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geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: microsoft windows on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:04:44

Title: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: microsoft windows on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:04:44
Tell us about the worst computer you owned or had to use on a regular basis!

I'd say the worst ones I had to work with would have been the Apple Emac's after they started getting old. They were slower than dirt with their dinky G4 processors running Mac OS X 10.5 on 1GB of ram. And half of 'em had really bad screen burn too from the MAC OS 9.2 days (OS9 didn't have screen savers for the login screen). And then the keyboards....they came with the worst feeling rubber dome keyboards imagineable.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: oscillik on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:10:49
these goddamn things

(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/158/398760192_429cbbc4cb_b.jpg)
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: microsoft windows on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:13:11
HEY, I STILL USE ONE OF THOSE!
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:20:46
OMG it's a TIME machine!
Of all time, I have no idea really. I don't remember things in that way. Currently, it's my back up server which is a LaCie with a crappy Via CPU and only 1GB ram and gen1 sata. It's so painfully slow compared to everything else I have, whenever I have to do something over RDP it really tries my patience.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: oscillik on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:31:35
OMG it's a TIME machine!
Of all time, I have no idea really. I don't remember things in that way. Currently, it's my back up server which is a LaCie with a crappy Via CPU and only 1GB ram and gen1 sata. It's so painfully slow compared to everything else I have, whenever I have to do something over RDP it really tries my patience.

Oh wow, a Via CPU ouch

Have you tried VNC as an alternative to RDP? It might be a little easier on the system maybe?

Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:33:45
RDP isn't problem, it's just as slow if using with a monitor and keyboard attached. Slow PC is slow. Nothing will help it barring new motherboard, CPU, etc... but it's a slim 1u rack case and only ones I know will fit for sure are too expensive for me right now.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: baldgye on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:42:13
A friend of mine had a machine like a Time running Windows ME, **** that ****.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: oscillik on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:42:31
RDP isn't problem, it's just as slow if using with a monitor and keyboard attached. Slow PC is slow. Nothing will help it barring new motherboard, CPU, etc... but it's a slim 1u rack case and only ones I know will fit for sure are too expensive for me right now.

I replaced a Via based machine with an Intel Atom one about 2 years ago, much much better. Can actually handle Windows 8 on there, whereas the Via machine was struggling with Windows XP.

Have you tried installing an nLited version of Windows on there, to cut down on the guff you don't need? I found an nLite install of Windows XP on my Via machine really did help.

Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Computer-Lab in Basement on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:44:23
Can't quite recall the exact computer, but all I know was it has Windows 98 on it...
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: JPG on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:49:48
Can't quite recall the exact computer, but all I know was it has Windows 98 on it...

Man, whatever the computer, the worst thing I ever tried was Windows ME. I am a Windows guy, but man, ME was some utter ****!
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Computer-Lab in Basement on Thu, 19 September 2013, 08:52:01
Can't quite recall the exact computer, but all I know was it has Windows 98 on it...

Man, whatever the computer, the worst thing I ever tried was Windows ME. I am a Windows guy, but man, ME was some utter ****!

That too...
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: RabRhee on Thu, 19 September 2013, 09:03:05
I had to program using these terminals for about 5 years. It was a minor nightmare, not just because it would fail a lot, or that it used cassettes, or that it had a membrane keyboard, but also because it was heavy and I had to cart it everywhere. About one time in five we had to take the lid off, take all the expansion cards out, and then put them back just to keep them working. The non-membrane proper keyboard was a $1000 optional extra.

[attachimg=1]

Towards the end of their life, we had two. One without a tape drive (also about $1000 extra), and one with a tape drive but a broken screen. So I would have to code with the first one, then swap to the second, and use the memorised sequence of commands to save it to tape. Ah, such joys when they replaced them with a PC version and I got an IBM PC-XT portable to use instead.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Thimplum on Thu, 19 September 2013, 09:08:17
macbook pro 2009
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: noisyturtle on Thu, 19 September 2013, 15:47:02
My POS Asus 'gaming' laptop that had an extremely short warranty and apparently needs to be sitting on a block of ice, with 60mph winds blowing on it, on the moon, in February to be able to stay on for more than 10mins at a time.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: davkol on Thu, 19 September 2013, 16:18:40
My mum's work desktop. It was something like a pre-Tualatin Celeron with 394MiB RAM, lousy HDD, awfully dirty logitech keyboard and an incorrectly positioned CRT screen (way too high). The university's IT department somehow didn't care, so I ended up reinstalling supplied MS Windows 98 every few months. That was horrible... Fortunately, its hardware was at least bearable once I removed that Microsoft's piece of **** in favor of Debian.

Seriously, MS Windows was (and still is) a crime against humanity. It should be banned and that bastard Gates ought to be deported to Haag.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: acantha on Thu, 19 September 2013, 16:19:30
every pc i've ever owned. except for the surface. its pretty ****ing cool.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: microsoft windows on Thu, 19 September 2013, 16:45:03
My mum's work desktop. It was something like a pre-Tualatin Celeron with 394MiB RAM, lousy HDD, awfully dirty logitech keyboard and an incorrectly positioned CRT screen (way too high). The university's IT department somehow didn't care, so I ended up reinstalling supplied MS Windows 98 every few months. That was horrible... Fortunately, its hardware was at least bearable once I removed that Microsoft's piece of **** in favor of Debian.

Seriously, MS Windows was (and still is) a crime against humanity. It should be banned and that bastard Gates ought to be deported to Haag.

YOU ARE WRONG. WINDOWS IS THE BEST THING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO MANKIND. WINDOWS 98 IS EVEN BETTER. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM, WINDOWS 98 IS THE SOLUTION.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: badcop on Thu, 19 September 2013, 16:50:30
My first computer i purchased when i was 12 or 13.  it was one of these jammies
(http://az413224.vo.msecnd.net/img/33305/m_s_p_33305_1.jpg)
Pentium 3
128 gb of ram
onboard video but it played diablo II and thats all i cared about
the CD drive worked half the time
i was always getting viruses from me downloading pr0nz @ 56k lol
and the best part about it was windows me!

i was too ignorant to know the difference back then.  i used that thing from about 8th grade to about senior year in highschool. :shame:
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: microsoft windows on Thu, 19 September 2013, 17:00:42
OOH, WINDOWS ME. NOW THAT'S ALWAYS AN ADVENTURE!

I ALWAYS RAN 2000 OR XP ON MY PENTIUM III'S.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: belac on Thu, 19 September 2013, 17:02:16
Toshiba laptop with Vista. It was purchased about a week after Vista launched. And that's how I became a fan of Macs.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: badcop on Thu, 19 September 2013, 17:16:03

Toshiba laptop with Vista. It was purchased about a week after Vista launched. And that's how I became a fan of Macs.

