Technologically Unlucky

[saluraropicrusa]

this is mostly gonna be me venting, 'cause i've had a bad couple of days this week.

i'm horribly unlucky when it comes to technology. especially with getting something new set up--no matter what, it seems, i'm going to have some kind of issue.

most recently, i spent almost $1600 on the parts for a new pc. i built it with help from my dad, and everything seemed to work seamlessly... except this beast is too big for my desk, and the wi-fi signal is horrendous when it sits under my desk (the only place it has room and where all relevant wires can reach it).

then, like an idiot, i thought i could install my copy of windows 8.1 on this pc no problem. of course not. now i need a new product key, and if my dad can't get one from the college he currently teaches at (where i was a student at one time), then i'd have to pay an exorbitant amount for the OS without the option for a student discount.

i think that a direct result of this--and possibly that i installed some windows updates, before being made aware of the fact that the os wasn't activated--is that when i restarted my new pc, it got stuck on the boot screen. wouldn't move past it--i didn't have time to wait very long but the last couple of times i turned it on it was only on that screen a few seconds, and it didn't seem to respond at all to the keyboard prompts it was telling me to use to get to BIOS setup (or whatever). so now my dad has to take it to a shop/ask the friend who gave me the parts list for help, i'm going to have to spend extra money on all this (that i kinda don't have, on top of getting a DVI-to-HDMI cable and extensions for my network card antennas), and it's stressful and frustrating and i still have to be at work and stay focused today despite all this...

i really, really hate computers sometimes. i've had more than enough issues with the pcs i've owned over the years to justify this, imo, and i'm sick and tired of this being an issue. i'm hoping posting this will give me some small comfort if i find that i'm not the only one who's experienced this kind of bullshit. and i'm not the only one... right?

 

[Frezzato]

Don't know if you can hold out, but Microsoft will be distributing Windows 10 for free sometime this year, for the sake of the entire Windows ecosystem. It's a sensible move seeing how Apple has done that a few times already, and MS wants to keep the pace. Only problem is, early Windows releases never tend to be very smooth.

Also, uh, a little birdie told me that educational licences/CALs are usually distributed in bulk, so it's possible that someone might accidentally write down a key onto a DVD/USB key containing the relevant copy of Windows and force it into someone's hand, totally against his will I'm sure. That's K-12 though, don't know how higher ed gets stuff.

.

I don't know if power is the main reason your tower has to remain on the floor, but something like this [http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Standard-Extension-P022-015/dp/B005KG3Y4I/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1430940503&sr=1-6&keywords=NEMA+5-15P+to+NEMA+5-15R+10+feet] should do the trick, which gives an additional 15 feet for $7.32 plus shipping (orders under $35). Then again, I simply grabbed some mega-long APC NEMA power cables from a garbage pile at an old job. Like 3 or 4 of them. One man's trash...

 

[saluraropicrusa]

Don't know if you can hold out, but Microsoft will be distributing Windows 10 for free sometime this year, for the sake of the entire Windows ecosystem. It's a sensible move seeing how Apple has done that a few times already, and MS wants to keep the pace. Only problem is, early Windows releases never tend to be very smooth.

Also, uh, a little birdie told me that educational licences/CALs are usually distributed in bulk, so it's possible that someone might accidentally write down a key onto a DVD/USB key containing the relevant copy of Windows and force it into someone's hand, totally against his will I'm sure. That's K-12 though, don't know how higher ed gets stuff.

.

I don't know if power is the main reason your tower has to remain on the floor, but something like this [http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Standard-Extension-P022-015/dp/B005KG3Y4I/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1430940503&sr=1-6&keywords=NEMA+5-15P+to+NEMA+5-15R+10+feet] should do the trick, which gives an additional 15 feet for $7.32 plus shipping (orders under $35). Then again, I simply grabbed some mega-long APC NEMA power cables from a garbage pile at an old job. Like 3 or 4 of them. One man's trash...

to address the last point first... it's more so that there's almost no room for it ON my desk, and the only other space it could sit that isn't the floor is too far away for the power cable AND the cables for my monitors + my usb hub. plus it'd just be awkward overall.

i mean, i MIGHT be able to fit it on a ledge that sits above my desk, between two shelf/drawer things, but it'd be pretty high up/out of reach and i'd be super nervous about it falling. and that shelf/drawer unit can't really be relocated (as of now) to make room since i don't have space for it elsewhere.

in short: my setup sucks.

i don't know how student version distribution would work for me since i left college a few months ago (at the beginning of the school year that's ending around now), so... also it might be slightly different between the US & Canada (where i'm currently located). idk man, atm i'm banking on my dad being able to get a copy.

i planned on nabbing windows 10, but i'm not sure how soon... but i'll definitely be getting it for this new pc, since i'm giving the old one to a friend. that said, i'd rather not have to wait for "sometime this year" at the risk of being restricted access to my new rig due to not activating windows.

blegh. the whole thing is a stressful, angering situation, esp since i know it could've been easily avoided if i'd given it a little more thought/a google search beforehand.

 

[Frezzato]

snip

I have a good feeling about your dad pulling through if he has access to some IT guys at his work. Ultimately, if he can't pull through, there are some really helpful people here who can help out I'm sure (strange how some of those folks have disappeared).

