(no subject)

[vtladyhawke.livejournal.com]

Oi...I'm not a techie, but I'm expected to be the tech support for my entire family, so I guess that counts in a way. My mother recently got the bright idea to upgrade her computer *herself*, as opposed to taking it to a qualified professional. She's running Windows 98 at the moment, and wants to upgrade to XP Home. She figured that the Gateway tech support would be able to walk her through the entire process. She got the extra RAM installed OK, and now, apparently has to update the BIOS. That was where I washed my hands. I have noooo clue how to update the BIOS, and I told her to take it to CompUSA or Best Buy. Maybe not the best places, but I didn't know where else to tell her to take it. She actually didn't think of that option...*sweatdrop* In addition, *no one* in my family had any idea what spyware was, or how to clean it, before I told them. And they wonder why their computers were running slow...@#$%&* >:O My family is idiotic when it comes to computers, dog training, and a whooole bunch of other shit...AAAARGH!!

OK...I'm done now...I apologize for the disjointedness, but I kinda had to get it off my chest. :)

Comments

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Meh, I wouldn't bother with the BIOS. I would just stick the cd in and go.

[klyf23.livejournal.com]

Some bioses

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Some bioses <sp?> have to be upgraded before installing XP due to buggy implementations of ACPI, which XP gets all butt-hurt about.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Bleh, if it doesn't make XP happy to begin with, a BIOS update probably isn't going to help. You're better off without it (ACPI) in that case.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

XP gets all butt-hurt about _everything_.

and people wonder why I stubbornly use Windows ME.

It just shuts up and does what it's told.

[klyf23.livejournal.com]

Ew, my experiences with ME were far from pleasant. Mostly from a stability perspective. Especially since the auto-restore would sometimes make it impossible to fix. Nothing like "Oh, the registry has changed--reverting to an earlier version," an earlier SCREWED UP version. I also dislike ME because of phone support experience.

I think 2000 is the pinnacle of Windows, as far as stability is concerned.

One of my beefs with XP is that it lacks a lot of support for older hardware. That, and the privacy issues, and only being allowed a certain number of hardware changes.

[vtladyhawke.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but this is my mother we're talking about here...she's *not* computer literate, and the scary thing is, she likes to think she is....*hides*

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

And this is how it starts. "Dear, can you have a look at this?" Then at work - "It'll only take 5 minutes - can you reformat my document/insert this picture/fix this table"? Then they expect you to put it together. And slowly but surely you're sucked into the dark, dark world of the tech support person.

Get out now. While you still can....

[vtladyhawke.livejournal.com]

*LOL* Yeah...that's about the size of it!! :P

XP Home vs XP Pro

[maqleod.livejournal.com]

well, first off, XP Home really has nothing to do with the BIOS and would not really benefit with the update. Flashing the bios and running an update usually isn't that difficult and the manufacturer of the motherboard probably has instructions on how to do it where you download the new BIOS from, but its hard to say how offhand as different motherboards update in different ways. Third, 98 surely has to go, its a problem OS, less so than 95, but an NT kernal is necessary these days (Microsft brought in outside help to create the NT kernal for the purpose of creating a more stable OS because they weren't capable of doing it themselves (ie 98 is not much more stable than 95, but it was Microsofts best attempt), typical of Microsft). Anyhow, XP Home is decent, but has problems with certain things, its networking is a little slow for one, and it isn't quite as stable as the pro version. If you have the extra cash to spend on XP Pro, I'd recommend it (or if you can get a disc from a friend would be better). And if you're doing this for your mother, make sure you set Windows update to update regularly and install on schedule and install adequate virus and spyware protection (ClamWin and Spybot respectively are probably the two best free options). A firewall such as Jetico Personal Firewall probably wouldn't hurt either, as long as you configure it for her first. The installations of everyhing is pretty straightforward and probably takes about 2 hours to go through fully (depends on your machine speed, but if it was originally running 98, its probably a tad slow) so its not really worth paying best buy or compusa the $40 an hour they'd charge you to sit an click a few times in the two hours while watching tv the rest of the time. Places like that make most of their bucks off the tech shop, not off the equipment they sell (except for cables, those get marked up like 300% or more, its crazy)

Re: XP Home vs XP Pro

[vtladyhawke.livejournal.com]

OK...I'm not doing this for my mom, since I have no clue how to reload a comp. Secondly, she's not networking or running multiple applications at once, so she's prolly fine with Home. I've already told her about Spybot, and she went with something else because she didn't trust it since it said "use at your own risk"...and ended up paying for the program. *rolls eyes* I think the reason she has to take it in to a professional is because it got royally cluster f*ked somehow previously, and they ended up having to reload everything...and the machine hasn't been running right since. I can't troubleshoot, and neither one of us really has any techie friends, so we're kinda up sh*t's creek without a paddle. :P

from experience

[jedisamui.livejournal.com]

I think you did the right thing. However, I probably would have had her look in the phonebook for an actual computer repair service center. Compusa, Bestbuy, and other stores of this nature hire kids to do the work, not certified technicians. And well, if she had any data that should be saved, etc...... professional would be the way to go. You never know when your baby pics may show up on the internet otherwise. (I just don't trust those kids.)
Anyway.....You are right, you should keep your hands clean of this. And so referring her to outside help was the best idea.

And I say this, because 15 years ago, I got into computers.....and every stinking time my mom, brother, sister, friends, etc have problems, I am the one they turn tooo.....giving me the guilt trip and all. Every holiday, family reunion, etc.....I am spending time fixing computers.
Hell, during the week I spent in Seattle for my grandpa's funeral, I was asked to fix my grandma's computer. It took two days. I was soooo pissed. But there is noone else for my family to turn to, unless they go to an outside person. And honestly, I wish I would have told them that from the beginning.

Re: from experience

[vtladyhawke.livejournal.com]

*hug* Believe me, I know how that goes...I'm just glad I referred her to outside help. My man is a techie, but he refuses to help her for the same reasons...that and he just can't stand my mother period.... ;P

Re: from experience

[maqleod.livejournal.com]

heh, maybe I'm just odd. I'm the one all my friends turn to for help (and their all techies too, I'm just the senior techie among them as I do tech work for a university) and my family is constantly asking me to fix their computers, but I just love computers and I like helping people when I can. Hell I'd rather sit in an air conditioned room and fix my mother's computer than get out in the 110 degree sun and mow her lawn. But thats just my point of view.

Re: from experience

[sanachan1.livejournal.com]

My husband is in the same boat as you being the one technically savvy member of the family. My mother works in the computer engineering department of a university, and yet when something goes wrong with her computer she picks up the phone and calls her son in law who is three thousand miles away to get tech support. I'd feel worse about it if his own dad weren't even more computer ignorant then my mother. I'm glad all I have to do is play lovely assistant when he gets the family tech calls.