Category: laptop

##[24]wife’s laptop #Z399

Posted on by tiger40490

Why so much cheaper than expected $1000+? See ##[24]delightful tech hav`+ve impact@%%personal life

— microsoft account.. To enable Office365, shop had to create a microsoft acccount zhanglihuizofia@outlook.com. They promised that we don’t need to re-enter password.

Based on what I see so far about microsoft account, I much prefer a local account. Shop said after Office365 expires in a year, we can stop using this microsoft account.

— disk hogs .. I have reduced total SSD usage to 44GB according to SSD”Properties” applet. I assume 70GB free storage is insufficient for wife. Shop suggested offline storage like USB drive.

I have removed many unnecessary bundled apps in front of the shop salespeople, but many of them returned.

— facts

  • Tradensync
  • Lenovo $399… named Z399?
  • 1Y official warranty
  • 15.6 inch display
  • 12 GB RAM, far more than the 4GB in L399
  • 128 GB SSD , but only 114G available.

Compared to the $450 model, this one has bigger screen, slower processor (IDC), 1Y MSff,

— wish list

  • #1 easier repair
  • .. shop warranty inferior though logistically easier
  • .. perhaps the L360 shop, if they don’t move out
  • .. extended warranty from official service center
  • windows and MSff pre-installed
  • weight
  • screen size .. can affect cost, weight
  • more than two UBS ports, on both sides
  • battery .. LG2. Typically 5H continuous usage

A95: issues #all-green

Posted on by tiger40490

k_all_green_dashboard

— current issues are all minor. Re the all-green blogpost, we don’t need to aim at all-green on this laptop.

  • calculator .. disappear after 1 sec. I have many alternatives like excel, simple applications
  • Brother printer driver ..
  • slow-start .. as boy complained.. tolerable for more than a year now.

See bpost on “all-green is unhealthy idealism”.

— J4 S$ 950, the highest price paid since the Prestigio linux laptop. My budget was SGD700

  1. big touch screen (1920×1080) for wfh
  2. brand new
    • 1Y warranty. No super-short runway to get all issues fixed
    • new battery
  3. — minor advantages, not really J4
  4. boy is able to use this laptop…
  5. fingerprint for frequent login .. highly appreciated at home where auto-lock is required. However, after 2 years I don’t rely on it so much. Wet fingers are too frequent.
  6. speaker louder
  7. lit-up keyboard — useful in dark settings
  8. volume buttons .. dedicated, easily accessible
  9. I could remote into office PC for blogging — combine faster network + touch screen + 15.6″ screen.
  10. old charger (barely) usable
  11. light weight

i have reason to feel lucky to get this acer$950. I wanted a big-screen touch-screen that works with my external monitors. I get what I want at a reasonable price. The 14″ version would cost me $700-$900.

However, beware of attachment and poisonous expectations. The new device may present various “issues”. If it meets my main goal, then let’s accept it with all the imperfections.

— Q: (introspective) among all the expectations/surprises, limitations,, what are the top 3 factors to my /satisfaction/?

  1. tcost including the problem investigation, phone support. If this laptop falls below my basic expectation, then all the tcost (and mental energy spent) goes down the drain
    • some examples are windowsUpdate, sleep, screen-saver …
    • in contrast, $cost is a much smaller factor as SGD 1k is a small amount
  2. big touch screen usability for remote working — including hdmi-vga converter. See T1.
  3. screen protector
  4. phone support, available only to new devices.

— other details: bought after circuit breaker on 2 Jun 2020, from Dean of Laptops.sg 6252 6471

SNID 8340 134 2266

name: Acer950, *Acer95 Acer156

##disk-hogs]win #landGrab

Posted on by tiger40490

laptop disk usage tweakig with landgrab, treeFreeSize ,,,
Comparable to rug-sorting in my Bejing 610 home?
may not be necessary, but I find it enjoyable

It is more relevant in small, cheap laptops

The analysis gives me insight and confidence when facing disk shortage

k_ctbz,,,,, k_disk_hog

See also

With the techniques in this blogpost, 32GB disk proved sufficient

  • 32GB disk with 30.10 x 109 bytes
  • 18.5GB land-grab with 19.97 x 109 bytes
  • 10GB actually used and I can’t make do with less
  • Git+strawberrPerl+python,
  • no chrome no MSOFFice

— C:\ProgramFiles\WindowsApps: 4GB. See to delete stubborn WindowsApps folders
— c:\windows\serviceProfiles: 4GB. Somehow resolved, perhaps by builtin StorageSettings screen
— c:\recovery. Unsafe to delete. See https://superuser.com/questions/1517095/deleted-usmt-ppkg-nothing-works-anymore-windows-10
— c:\windows\software_distribution\download ? safe to delete
Was 300MB on Day 1 but grew to 8GB on Day 2

— c:\windows.old and $WINDOWS.~BT .. I feel I have never needed to go back to previous install of windows
Safest way to delete windows.old is via Settings -> Storage -> TemporaryFiles.