I liked vista. I think i was about the only one.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: rowdy on Thu, 19 September 2013, 17:40:22
Haha this thread.  In "other geeky stuff" too :))

Are we talking about the worst hardware?  Or the worst operating system (again)?
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: belac on Thu, 19 September 2013, 18:24:51
Good question. If strictly hardware, then I would say any economy class Lenovo. When I worked in the hardware division of an I.T. department, part of my job was setting up the new pc's. Over the course of a year, Lenovo laptops had a 20% doa rate.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Leslieann on Thu, 19 September 2013, 19:19:04
Not that I personally owned one, but I worked on enough of them and odds are you have seen them.


Dell Dimension 4600

These were some of the first machines after Dell was bought out by investors. Of the ones I saw, half of them came with bad memory or drives right out of the factory. This was also the height of the self destructing capacitors, so the motherboards were frying left and right. It's so bad, that PC World has it listed as one of the worst PC's of all time. Dell marketed these to everyone at a discount, and they were at Dell's peak in terms of brand name so they sold a TON of them. Amazingly, I ran into one just the other day. In fact, it's still in my garage waiting to be disposed of.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: demik on Thu, 19 September 2013, 19:22:55
(http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/article/20000922/5000.jpg)

was my gaming computer during my cs:source days/

got so bad all the boxes/doors wouldn't render due to onboard gpu
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: microsoft windows on Thu, 19 September 2013, 19:58:01
ONE OF MY COWORKERS HAS THAT EXACT SAME PC SITTING UNDER HIS DESK. HE'S GOT WINDOWS 95 ON IT.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: microsoft windows on Thu, 19 September 2013, 19:59:59

Toshiba laptop with Vista. It was purchased about a week after Vista launched. And that's how I became a fan of Macs.

SO THAT WAY YOU COULD BE A FAN OF THE ONLY THING THAT WAS WORSE THAN WINDOWS VISTA?
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Thimplum on Thu, 19 September 2013, 20:36:30
Actually, iPad.S
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: demik on Thu, 19 September 2013, 20:37:12
My first computer i purchased when i was 12 or 13.  it was one of these jammies
Show Image
(http://az413224.vo.msecnd.net/img/33305/m_s_p_33305_1.jpg)

Pentium 3
128 gb of ram
onboard video but it played diablo II and thats all i cared about
the CD drive worked half the time
i was always getting viruses from me downloading pr0nz @ 56k lol
and the best part about it was windows me!

i was too ignorant to know the difference back then.  i used that thing from about 8th grade to about senior year in highschool. :shame:

128gb of ram?!
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: belac on Thu, 19 September 2013, 20:57:44

Toshiba laptop with Vista. It was purchased about a week after Vista launched. And that's how I became a fan of Macs.

SO THAT WAY YOU COULD BE A FAN OF THE ONLY THING THAT WAS WORSE THAN WINDOWS VISTA?
Zing!
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tipo33 on Thu, 19 September 2013, 20:59:32

Toshiba laptop with Vista. It was purchased about a week after Vista launched. And that's how I became a fan of Macs.

SO THAT WAY YOU COULD BE A FAN OF THE ONLY THING THAT WAS WORSE THAN WINDOWS VISTA?

Acording to this statement, I do believe microsoft windows has admitted that linux is better than a windows release.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: badcop on Fri, 20 September 2013, 06:37:36
My first computer i purchased when i was 12 or 13.  it was one of these jammies
Show Image
(http://az413224.vo.msecnd.net/img/33305/m_s_p_33305_1.jpg)

Pentium 3
128 gb of ram
onboard video but it played diablo II and thats all i cared about
the CD drive worked half the time
i was always getting viruses from me downloading pr0nz @ 56k lol
and the best part about it was windows me!

i was too ignorant to know the difference back then.  i used that thing from about 8th grade to about senior year in highschool. :shame:

128gb of ram?!

128 MB!!  that was typo lol

Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: microsoft windows on Fri, 20 September 2013, 10:50:33

Toshiba laptop with Vista. It was purchased about a week after Vista launched. And that's how I became a fan of Macs.

SO THAT WAY YOU COULD BE A FAN OF THE ONLY THING THAT WAS WORSE THAN WINDOWS VISTA?

Acording to this statement, I do believe microsoft windows has admitted that linux is better than a windows release.

I DON'T HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH LINUX.

IT'S NOT LIKE THERE'S LINUX COMPANIES OUT THERE WHO SELL GENERIC PC'S AT A RIDICULOUS PREMIUM JUST BECAUSE THEY RUN SOME CRAPPY OS.

AND IT'S NOT LIKE THERE'S LINUX FANS OUT THERE WHO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT COMPUTERS BESIDES THEIR THOUGHT THAT THEIRS IS SO MUCH BETTER.

AND IT'S NOT LIKE THERE'S A LINUX COMPANY THAT MAKES HORRENDOUS QUALITY KEYBOARDS AND MICE FROM A WHITE PLASTIC THAT MAGICALLY ATTRACTS DUST AND DIRT, AND HAVE TO CONSTANTLY BE CLEANED OFF TO LOOK EVEN REMOTELY PRESENTABLE IN AN IT SETTING.

I DON'T HAVE MUCH AGAINST LINUX AT ALL. I DO PREFER WINDOWS THOUGH. I EVEN RUN LINUX ON A FEW MACINES AT WORK THAT ARE USED AS SERVERS FOR MY REIMAGING SOFTWARE. BUT NO MACS!

Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: dante on Fri, 20 September 2013, 10:53:06
microcenter brand pc + windows me
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Findecanor on Fri, 20 September 2013, 11:02:05
...  a membrane keyboard ...
These days, that kind of keyboard is called a "Touch Cover".  :rolleyes:
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: IPT on Fri, 20 September 2013, 11:34:06
My personal worst experience was my HP zd7000 laptop. Someone at HP thought it was a good idea to stick a Prescott p4 into a laptop form factor. Added to it the buggy nvidia 5700go chipset with severe overheat probs = sending in my laptop to HP for repair 5 times within owning it for 10 months.  They did replace the laptop after the 5th time because nvidia stopped production on the 5700go motherboards so they upgraded me to a zd8000 that had some ati chipset. But it still used a Prescott p4 so that was in and out of repair for 4 times within 8 months of owning it. Last one they gave me was a dv9000 laptop that had one of the Intel core2duo centrinos in it. I promptly sold that laptop on eBay after I got it lol
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Altis on Sat, 21 September 2013, 15:42:56
Pretty much every netbook (ee or whatever it was called) has been the worst experience for me.

Otherwise, I don't think I've had a computer that I really didn't like.  They just keep getting better, although this one is just shy of 6 years old, it still runs quite well, even gaming (yay Q6600).
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Leslieann on Sun, 22 September 2013, 04:00:31
(yay Q6600).
That's a workhorse processor.
Gamers, overclockers, offices... It was a good, cost efficient processor that worked great for everyone, still does in many cases.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Elrick on Sun, 22 September 2013, 04:57:21
(yay Q6600).
That's a workhorse processor.
Gamers, overclockers, offices... It was a good, cost efficient processor that worked great for everyone, still does in many cases.

