WORST COMPUTER YOU'VE EVER OWNED/HAD TO USE

[Solo]

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.

[jacobolus]

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.

[engicoder]

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!

[CSCoder4ever]

In a nutshell, Every computer I find to be the worst are computers that are just plain not mine! 

Honestly though, Any computer at a School/college I find adequate at best, I would much rather use my own machine!

[Turkishrambo]

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.

[tp4tissue]

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

[dante]

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

[DrHubblePhD]

The time I had to use a blow dryer to boot a powermac is possibly the strangest/worst computer experience I have ever had.

[Creizai]

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. 

[rowdy]

Show Image

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?

;)

[tp4tissue]

Show Image

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..

[meztek]

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. 

[ezrahilyer]

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)



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:

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?

[JDorfler]

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.

[atlas3686]

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  )

[tp4tissue]

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..

[atlas3686]

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

[tp4tissue]

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..

[atlas3686]

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.

[tp4tissue]

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..

[jamster]

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.

[Touch_It]

Some dell desktop running windows ME with 128MB ram. 

I still cry myself to sleep sometimes.

[tp4tissue]

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.