Computercide

[happyrobert]

I want to kill my computer. I once murdered a fax machine after it taunted me for almost a week. It felt good to sledge it. Very good. I think a lot about that happy day lately.

But the fax was two or three years old. This Lenovo ThinkPad Edge is only four months old. Financially, I should let it live. But I hate it so.

It hates me. I think it hates everyone. Within one hour of booting it up, it crashes. Every freaking time. No exceptions.

It hates the internet. I am using a sim in the built-in aircard. It takes forever to connect (slow once connected I understand, but I'm talking 5-7 minutes to connect) and if I try to do anything else while it is on the internet, that is usually when it crashes. Open a Word document. Crash. Open Rosetta Stone. Crash. Open AutoCad...God forbid. Little blue circle. Circles represent infinity. Coincidence? I don't think so.

I sold my Apple MacBook Pro, with Windows XP, to buy this piece of sh!t. The Apple never crashed in 3-1/2 years. Its case warped, suitable for skateboarding, but it never crashed.

Took the StinkPad to the service center at Phayathai, or was it Ari?. Wouldn't get on the web using the aircard - the Lenovo aircard that is internal. Also would not charge continuously. Off and on. Two days, they take out the mother board. Replace it. Uninstall AutoCad without telling me. AutoDesk says, sorry, can't reactivate from overseas.

Lenovo says there is a virus. This despite the computer at the time was but a week old and hardly ever on the web as it WOULD NOT FREAKING connect, and then only my Hotmail account. Other computer shops said no, no virus, the problem was that Lenovo failed to "set the correct time" when they replaced the motherboard. Blue Shop kindly fixed that free of charge.

It will not install some updates from Microsoft.

Everytime it crashes, I have to manually shut down using the power button. Upon rebooting, all passwords are lost. All icons are moved.

If any of you are computertarians, help me please, or tomorrow I will burn the ฟucker. I will now take a Valium and a shot of Jim Beam as the 30 minute task I started on this monstrosity at 9p.m. has just been completed. Tomorrow I will travel to Bangkok, so I'll be offline. But I will check for any replies upon arrival, assuming I am able to fight the compulsion to throw the damห thing out the window at 120.

WARNING: I am not a computer geek. Hey, I had an Apple all my life. The last one with XP installed so I could use AutoCad. Which is why I know nothing about computers. I did not need to 'cause nothing went wrong with it any more than something goes wrong with my DVD or my cell phone.

Intel® Core™ i3CPU M370 @ 2.40 GHz

2.00 GB

32 Bit

Windows 7 Home Basic

All software bought and paid for.

Thank you.

[surayu]

I think you are just doomed, but if not, then your computer must be possessed, in case of the latter you might want to hire an exorcist, not sure if Milingo is still practicing, otherwise you can try a local alternative and let a half dozen monks to splash a bucket full of holy water on it.

Even if that doesn't get the result we were hoping for, you can still appreciate the newly acquired free time to relax in peace

[RKASA]

What kind of AV are you running. I had a rather sickly homeXP for a year after I got it and was hating the thing - then the Norton AV ran out and they didn't let me re new from over here. That turned out to be the best thing because after I completely removed it which was not as easy as one two three it worked great and problem free. I still have and use it today and it works fine. Try some other AV but clean out any old ones first.

[sbk]

Brilliant rant unhappyrobert!

Personally contact the Consumer protection office, then contact lenovo and tell them to replace that thing, there are so many things wrong with that lemon that it really should just be replaced.

and good luck. I feel your pain!

[rakman]

Brilliant rant unhappyrobert!

Personally contact the Consumer protection office, then contact lenovo and tell them to replace that thing, there are so many things wrong with that lemon that it really should just be replaced.

and good luck. I feel your pain!

I feel for you. There are many things (such as AV, video drivers, Microsoft, odd programs) that can go wrong.

The absolutely weirdest thing I ever saw was an HP Risc workstation that would crash like clockwork every two weeks. We changed every board, cable, backplane and powersupply and the only thing that would fix it was changing the case, which had no electrical parts in it.

As long as you can consistently show the problem, and it can't get fixed, it should get replaced. Good luck, don't OD on the Valium and Booze together. :jap:

[sambosoul]

Get a Mac!

[sambosoul]

go back to your mac and get happy again

[nidge]

Smash it to bits and go back to Mac, then have another 3 1/2 years of crash free peace.

Nidge.

P.s. can we have pics of the smashed piece of junk?