Yep I still have one running downstairs in the basement as a storage server.  Brilliant little bastard, that Intel made by mistake.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: TheSoulhunter on Sun, 22 September 2013, 08:53:25
Software wise: Probably my WindowsMe machine back then, had to reinstall the OS every 2 months
Hardware wise: My AthlonXP box back then, 3 mainboards, 2 PSUs, 2 HDDs and 1 GFX died in it...
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Altis on Sun, 22 September 2013, 09:06:19
(yay Q6600).
That's a workhorse processor.
Gamers, overclockers, offices... It was a good, cost efficient processor that worked great for everyone, still does in many cases.

Yep I still have one running downstairs in the basement as a storage server.  Brilliant little bastard, that Intel made by mistake.

That's what makes it hard to upgrade away from it.  A strong 6 years and it still does everything reasonably well.

Perhaps that's why over at Newegg, people are still giving it positive reviews, 4 years after its discontinuation.  It would be like losing a good friend for no reason!
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Leslieann on Sun, 22 September 2013, 18:03:25
That's what makes it hard to upgrade away from it.  A strong 6 years and it still does everything reasonably well.

Perhaps that's why over at Newegg, people are still giving it positive reviews, 4 years after its discontinuation.  It would be like losing a good friend for no reason!
The whole Core2Quad line was really good.
They got retired early due to the cost of DDR2 more than anything else.

I have a Q6600 sitting as a spare, and I have a Q9550 that runs as an Android build server that I loan out to developers. The Q9550 is a beast, keeping up with older I5's. If you want to bump up your Q6600, look for a Q9550 or Q9650, they are gems and a direct swap. They command decent prices, but it's cheaper than switching to an I5, new board and memory. Just don't plan on more than 8 gigs of ram, too costly. Instead, get an SSD.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Pacifist on Sun, 22 September 2013, 18:47:30
I've had to use a 10 pound 8 year old dell laptop for the time up to last year.

It had 33 GB in the hard drive, with 30 of it used for program files.

It had 0.5 or 1 GB of RAM (I can't remember which one, but no more than 1 GB)

Powered by some really old pentium laptop processor.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Turkishrambo on Sun, 22 September 2013, 18:57:22
This is a canon computer that came in the other day at our shop

(http://i.imgur.com/wbdx6Rh.jpg)

4mb ram

400 MB hdd

50 mhz processor

the comp had a BS with it too! I tried buying it off her for 60$ LOL but she liked it too much apparently
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Altis on Sun, 22 September 2013, 21:59:05
That's what makes it hard to upgrade away from it.  A strong 6 years and it still does everything reasonably well.

Perhaps that's why over at Newegg, people are still giving it positive reviews, 4 years after its discontinuation.  It would be like losing a good friend for no reason!
The whole Core2Quad line was really good.
They got retired early due to the cost of DDR2 more than anything else.

I have a Q6600 sitting as a spare, and I have a Q9550 that runs as an Android build server that I loan out to developers. The Q9550 is a beast, keeping up with older I5's. If you want to bump up your Q6600, look for a Q9550 or Q9650, they are gems and a direct swap. They command decent prices, but it's cheaper than switching to an I5, new board and memory. Just don't plan on more than 8 gigs of ram, too costly. Instead, get an SSD.

Nice, glad to hear they're still being used.  DDR2 RAM is one of the reasons I want to upgrade at all.  Ultimately, I could just get an SSD and keep it going for a while.  The alternative is to build another computer around the MB/CPU/RAM in another case, I have a spare case, PS, and video card, and upgrade to i5 4700 for less than $500.  Most likely what I'll do, so that I can keep the Q6600 running happily along its way.  ;D  Fresh Windows 7 installs do it wonders.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: dgreekstallion on Sun, 22 September 2013, 23:17:31
Show Image
(http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/article/20000922/5000.jpg)


was my gaming computer during my cs:source days/

got so bad all the boxes/doors wouldn't render due to onboard gpu
Oh God we also used to have one of these at my house. Terrible indeed.

Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Hak Foo on Sun, 22 September 2013, 23:23:34
I think part of the problem wasn't just DDR2, it was bad chipset options.  I think you could get some P35/P45 boards with DDR3 slots, but I think some of the chipsets had weird limits like "8Gb DDR2, 4Gb DDR3 only".  I learned that one the hard way dealing with a stupid G41-based machine.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: RabRhee on Mon, 23 September 2013, 00:05:32
This is a canon computer that came in the other day at our shop

Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/wbdx6Rh.jpg)


4mb ram

400 MB hdd

50 mhz processor

the comp had a BS with it too! I tried buying it off her for 60$ LOL but she liked it too much apparently

I had a PC very similar to this one in about 1996, almost identical awful daughterboard layout. It was a Packard Bell, I got it from a guy who built a new PC, wanted to take the 4mb RAM out of this, and found it was soldered in. So I swapped the whole PC and case (no processor) for a 4mb RAM module. I ran a BBS system off it for about 4 years. no nice keyboard with it though :)

aah, nostalgia, its not as good as it used to be.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: funkymeeba on Mon, 23 September 2013, 01:47:53
Anything with a Celeron processor. NEVER AGAIN.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Elrick on Mon, 23 September 2013, 02:35:43
The Q9550 is a beast, keeping up with older I5's. If you want to bump up your Q6600, look for a Q9550 or Q9650, they are gems and a direct swap.

Dear Girl/Boy,

I still have them in my house.  I have the Q9550S (low powered 65w) version being used as an internet machine and a spare Q9650 residing in an EVGA 790i motherboard and that baby is still sitting on 3.9 Ghz.

For me, these babies will never be thrown away not while I still have this gear, it needs to be used  :thumb: .
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Leslieann on Mon, 23 September 2013, 03:53:53
I think part of the problem wasn't just DDR2, it was bad chipset options.  I think you could get some P35/P45 boards with DDR3 slots, but I think some of the chipsets had weird limits like "8Gb DDR2, 4Gb DDR3 only".  I learned that one the hard way dealing with a stupid G41-based machine.
The best chipset was the P45 and P55, but they were only Sata2 and DDR2. A few could go to 16gigs of ram, but bend over if you want it. Just as the larger ram sticks were starting to ramp up production was right when the flood happened and DDR2 was discontinued for the most part, so they aren't that common. In fact Newegg has no DDR2, but has DDR1 and DDR3.