In the meantime, does your desk face an external wall or an internal wall? Have you considered installing another shelf?

If it's an external (as in solid) wall, you can carefully drill some expansion anchors into place and install your own shelving brackets. And if it's hollow drywall you just use threaded drywall toggles instead. If you just use a sheet of unfinished pine the total cost might be ~$30--if you have access to a drill and the right size drill bit. A masonry bit is recommended but not totally necessary for short jaunts into solid walls.

 

[Zipa]

In regards to the copy of Windows, you can install it onto your new PC, you can only have one PC with a valid activation at a time though so your old computer using that copy will revert to a "non genuine copy".

That said if you do want another copy of windows I recommend /r/microsoftsoftwareswap/ [http://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsoftwareswap/] its a hell of a lot cheaper.

 

[saluraropicrusa]

snip

I have a good feeling about your dad pulling through if he has access to some IT guys at his work. Ultimately, if he can't pull through, there are some really helpful people here who can help out I'm sure (strange how some of those folks have disappeared).

In the meantime, does your desk face an external wall or an internal wall? Have you considered installing another shelf?

If it's an external (as in solid) wall, you can carefully drill some expansion anchors into place and install your own shelving brackets. And if it's hollow drywall you just use threaded drywall toggles instead. If you just use a sheet of unfinished pine the total cost might be ~$30--if you have access to a drill and the right size drill bit. A masonry bit is recommended but not totally necessary for short jaunts into solid walls.

In regards to the copy of Windows, you can install it onto your new PC, you can only have one PC with a valid activation at a time though so your old computer using that copy will revert to a "non genuine copy".

That said if you do want another copy of windows I recommend /r/microsoftsoftwareswap/ [http://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsoftwareswap/] its a hell of a lot cheaper.

the windows issue is solved! i have a new copy/key--and anyway i wasn't going to get rid of the key on the old comp 'cause i'm giving it to a friend.

as for my desk... well, my dad surprised me by getting a device that'll connect me directly to our router (along with an ethernet cable) so i'm going wired instead. all this is gonna take another bite out of my remaining funds but hell, it's all worth it if everything goes according to plan.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I tend to be alright with technology stuff, probably because I always treat computers and consoles like they're made of fragile single paned stunt glass. I'm learning advanced computing and shit, that stuff is bolted down to prevent breakages but I still hate having to mess around with the wires and stuff. I will turn my computer off before moving it out from under my desk ever so slightly to swap USBs for fucks sake.

I don't mind software issues sometimes. I'm one of those guys who secretly like it when you have to dick around in the game files to make some small indie game or Visual Novel work. Within reason of course, i'm not installing a Windows '97 emulator + fan translation wizard to make Touhou work for example. Anyway, one does not simply "get into" Touhou cuz that thing is so damn huge, there's like 14 bullet hell shooters and then some spin off fighting games at least.

Then there was that one game that, according to the guys who posted it, needed it to be extracted twice, once in WinRAR then again in Daemon Lite then you need a 360 controller plugged in to solve a frame rate issue? Lord, how badly could you mess up the optimisation?

 

[Vigormortis]

Welcome to my world.

Just yesterday at work it took me the first 30 minute of my shift just to find a working scanner, and I only needed it for a 10 minute operation. And even then, the damn thing kept resetting itself every 2 minutes.

My new digital watch just fried itself out the moment I put it on my wrist.

My secondary PC, the one I do music composition, audio editing, and general coding on, had it's CPU short out two days ago. Spectacularly so, as it managed to fry the board as well.

My car's tire-pressure monitoring system has a bug that's recently caused it to constantly flash the pressure warning light on my dash. And as a bonus, it conflicts with the engine temp monitor.

I recently discovered that my bank's online services will lock me out of my account after just one failed password attempt - even though it's supposed to do so after three such attempts - necessitating a call to their help center to get it unlocked.

I could keep rambling, but then this'll sound like a whiny sob story. (if it already doesn't) Honestly, this past month has been a nightmare of 'tech-gone-wrong' for me. It's to a point that becoming a Luddite doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I'm the type that generally researches anything I plan to do to my computers/phones extensively before even beginning, mostly because I don't want to explain to anyone how I broke my computer/phone but also because I enjoy researching ways to screw with technology. Sometimes I'll even do "test" runs if it is possible. For instance, the first time I flashed a new version of Android to my phone, I actually ran the command to flash it before it was even possible to do so just to make sure PATH variables were set right. As a result, I generally don't have too much trouble doing anything. That's not to say I never run into trouble, but I rarely run into a problem I didn't plan a backup for or know of a backup for.

That said, one major problem I had recently was that I needed to use a Windows-only program for one of my class projects. This is a problem for someone like me who only uses Mac and/or Linux. I refused to go to the computer lab, especially since it would always require re-installing the program, and the professor wasn't able to be reasoned with. Obviously, the first thing to do is try to get the program running with Wine, but it didn't function properly with Wine. It wouldn't even open on Mac and constantly crashed on Linux. I spent days trying to get it to work before finally just having to give up and download a copy of Windows 10 to run as a virtual machine. But as if that wasn't enough, a Windows 10 update during that period broke the program, so I had to re-install the original version I downloaded and cut it off from the internet to try to prevent updates.

At the very least, it gave me a chance to try Windows 10 before ever fully using it. It saved me from ever considering it.