[Member]

What daily maintenance do you do ? Now many free space on the internal harddisk ?

Did some pc maintenance for older expats and every time it was like entering a landfill. NO maintenance done just an antivirus installed and they think that's it, harddisks that have 3GB space left and then complaining about their system

[bangkokburning]

I run Avast Free and Malwarebytes religiously. I don't visit sketchy sites. I think I picked up a worm visiting sites for creating a blog. Although I am really careful about the links I click. Anyway....I scanned and scanned. Nothing found it. Not even HiJackThis or Trend Housecall. Then I find the virus running freaking hateful Stopzilla which is malware in and of itself.

Sounds like you should reformat and reimage the drive. Make sure that anything you plug into the machine after that is virus free!

I just did this for two computers. They run great. My girlfriends computer now +1.5gb RAM is a new pc!

why a Lenovo? Crikey! Shoulda bought Asus!!

[happyrobert]

Thanks for the replies. I've a few things that need my attention, then I'll respond.

In the meantime, my computer is sleeping. But I could swear, out of the corner of my eye, at the very edge of my peripheal vison, that I could see it open its eyes for a moment and stare at me.

I think its scared....

[happyrobert]

Brilliant rant unhappyrobert!

Personally contact the Consumer protection office, then contact lenovo and tell them to replace that thing, there are so many things wrong with that lemon that it really should just be replaced.

and good luck. I feel your pain!

I am "Happy" to do that but that leaves the problem of AutoCad. I was finally, after weeks of trying, given a ONE-TIME authorization code to reinstall AutoCad here in SEA. If it is removed again, or I have another computer, I will either have to fly back to the States to install, or buy a new, and expensive, program here.

[happyrobert]

What kind of AV are you running. I had a rather sickly homeXP for a year after I got it and was hating the thing - then the Norton AV ran out and they didn't let me re new from over here. That turned out to be the best thing because after I completely removed it which was not as easy as one two three it worked great and problem free. I still have and use it today and it works fine. Try some other AV but clean out any old ones first.

I tansferred the PC Tools Spyware with anti-virus to the Lenovo. (Something AutoCad didn't want to do.) There is also, I now see, Microsoft Security Essentials in the program list.

Could this be a problem?

Anyone?

[happyrobert]

What daily maintenance do you do ? Now many free space on the internal harddisk ?

Did some pc maintenance for older expats and every time it was like entering a landfill. NO maintenance done just an antivirus installed and they think that's it, harddisks that have 3GB space left and then complaining about their system

The computer is new.

Disc C: 69.1 free out of 99.9

Disc D: 52.3 free of 99.9

Disc E: 97.3 free of 98.0

[happyrobert]

I run Avast Free and Malwarebytes religiously. I don't visit sketchy sites. I think I picked up a worm visiting sites for creating a blog. Although I am really careful about the links I click. Anyway....I scanned and scanned. Nothing found it. Not even HiJackThis or Trend Housecall. Then I find the virus running freaking hateful Stopzilla which is malware in and of itself.

Sounds like you should reformat and reimage the drive. Make sure that anything you plug into the machine after that is virus free!

I just did this for two computers. They run great. My girlfriends computer now +1.5gb RAM is a new pc!

why a Lenovo? Crikey! Shoulda bought Asus!!

Is there a way to move the AutoCad installation to another disc, then reformat only C?

[selftaopath]

Hey HappyRobert,

Sorry to hear your story, but honestly I got a laugh outta your description of events. I wonder if half the stuff made/sold here works adequately? I've purchase 2 or is it 3 printers in Land of Scams and had problems w/ both. And the Office??? Max shop fixed the HP one a/b 6 times. Finally I discarded it but wanted to throw it out a window.

I'm using a laptop bought in USA which was hand delivered. The only problem other than typical stuff was my virus protector (AVG) was messing things up. I switched to Avast and installed Soluto software. Now mp laptop runs and runs and runs - literally.

Kind regards and yea if you take a mall to it take pictures :-)

BTW one of my big frustrations is lack of expertise/honesty etc here in Land of Scams. I don't mind paying for something to be FIXED but hell at least fix it and really don't make matters worse. But.......TIT.

[bangkokburning]

No, you will have to blow the drive out and reinstall auto-cad and everything else. You should reformat once a year anyway so don't look at it as such a bad thing. If you do have a virus often the damage + the fix + all the other issues that many people have on their machines, the pc is compromised.