The newer G41's could do DDR3, but the chipset is actually a downgrade and just an upgrade path to DDR3, so you get weird memory limits (some are even 10/100 and not gigabit). I honestly think it's just an old, juiced up 945 chipset, which while not fantastic has been Intel's workhorse for a while. At any rate, the G4's not meant to really replace the older chipsets, it's meant as a replacement motherboard to keep you going until you can upgrade. This is especially true for boards supporting multiple ram types.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: IPT on Mon, 23 September 2013, 11:05:30
my bro's still using a Q6600 with Gigabyte P35-DS3R lol
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: microsoft windows on Mon, 23 September 2013, 15:13:10
This is a canon computer that came in the other day at our shop

Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/wbdx6Rh.jpg)


4mb ram

400 MB hdd

50 mhz processor

the comp had a BS with it too! I tried buying it off her for 60$ LOL but she liked it too much apparently

Are those ISA ports I see? Looks like we're going back to the good ol' days!
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: roaduck on Mon, 02 June 2014, 01:48:20
Tell us about the worst computer you owned or had to use on a regular basis!

I'd say the worst ones I had to work with would have been the Apple Emac's after they started getting old. They were slower than dirt with their dinky G4 processors running Mac OS X 10.5 on 1GB of ram. And half of 'em had really bad screen burn too from the MAC OS 9.2 days (OS9 didn't have screen savers for the login screen). And then the keyboards....they came with the worst feeling rubber dome keyboards imagineable.

The first modern PC I had in 1999 was called a Patriot which had an Intel  667Mhz chip, 256KB RAM memory a 10 GB HDD and 13 inch monitor...God it was terrible...Windows 98SE and it was ugly, slow and as about as reliable as a chocolate fireguard.

It regularly sparked and/or caught fire or something died on it and I had to reinstall Win 98 twelve times in one day because of catastrophic crashes.

It cost £599 and was a total dog.It was much worse than the TIME machine...that was a ferrari compared to my effort.

Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Kayla on Mon, 02 June 2014, 01:58:34
Anything by Lenovo
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Mon, 02 June 2014, 02:57:30
Imacs..   any Imac... Awful... just awful....


Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: StylinGreymon on Mon, 02 June 2014, 03:54:09
Any computer that isn't mine, really.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: blackbox on Mon, 09 June 2014, 17:57:33
Anything by Lenovo

Why?

My acer eee netbook and my hp g5000 was pretty bad. The HP had few connectors and had bad thermal design.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Prelim on Thu, 10 July 2014, 14:24:55
well, anything from asus is a bad pc :p
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: blackbox on Sun, 13 July 2014, 04:00:16
 
well, anything from asus is a bad pc :p

Can you explain your joke?
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Sun, 13 July 2014, 10:20:51
well, anything from asus is a bad pc :p

Can you explain your joke?

asus laptops are notoriously warm running...
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Computer-Lab in Basement on Sun, 13 July 2014, 10:34:56
well, anything from asus is a bad pc :p

Can you explain your joke?

asus laptops are notoriously warm running...

TBH I've had worse experiences with HP laptops. Almost every single one with AMD CPUs overheats and fries the motherboard after like 2 years. Personally dealt with 5 such cases of this, and will never buy an HP laptop because of it.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Sun, 13 July 2014, 12:39:27
well, anything from asus is a bad pc :p

Can you explain your joke?

asus laptops are notoriously warm running...

TBH I've had worse experiences with HP laptops. Almost every single one with AMD CPUs overheats and fries the motherboard after like 2 years. Personally dealt with 5 such cases of this, and will never buy an HP laptop because of it.

the problem with those was that because the amd cpus ran so hot, the fans on average ran at higher rpm..

and the higher rpm leads to higher dust buildup.. which means..... even more heat.. more dust.. it's a dust-heat spiral..

If however you clean out the Inside of the cooler,, the laptop will run like day one..

if you look at the image below.. that inevitably happens to EVERY laptop..  happens faster to warmer running laptops than cooler running ones..

the only way to fix it is to take the cooler assembly apart.. usually not accessible.. without disassembling the entire board.


Manufacturers can actually make this section easily accessible and cleanable, but alas, they don't want to, they'd rather have you buy a new laptop..

(http://cdn3.mos.techradar.futurecdn.net//Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20306/PCP306.make8.lapclean04-580-90.jpg)

Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: paicrai on Sun, 13 July 2014, 16:43:47
ive heard toasters are pretty bad
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: iLLucionist on Tue, 15 July 2014, 08:17:06
Compaq Presario 2200 Desktop:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Presario_2200

It was horrible. It was actually sold with a "Pentium inside" processor, but it was a f***king cyrix. I felt so ripped of. GPU shared memory. Horrible display. Lots of IRQ conflicts (Win95, not second edition). The buttons on the front panel stopped working with six months, the cd drive became flaky within one year.

But well, for as far as nostalgia goes, it played Command and Conquer and some FPS so I was happy. Also, it ran VB 5.0 and Borland Delphi 4.0 quite well.

The only thing that still seems to work, is the display that came with it.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: iLLucionist on Tue, 15 July 2014, 08:18:55

Toshiba laptop with Vista. It was purchased about a week after Vista launched. And that's how I became a fan of Macs.

SO THAT WAY YOU COULD BE A FAN OF THE ONLY THING THAT WAS WORSE THAN WINDOWS VISTA?

He said Mac, not ME :p
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Fire Brand on Tue, 15 July 2014, 09:47:16
well, anything from asus is a bad pc :p

Can you explain your joke?

asus laptops are notoriously warm running...

TBH I've had worse experiences with HP laptops. Almost every single one with AMD CPUs overheats and fries the motherboard after like 2 years. Personally dealt with 5 such cases of this, and will never buy an HP laptop because of it.

the problem with those was that because the amd cpus ran so hot, the fans on average ran at higher rpm..

and the higher rpm leads to higher dust buildup.. which means..... even more heat.. more dust.. it's a dust-heat spiral..

If however you clean out the Inside of the cooler,, the laptop will run like day one..

if you look at the image below.. that inevitably happens to EVERY laptop..  happens faster to warmer running laptops than cooler running ones..

the only way to fix it is to take the cooler assembly apart.. usually not accessible.. without disassembling the entire board.


Manufacturers can actually make this section easily accessible and cleanable, but alas, they don't want to, they'd rather have you buy a new laptop..

Show Image
(http://cdn3.mos.techradar.futurecdn.net//Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20306/PCP306.make8.lapclean04-580-90.jpg)


Every HP/Compaq DV xxxx laptop ever created, hate the things the amount of times I have seen, them with issues bleh never going to buy anything from HP also put me off Nvidia for a while since they where selling fautly GPU's to HP you can still buy them as a plastic keychain >_>
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: deltuhhh on Tue, 15 July 2014, 10:06:27
My HP laptop oh god.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: JaccoW on Tue, 15 July 2014, 10:59:55
I used to have a desktop from HP with a Pentium D (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_D) CPU, one of the first dual cores that comprised of two dies slapped together. After a while it would randomly shut down without warning and wouldn't start anymore. It was not a heat related thing either and after six trips back to their RMA service where they replaced pretty much all the internals I sent a letter to ask for my money back.
The money was used to build my first PC which is still working till this day.

