickery-flickery thing start up… and then I TOUCHED THE SCREEN. And hey – problem solved! I mean, fucking DUH or what? Why hadn’t I thought of that before??

And the best thing? Picasa works just fine on her! I can upload my photos and they all show up, ready to be edited and sorted. Yay! There was a tense moment when suddenly Windows starting doing updates (well, it had been two years…) and I thought I might lose Picasa like I did on Sterling. But so far so good! Of course, editing photos is primarily why I want to have a nice big 17.3″ screen at home, so now having to do it on a tiny 11.6″ screen kind of defeats that purpose. But at least I can do it. So for now my little Anchoa is set up next to my desk, propped up on a stack of books, acting as my photo editing assistant.

Now I just have to decide if I’m keeping El Boquerón…

accidental upgrade

08 Saturday Sep 2018

Posted by in computers, devices, geekiness

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Oops, I did it again. Well sort of. Maybe. Before I went away to the Basque Country I was having some “issues” with Sterling, mostly to do with things bogging down and running slow, including frustrating totally unresponsive moments, requiring me to reboot, sometimes 2-3 times. So I started thinking about upgrading, then saw that Sterling is only 3 years old. I mean, shouldn’t these things last longer?? Mind you, The Greyhound was also 3 years old when I replaced him with Sterling. But Peter inherited The Greyhound, so that was okay, and he worked with him for another three years, glitches and all, until he died a sudden death in July, requiring the emergency purchase of Silver. But it also meant Peter lost everything, something that strikes a note of terror inside me, even though I do make backups frequently(ish).

This is all to say that, if Peter hadn’t already bought a new laptop, then at this point I would be happy to pass Sterling on to him, as he doesn’t spend as much time on his computer as I do. He also has much less content stored, etc. And then I would feel justified upgrading. But now I’m not sure what to do, especially as I actually purchased this new fabulous beast the other day as “insurance” while it was on sale at 15% off. It’s still in the box, so I can return it any time… but do I want to?

It’s weird because I have no qualms about updating my iPhones every three years or so. Then again I usually have someone who wants my old ones. But what to do with Sterling? I mean, he mostly works well. And perhaps if I stripped him back to factory settings, removing all my shit, he would be much friskier. Having said that, he has been behaving much better since I got home (figures).

How often do you upgrade your laptop?

Below you can see the specs …

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i5 vs i7

24 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by in computers, gadgets, geekiness, work

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hp dilemma (1)

As some of you may recall, I’ve been going through a computer upgrade dilemma all summer, trying to decide whether to go with another 17″ laptop or an all-in-one 23″ desktop. That question has been decided – I’m definitely going with another laptop. But now another techy-geek dilemma has reared its baffling head… which processor should I get?

Behold two lovely laptops by HP. Both have 17.3″ screens, 12 GB Ram, 1 T memory as well as other similarities. The only difference is that the one above has the new Intel Core i7 processor and the one below has an i5. Oh, and the one above costs 300€ more.

My question is… is the i7 processor worth spending an extra 300€? I mean, I almost hope it is because the Envy above is way prettier than the Pavilion below, but I also don’t want to spend an extra 300€ just for a pretty exterior.

Help? If it matters, I do use my laptop every day for many hours, so speed is important. Also, I do a lot of photo editing and hope to be getting into video editing soon. The other thing is that if I don’t decide which one to purchase by Saturday then I’ll have to wait until another special offer comes along. Right now Fnac is offering a 20% discount.

hp dilemma (2)