Boot in Linux

Partition removable storage in GParted

Move everything you need to to that storage

Remove storage and reboot

Install Windows and make certain you reformat the drive prior to install

Return your files to where you want them

* Reformat every storage device in Linux!

[happyrobert]

No, you will have to blow the drive out and reinstall auto-cad and everything else. You should reformat once a year anyway so don't look at it as such a bad thing. If you do have a virus often the damage + the fix + all the other issues that many people have on their machines, the pc is compromised.

Boot in Linux

Partition removable storage in GParted

Move everything you need to to that storage

Remove storage and reboot

Install Windows and make certain you reformat the drive prior to install

Return your files to where you want them

* Reformat every storage device in Linux!

Thanks for the advice. I can't reformat then as I don't want to buy another AutoCad in Thailand. So I will have to wait until I return to the States.

Which, hopefully, will be never!

[happyrobert]

ONE MONTH UPDATE:

I wish I had originally placed this in the General Forums as it turns out the matter is very much Thai related. Perhaps even as much as it is computer related.

My computer and I no longer hate each other, but it is a bit hard to forget the pain she caused me and the irrational thoughts she provoked. Feelings so strong that, for a long time, I wish I'd never met her, never gazed into her one beady eye and decided to take her home. I wasn't even drunk. But the next morning, I knew I'd made a mistake and tried to get her to leave, but no, she crashed at my place every day for the next three months, lazing about, eating my electricity, but otherwise just sleeping all day.

I again called Lenovo Customer Service last week, for the umpteenth time. I gave up with the original "talking through the problems," and simply stated that all the problems were still present, the computer was still virtually unusable. I wanted to return it. I could hear the barely stifled yawns on the other end.

Then, some celestial being inspired me to ask the rep if he knew what the Thai Visa Website was. He said yes, he did. Why?

Well, because I am posting there, for thousands of readers in Thailand, all of the problems I am having with your Lenovo StinkPad.

A few minutes later a supervisor was making an appointment to do on-site service, something I do not qualify for as I live in the-exact-middle-of-nowhere.

Two days later, a tech came out and changed the motherboard -- again. This seems to be Lenovo's sole method of fixing problems. Change the motherboard.

Nope, no good. Not only that, but in the process he broke a part on the mother board where the sim card inserts.

Two days later, another motherboard. Still no good. Still runs like mollases, runs like hell to get away from any internet connection, and crashes every other millisecond once it connects.

I asked why do you guys keep insisting on motherboard replacement?

He just shrugged.

I once again asked if it could be the fact that there is Spyware Doctor and Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) co-protecting the computer?

He, like the folks at the Service Center in BKK, said no.

(NOTE: It was the tech at the store in Chiang Mai who transferred the Spyware Doctor over to the new computer, saying the "more protection, the better").

Well, he left me and one-eye alone, saying there was nothing more he knew to do.

We sat there, not speaking, staring coldly at each other. I pondered what to do next.

I thought about the mini-sledge in my garage. I thought about taking her to the beach and drowning her. I thought about a Lenovo BBQ. With cole slaw.

Tempted, but I decided instead to uninstall MSE and, while I was at it, Browser Guard (also an MS product that came with Windows 7).

And as they say in Germany, voila! That was it! I, who know as much about computers as my dogs, had solved the problem in ten minutes.

Lenovo "Service" has no clue how computers work. None. I have never seen them run diagnostics. They installed both anti-virus software, and they repeatedly aknowledged their cohabitation on my little love machine. Their answer to any problem is to simply "change the motherboard."

Now, almost a week has gone by, and my lucious little laptop is happily allowing me to gently carress her keys, and follows my prompts without hesitation.

Lessons to be learned:

1. Patience is definitely a virtue. I almost killed an innocent.

2. If you buy a computer in Thailand, be aware that technical service might be restricted to simply hit-and-miss techniques like changing the motherboard or reformatting. It certainly is with Lenovo.

3. Mentioning posting on Thai Visa just might get you somewhere.

[harrry]

Broser Guard is not a microsoft product it is a Trend product.

You should never have two firewall or antivirus programs running together.

[happyrobert]

Broser Guard is not a microsoft product it is a Trend product.

You should never have two firewall or antivirus programs running together.

Lenovo's hiring.

[samuijimmy]

:clap2: One of the best post reads, I've seen on TV in a long time!.... chuckled to my self a few time during the day, thinking of some of your brilliant wording!!!

Glad you are sorted .... just had to add this!!!