I was never able to figure out what it was. :/
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Turkishrambo on Wed, 16 July 2014, 18:31:21
(https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t31.0-8/p843x403/965694_10151696158718304_2045441160_o.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/3HJzfuE.jpg)

Wonder why this customer's computer was turning off

Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Wed, 16 July 2014, 18:40:53
Show Image
(https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t31.0-8/p843x403/965694_10151696158718304_2045441160_o.jpg)

Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/3HJzfuE.jpg)


Wonder why this customer's computer was turning off



is he a smoker?
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: belac on Wed, 16 July 2014, 19:11:18
mmm... love that dust buildup.  reminds me of my days back when I worked in IT at the hospital. 1000s of PC's with too few caretakers. most looked like that on the inside.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Wed, 16 July 2014, 19:15:38
mmm... love that dust buildup.  reminds me of my days back when I worked in IT at the hospital. 1000s of PC's with too few caretakers. most looked like that on the inside.

I thought hospitals had the special air filters..
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Coreda on Wed, 16 July 2014, 19:46:20
Manufacturers can actually make this section easily accessible and cleanable, but alas, they don't want to, they'd rather have you buy a new laptop..

Show Image
(http://cdn3.mos.techradar.futurecdn.net//Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20306/PCP306.make8.lapclean04-580-90.jpg)


My last laptop allowed for this via a little section on the side, removable with screws. Dust built up again fairly quickly though.

As for worst computer I've owned? Probably would be a Toshiba Satellite laptop ages ago running Windows 98. Crashes were a fairly regular occurance. Installed XP on it later which made it more bearable.

Actually tried a laptop with Windows 3.1 given to me by an uncle who was into old computers. Not too shabby, but certainly no Mac OS. Somehow stumbled upon a PC mag column (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2280375,00.asp) about the editor-in-chief still using it. I'd like to imagine it's true, even though it was published April 1st  ^-^
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Wed, 16 July 2014, 23:40:13
Manufacturers can actually make this section easily accessible and cleanable, but alas, they don't want to, they'd rather have you buy a new laptop..

Show Image
(http://cdn3.mos.techradar.futurecdn.net//Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20306/PCP306.make8.lapclean04-580-90.jpg)


My last laptop allowed for this via a little section on the side, removable with screws. Dust built up again fairly quickly though.

As for worst computer I've owned? Probably would be a Toshiba Satellite laptop ages ago running Windows 98. Crashes were a fairly regular occurance. Installed XP on it later which made it more bearable.

Actually tried a laptop with Windows 3.1 given to me by an uncle who was into old computers. Not too shabby, but certainly no Mac OS. Somehow stumbled upon a PC mag column (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2280375,00.asp) about the editor-in-chief still using it. I'd like to imagine it's true, even though it was published April 1st  ^-^

which laptop is this that had the slide
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Coreda on Thu, 17 July 2014, 10:41:31
which laptop is this that had the slide

Toshiba Tecra A2. Loved it. I'm sure there would be others with a removable section, but I suppose more recent computers are tending to favor all-in-one designs.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: D01 on Thu, 17 July 2014, 10:59:37
Honestly the Asus desktop my wife bought a year ago.  I've had good luck with Asus products over the years when assembling a pc but this thing seems like they took every bad part they had a threw it in a case.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Thu, 17 July 2014, 11:46:08
Honestly the Asus desktop my wife bought a year ago.  I've had good luck with Asus products over the years when assembling a pc but this thing seems like they took every bad part they had a threw it in a case.

Asus, I've heard is fine.. Acer is the one you gotta worry about ... haha .. even the womenz no Acer is not to be trusted.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Thu, 17 July 2014, 12:28:45
which laptop is this that had the slide

Toshiba Tecra A2. Loved it. I'm sure there would be others with a removable section, but I suppose more recent computers are tending to favor all-in-one designs.

more like, -recent computers favor the fvk you customers are sheep to be farmed- design...


That laptop is sooo awesome.. my god... that feature can easily extend the life of the laptop by 5-8 years....

[attach=1]
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: microsoft windows on Fri, 18 July 2014, 08:06:00
Show Image
(https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t31.0-8/p843x403/965694_10151696158718304_2045441160_o.jpg)

Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/3HJzfuE.jpg)


Wonder why this customer's computer was turning off



Looks slightly dusty there.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: blackbox on Fri, 18 July 2014, 09:50:36
Show Image
(https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t31.0-8/p843x403/965694_10151696158718304_2045441160_o.jpg)

Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/3HJzfuE.jpg)


Wonder why this customer's computer was turning off

Heatsinkbrownie.  Someone should make fan filters for heat sinks. Like an easy to clean one.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: katushkin on Fri, 18 July 2014, 23:33:30
These thin clients at work pretty much suck ass. My WASD no longer works on them and they are slow as ****. (yes I have 2 screens and 20 windows open at once, but I neeeeed them goddamit!)

one of the guys in another department is going to push a new build to mine over the network for more USB power to see if I can get my WASD working again.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: D01 on Sat, 19 July 2014, 09:14:10
These thin clients at work pretty much suck ass. My WASD no longer works on them and they are slow as ****. (yes I have 2 screens and 20 windows open at once, but I neeeeed them goddamit!)

one of the guys in another department is going to push a new build to mine over the network for more USB power to see if I can get my WASD working again.

Aye.  The thin clients I have to deal with at work are crap as well.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: blackbox on Sat, 19 July 2014, 13:14:16
These thin clients at work pretty much suck ass. My WASD no longer works on them and they are slow as ****. (yes I have 2 screens and 20 windows open at once, but I neeeeed them goddamit!)

one of the guys in another department is going to push a new build to mine over the network for more USB power to see if I can get my WASD working again.

Aye.  The thin clients I have to deal with at work are crap as well.

I work with Wyse t10 thin clients at work and they work great. Ofc thin clients depends very much on the infrastructure.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: inteli722 on Sun, 20 July 2014, 21:48:10
My old Dell Latitude D800 with the Pentium M and a gig of RAM. Had to use that thing through 2009 cuz poor.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: davkol on Mon, 21 July 2014, 07:04:48
I used a D400 in 2009, but didn't consider it to be a problem, except uneven screen backlighting and bad battery life.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: berserkfan on Mon, 21 July 2014, 12:25:43
At present I am very angry.

You guys can see my threads about computer problems.

Frustrated as heck.

So I'll say, ALL COMPUTERS WITH MICROSOFT OS. Doesn't matter which computer.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: thesupergeek on Mon, 21 July 2014, 12:40:22
Worst computer ever has to be my plastic MacBook 2,1. The sides chipped, the keyboard was very squishy, the hard drive failed once every two months, it overheated, the battery died after 20 cycles. Worst POS I have ever won at a developers conference. Eventually stuck it under my desk, booted it up on to a Debian flash drive, and used it to monitor my network. That is all it is worth to me now.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: ShawnMeg on Tue, 29 July 2014, 23:44:09
I used one of those old iMac G3's with the round base,  swivel neck monitor and round speakers.  It lagged from the start even with maxing out the RAM.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: microsoft windows on Wed, 30 July 2014, 14:46:13
I used one of those old iMac G3's with the round base,  swivel neck monitor and round speakers.  It lagged from the start even with maxing out the RAM.

I remember those. Think they had G4 CPU's in them though. They were pieces of ****.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Wed, 30 July 2014, 20:35:44
I used one of those old iMac G3's with the round base,  swivel neck monitor and round speakers.  It lagged from the start even with maxing out the RAM.

I remember those. Think they had G4 CPU's in them though. They were pieces of ****.

I remember using it to do some 3d cad.. renders took like an hour..
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: microsoft windows on Thu, 31 July 2014, 08:56:42
I used one of those old iMac G3's with the round base,  swivel neck monitor and round speakers.  It lagged from the start even with maxing out the RAM.

I remember those. Think they had G4 CPU's in them though. They were pieces of ****.

I remember using it to do some 3d cad.. renders took like an hour..

Only an hour? You must have been using the fast 1GHz version. The 800MHz G4's were so slow they ran backwards.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Senthura on Sun, 03 August 2014, 22:12:13
The Dell Optiplex computers in the shared lab at school. They're like 5 years old and are SO slow. It takes 5 minutes before you can log in. Any time I have a project or something and we have to use those I just do it on my laptop, put it on a flash drive, and use them to print it if a wireless printer isn't available.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: ShawnMeg on Mon, 04 August 2014, 22:56:36
The Dell Optiplex computers in the shared lab at school. They're like 5 years old and are SO slow. It takes 5 minutes before you can log in. Any time I have a project or something and we have to use those I just do it on my laptop, put it on a flash drive, and use them to print it if a wireless printer isn't available.

Probably, there's so much s hit on the hard drive that it gets bogged down.  I have an Optiplex at work with an i5 and SSD running Win 7 Enterprise, small form factor.  It's wonderful.  The business class computers Optiplexes, as I understand, use better components.  I've had this computer for 2 years and never turned it off.  It's been rock solid, never a BSOD,, never lagging. 
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: korrelate on Mon, 04 August 2014, 23:16:25
anything osx lion.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Elrick on Mon, 04 August 2014, 23:25:18
I used one of those old iMac G3's with the round base,  swivel neck monitor and round speakers.  It lagged from the start even with maxing out the RAM.

I remember those. Think they had G4 CPU's in them though. They were pieces of ****.

I remember using it to do some 3d cad.. renders took like an hour..

Only an hour? You must have been using the fast 1GHz version. The 800MHz G4's were so slow they ran backwards.

Yes, when OSX hit all those older cpus and motherboards they were literally real slow and useless to ever use again.   I use to remember had to go and make a cup of coffee sit down with a biscuit and finish the coffee and biscuit and still arrive to my Apple whilst to was still working on finishing an Excel spreadsheet calculation.

That was when a jumped on over to the Dark Side, and never looked back.  I still despise Jobsie for what he did to that once great PC manufacturer that went on to produce hardware that was so slow compared to anything Gatesie had made after 2009.

Imagine being beaten in Photoshop by a lower performance PC outfit when you've just wasted over $4'500AUD on a Powermac Tower  :'( .
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: blackbox on Tue, 05 August 2014, 00:48:10
The Dell Optiplex computers in the shared lab at school. They're like 5 years old and are SO slow. It takes 5 minutes before you can log in. Any time I have a project or something and we have to use those I just do it on my laptop, put it on a flash drive, and use them to print it if a wireless printer isn't available.

Probably, there's so much s hit on the hard drive that it gets bogged down.  I have an Optiplex at work with an i5 and SSD running Win 7 Enterprise, small form factor.  It's wonderful.  The business class computers Optiplexes, as I understand, use better components.  I've had this computer for 2 years and never turned it off.  It's been rock solid, never a BSOD,, never lagging.

Since optiplex is Dells line of business-oriented computer there is no other versions of optiplexes. They have had issues with components in the optiplex line. Most notably the capacitors used in the optiplex sx270. Opened a sx270 some months ago and 90% of the capacitors where bad.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Turkishrambo on Sun, 31 August 2014, 13:33:58
Hahaha i was reminded by a really old p3 computer of this... i had totally forgotten. Back when a power button would kill the power to your computer completely no matter what.

(http://www.imgbase.info/images/safe-wallpapers/miscellaneous/funny/37563_funny_its_now_safe_to_turn_off_your_computer.jpg)


Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Senthura on Sun, 31 August 2014, 14:29:07
The Dell Optiplex computers in the shared lab at school. They're like 5 years old and are SO slow. It takes 5 minutes before you can log in. Any time I have a project or something and we have to use those I just do it on my laptop, put it on a flash drive, and use them to print it if a wireless printer isn't available.

Probably, there's so much s hit on the hard drive that it gets bogged down.  I have an Optiplex at work with an i5 and SSD running Win 7 Enterprise, small form factor.  It's wonderful.  The business class computers Optiplexes, as I understand, use better components.  I've had this computer for 2 years and never turned it off.  It's been rock solid, never a BSOD,, never lagging.

Since optiplex is Dells line of business-oriented computer there is no other versions of optiplexes. They have had issues with components in the optiplex line. Most notably the capacitors used in the optiplex sx270. Opened a sx270 some months ago and 90% of the capacitors where bad.

Optiplex GX520. Cleared the hard drive and reinstalled the OS. Still pretty slow but functional. Better than nothing. They got new ones to kill and gave them away.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Oobly on Mon, 01 September 2014, 07:19:18
I was assigned to a client project end of 2006. Had to use Celeron laptop with 128MB RAM for developing server side Java / PHP and Javacsript... Had to keep rebooting it to clear out the memory so the IDE would actually be responsive (Eclipse).
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Solo on Mon, 01 September 2014, 17:49:59
A friend of mine had some old Gateway beater PC that booted in 10 minutes from cold. And then it had that 5-10 minute period where, like, the computer would freeze if you tried to run/open anything.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: jacobolus on Mon, 01 September 2014, 18:00:42
Toshiba laptops are absolutely the worst. About 8 years ago I had a college roommate whose Toshiba laptop had a screen that would only work when the computer was opened to precisely the right angle, would hard shut down when set flat on a desk (had to be propped up to get enough airflow underneath to not overheat), with a trackpad that had broken so he had to use an external mouse, an absolutely awful keyboard, a battery that lasted about 10 minutes, the noisiest fan I’ve ever heard, and which was unbelievably buggy and slow when he tried to do any work on it. I think it was only about 1.5 years old at that point. It’s not like the guy didn’t have the money to replace it with a better machine (a $300 craigslist buy would have been better, frankly), so I really don’t know why he kept using it all year long.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: engicoder on Mon, 01 September 2014, 18:01:30
The worst computer I ever had to use was my mothers PC. A Windows 95 machine loaded with spyware, bloatware and ever manner of evil that can be put on a computer. After finally booting, ever mouse click required at least a minute to register a response. I would re-image it, and without fail, it would be back to that state within a few months.

Never tell anyone that isn't good with computers that you are!
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: CSCoder4ever on Mon, 01 September 2014, 22:34:03
In a nutshell, Every computer I find to be the worst are computers that are just plain not mine!  ;D

Honestly though, Any computer at a School/college I find adequate at best, I would much rather use my own machine!
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Turkishrambo on Thu, 11 December 2014, 00:32:16
so this came in today at my shop. Yes he uses it and yes he wanted it fixed. (one of them has blown capacitors)

tandy 64k Colour computer 2, uses an rf switch

TRS-80

1982.
(http://i.imgur.com/m4HQxlF.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/MsKp4dI.jpg)
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Thu, 11 December 2014, 07:30:16
Let's say I go to some place, rarely happens..

I get there,  and the computer I need to use doesn't have an SSD

(http://emoticoner.com/files/emoticons/onion-head/crying3-onion-head-emoticon.gif?1292862497)
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: dante on Thu, 11 December 2014, 22:04:21
so this came in today at my shop. Yes he uses it and yes he wanted it fixed. (one of them has blown capacitors)

tandy 64k Colour computer 2, uses an rf switch

TRS-80

1982.

I take offense - that's my childhood on that table :(
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: DrHubblePhD on Thu, 11 December 2014, 22:06:42
The time I had to use a blow dryer to boot a powermac is possibly the strangest/worst computer experience I have ever had.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Creizai on Thu, 25 December 2014, 23:05:31
(http://www.dependablecomputerservice.com/Images/Aptiva.jpg)

Bought the floor model at a discount, first computer ever.  Took it home, parents bought me SC2 Deluxe edition.  Tried to boot up AOL internet on 56k and didn't work at all.  Called up AOl, they said it was my computer.  Called up IBM and they said it was AOL.  Ended up having a desktop I barely used for almost a year or two.  Luck for me I started dating a girl next door, meaning we went biking down our street together... Anyway her dad had a whole little shed with like 10 computers and a bunch of model m keyboards.  He came over and found out that that the internal modem would dial up but the communication would just straight fail.  Reinstalled windows, and installed his own 56k modem.  Still it would dial up and connect but actually not "communicate" properly.  He got us an RMA somehow after owning it for 2 years.  Bought a Voodoo 2 and ended up it didn't have an AGP...

I played TFC Classic and CS Beta 6 on that computer.  Absolute dogh****, I actually somehow traded the dad my computer for a p3 with 350hz and added a voodoo graphic card and it all my games were playable full screen finally. 
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: rowdy on Thu, 25 December 2014, 23:27:04
Show Image
(http://www.dependablecomputerservice.com/Images/Aptiva.jpg)


Bought the floor model at a discount, first computer ever.  Took it home, parents bought me SC2 Deluxe edition.  Tried to boot up AOL internet on 56k and didn't work at all.  Called up AOl, they said it was my computer.  Called up IBM and they said it was AOL.  Ended up having a desktop I barely used for almost a year or two.  Luck for me I started dating a girl next door, meaning we went biking down our street together... Anyway her dad had a whole little shed with like 10 computers and a bunch of model m keyboards.  He came over and found out that that the internal modem would dial up but the communication would just straight fail.  Reinstalled windows, and installed his own 56k modem.  Still it would dial up and connect but actually not "communicate" properly.  He got us an RMA somehow after owning it for 2 years.  Bought a Voodoo 2 and ended up it didn't have an AGP...

I played TFC Classic and CS Beta 6 on that computer.  Absolute dogh****, I actually somehow traded the dad my computer for a p3 with 350hz and added a voodoo graphic card and it all my games were playable full screen finally. 

Are you still in touch with the girl next door?

Has her dad still got a shed full of Model M?

;)
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Fri, 26 December 2014, 15:41:14
Show Image
(http://www.dependablecomputerservice.com/Images/Aptiva.jpg)


Bought the floor model at a discount, first computer ever.  Took it home, parents bought me SC2 Deluxe edition.  Tried to boot up AOL internet on 56k and didn't work at all.  Called up AOl, they said it was my computer.  Called up IBM and they said it was AOL.  Ended up having a desktop I barely used for almost a year or two.  Luck for me I started dating a girl next door, meaning we went biking down our street together... Anyway her dad had a whole little shed with like 10 computers and a bunch of model m keyboards.  He came over and found out that that the internal modem would dial up but the communication would just straight fail.  Reinstalled windows, and installed his own 56k modem.  Still it would dial up and connect but actually not "communicate" properly.  He got us an RMA somehow after owning it for 2 years.  Bought a Voodoo 2 and ended up it didn't have an AGP...

I played TFC Classic and CS Beta 6 on that computer.  Absolute dogh****, I actually somehow traded the dad my computer for a p3 with 350hz and added a voodoo graphic card and it all my games were playable full screen finally. 

You tried playing SC2 on that?  bollocks..
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: meztek on Fri, 02 January 2015, 22:40:05
The worst computer I've ever had to use was a mac.  I don't know what model it was, only that it was one of those all in one computers with the entire computer stuffed into the monitor.  It was fairly new but the operating system is so darn confusing and the mouse moves SO SLOW on the highest possible tracking speed setting.  I had to use it for a class - nothing special about the software, just that the instructor liked Macs enough that she wouldn't accept anyone using a different computer. 
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: ezrahilyer on Fri, 02 January 2015, 22:59:40
I had a toshiba 486DX laptop (it was like the one in the picture, but it had a little pop-on trackball that went on the side)

(http://www.biocomp.net/toshiba_t1950ct_1.jpg)

I remember paying a lot for it, but I can't remember exactly how much. It had a battery that lasted about 2 hours tops and it was ni-cad so it only worked right for a few months.
I must have spend as much fixing the stupid thing over the next year or two than I did when I bought it...

I loved it before I bought it, and rapidly turned to hate because every month or so something would stop working and have to be fixed. The warranty was useless as I had to ship it out and get it back in like 5 weeks or something and I couldn't be without a computer for that long.

GRRR Still makes me cringe thinking of that purchase.

on the other hand I had one of these: (http://www.silverhairs.co.uk/compaqslt286.jpg)

It was a Compaq 286 that I bought used for a few hundred bucks, it had a monochrome display and barely ran windows 3.1, but it was durable and a great computer for writing....
Now that I am thinking about it, I wonder what kind of keyboard it had?
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: JDorfler on Sat, 03 January 2015, 03:34:48
An old Dell from the mid-90s running Win95 when I was in the military.  Due to the nature of Win95, a bunch of bored soldiers, 12 hour shifts, and having a T1 at work, what was supposed to be a working PC became the most virus riddled computer known to mankind.  I still think they are using that PC to learn how viruses effect DOS based PCs to this day.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: atlas3686 on Sat, 03 January 2015, 06:57:18
Pentium 166mhz 8mb ram 1.5GB hard drive :( no GPU  :'(
Went from that to a Pentium 4 with a decent geforce GPU, to give you an idea of how far we had moved...

That new machine was amazing, since then only an SSD has made me feel that way again  :))
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Sat, 03 January 2015, 10:56:09
Pentium 166mhz 8mb ram 1.5GB hard drive :( no GPU  :'(
Went from that to a Pentium 4 with a decent geforce GPU, to give you an idea of how far we had moved...

That new machine was amazing, since then only an SSD has made me feel that way again  :))

From a P4 ?

Dude.. I went from p4 to amd 939 and that felt pretty damn fast at the time.. because of the ondie memory controller..

Then When dual core first came out ... that felt pretty fast too..  then there was core 2 duo.. my head nearly exploded it was so fast...

yea.. ssd was definitly up there..   but the biggest leap was probably from amd x2 939 to core2duo..

and from wolfdale into gen2 i..  that was also pretty solid as well..
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: atlas3686 on Sat, 03 January 2015, 11:01:24
Pentium 166mhz 8mb ram 1.5GB hard drive :( no GPU  :'(
Went from that to a Pentium 4 with a decent geforce GPU, to give you an idea of how far we had moved...

That new machine was amazing, since then only an SSD has made me feel that way again  :))

From a P4 ?

Dude.. I went from p4 to amd 939 and that felt pretty damn fast at the time.. because of the ondie memory controller..

Then When dual core first came out ... that felt pretty fast too..  then there was core 2 duo.. my head nearly exploded it was so fast...

yea.. ssd was definitly up there..   but the biggest leap was probably from amd x2 939 to core2duo..

and from wolfdale into gen2 i..  that was also pretty solid as well..

No the change from Pentuim 1 (166) to a P4 :)
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Sat, 03 January 2015, 11:15:49
Pentium 166mhz 8mb ram 1.5GB hard drive :( no GPU  :'(
Went from that to a Pentium 4 with a decent geforce GPU, to give you an idea of how far we had moved...

That new machine was amazing, since then only an SSD has made me feel that way again  :))

From a P4 ?

Dude.. I went from p4 to amd 939 and that felt pretty damn fast at the time.. because of the ondie memory controller..

Then When dual core first came out ... that felt pretty fast too..  then there was core 2 duo.. my head nearly exploded it was so fast...

yea.. ssd was definitly up there..   but the biggest leap was probably from amd x2 939 to core2duo..

and from wolfdale into gen2 i..  that was also pretty solid as well..

No the change from Pentuim 1 (166) to a P4 :)

right,  but when you changed from the p4 to "anything else"   it should've felt pretty fast...

i mean.. p4 was 14 years ago..
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: atlas3686 on Sat, 03 January 2015, 12:41:53
Pentium 166mhz 8mb ram 1.5GB hard drive :( no GPU  :'(
Went from that to a Pentium 4 with a decent geforce GPU, to give you an idea of how far we had moved...

That new machine was amazing, since then only an SSD has made me feel that way again  :))

From a P4 ?

Dude.. I went from p4 to amd 939 and that felt pretty damn fast at the time.. because of the ondie memory controller..

Then When dual core first came out ... that felt pretty fast too..  then there was core 2 duo.. my head nearly exploded it was so fast...

yea.. ssd was definitly up there..   but the biggest leap was probably from amd x2 939 to core2duo..

and from wolfdale into gen2 i..  that was also pretty solid as well..

No the change from Pentuim 1 (166) to a P4 :)

right,  but when you changed from the p4 to "anything else"   it should've felt pretty fast...

i mean.. p4 was 14 years ago..

No made much smaller jumps from then onwards because I kept upgrading. I think next processor was also a P4 3.0 Ghz and then a dual core and then a quad core.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Sat, 03 January 2015, 14:40:57
Pentium 166mhz 8mb ram 1.5GB hard drive :( no GPU  :'(
Went from that to a Pentium 4 with a decent geforce GPU, to give you an idea of how far we had moved...

That new machine was amazing, since then only an SSD has made me feel that way again  :))

From a P4 ?

Dude.. I went from p4 to amd 939 and that felt pretty damn fast at the time.. because of the ondie memory controller..

Then When dual core first came out ... that felt pretty fast too..  then there was core 2 duo.. my head nearly exploded it was so fast...

yea.. ssd was definitly up there..   but the biggest leap was probably from amd x2 939 to core2duo..

and from wolfdale into gen2 i..  that was also pretty solid as well..

No the change from Pentuim 1 (166) to a P4 :)

right,  but when you changed from the p4 to "anything else"   it should've felt pretty fast...

i mean.. p4 was 14 years ago..

No made much smaller jumps from then onwards because I kept upgrading. I think next processor was also a P4 3.0 Ghz and then a dual core and then a quad core.

My first pentium 1 was only 75mhz.. ran megaman x.. that's bout all I did @ that age..
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: jamster on Tue, 06 January 2015, 10:15:00

I grew up around computers- helped my parents start up a computer store when PC building was still a mysterious art, then worked for companies with heavy investments of IT, so I've always had access to reasonable machines. However, my worst computer is actually one of our (the wife's) current ones. A Lenovo Yoga ultrabook.

It's got a great spec and looks pretty, but they ergronomics are rage-inducing. I litterally find myself getting angry after using it too long.

They keyboard is the standard modern chicklet style instead of a proper Thinkpad keyboard, and the massive touchpad is constantly brushed with a palm when typing, which means that the machine keeps registering random mouse clicks.

It's not just me either- I've had several friends use the machine and each of them has commented on what a pile of poo it is. I only use it now with an external keyboard, and if I'm desperate.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: Touch_It on Wed, 07 January 2015, 14:18:25
Some dell desktop running windows ME with 128MB ram. 

I still cry myself to sleep sometimes.
Title: Re: WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE
Post by: tp4tissue on Wed, 07 January 2015, 14:51:50

I grew up around computers- helped my parents start up a computer store when PC building was still a mysterious art, then worked for companies with heavy investments of IT, so I've always had access to reasonable machines. However, my worst computer is actually one of our (the wife's) current ones. A Lenovo Yoga ultrabook.

It's got a great spec and looks pretty, but they ergronomics are rage-inducing. I litterally find myself getting angry after using it too long.

They keyboard is the standard modern chicklet style instead of a proper Thinkpad keyboard, and the massive touchpad is constantly brushed with a palm when typing, which means that the machine keeps registering random mouse clicks.

It's not just me either- I've had several friends use the machine and each of them has commented on what a pile of poo it is. I only use it now with an external keyboard, and if I'm desperate.


I'm pretty sure u can turn off the feature where taping the pad registers as a mouse click..

you can set it so only if you hit the button, it registers as a mouse click.