I see no need to delete this static folder. It is similar to my landGrab files.
— WindowsApps folder ? not worth optimizing. Quite risky.
— c:\windows\winSxS ? See tips in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder
— C:\hiberfil.sys? safe to get rid of, using the command found on google
— c:\pagefile.sys + swapfile.sys? Safe to delete but may hurt performance. These are considered virtual memory files

  • set too small, and it could cause instability, but it’s crucial to experiment and find out how bad. In 2020 I let it automatically shrink to 200MB, and experienced browser crashes only one the a95, never on the acer299.
  • set too big, and it could lead to winUp on rampage. So I don’t want the initial size vs max size to differ
  • Given 8GB RAM, Online recommendations range from 1.25 GB to 12GB, but the win10 system recommends [on the virtual memory screen] 1900MB

 

printer + tiny laptop: capture commute time #blackberry

Posted on by tiger40490

— converters of train-commute minutes (otherwise lost) : 2 peak-efficiency converters, and some minor converters

  1. laptop
    1. coding drill
    2. git blogg
  2. hardcopy
    1. printed blog, webpage or work content
    2. printed publications
  3. reading company emails on blackberry … (responding is harder) Can be efficient when clearing a long unread list.

— printer: Worthwhile if used once a month.

Sugg: buy and hold. Don’t set up until needed.

emc? Yes I will make room for it.

— laptop:

#1) 80% of the benefit and 90% of the pain relief  is — commute time wasted. On some days I have so much to do and so little time. With a tiny laptop, 1-2 days each month I hope to do some coding practice sitting on train. Ideally catch early trains.

Budget — $400 to reduce the pain. However, if I don’t use it much it would feel bad to spend so much.

Requirements — light; Battery is LG2

Secondary benefits:

  1. flight
  2. bring to workout — Stadium / exercise park / gym … I could also bring my regular laptop, but watch out for theft and handle-with-care.
  3. bring to laundromat

laptop-batt lifespan #overnight

Posted on by tiger40490

— laptop configuration for battery health:
* rapid charge can reduce battery lifespan
* Conservation Mode is “useful to extend the lifespan of your battery when plugged. When this mode is enabled, the battery will only be charged to 55-60%”. In conservation mode, perhpas I can connect my charger all day? Well, I guess it’s good habit to unplug charger once a while.

— depletion .. Contrary to some recommendations, you don’t need to routinely discharge a lithium-ion battery completely and then recharge it to somehow reboot or calibrate it – this is a destructive practice that’s very hard on your battery.  Whether or not it’s a smart idea to perform a complete discharge a couple of times a year remains an unanswered question. There are many types of batteries. I choose to heed the advice from the battery manufacturer.

Almost-depletion .. Generally, the consensus seems to be that letting your battery discharge (without bottoming out — aim for around 20 percent) and then charge it when possible is the best practice.

— overnight .. there was a time when users were advised to refrain from keeping their devices plugged in. Today, however, modern devices are designed to stop charging at 100 percent and thus keeping them plugged in doesn’t impact the battery’s lifespan, according to Battery University.  However, A95 battery became “bloated” due to overnight charging. LED lamp says “avoid overnight” too.

— long term storage (of laptop).. If you’re going to store your laptop for an extended time without using it, then discharge or charge it to 50 percent before putting it away. I think many batteries nowadays are shipped in this condition, and warehoused for months.

L399 #appreciation-day

Posted on by tiger40490

See also portable install

According to the shop, win11 winUp has a “bug” — screen goes completely off before the windows login screen.

— MSOffice ..
Sugg: bring to Rajaraja Computer to have MSOffice installed, before the company closes.

1Y MSOffice subscription to be activated by sign-in to Microsoft account. I will activate it many years later. Meanwhile, it will occupy gigabytes of storage .. pre-installed. Key assumption: once I activate, this MSOffice will be completely unusable after 12M, forcing me to find an alternative. Even if this is not a /certainty/, it is very likely (like 80%).

— j4 $399

  • 2022 Christmas gift to boy upgrading from Aspire to A950.
  • ( At the same time, I will downgrade from A950 to this one in cockpit1 or cockpit5.)
  • A95 is heavy and expensive, so I don’t want to move it from room to room, or carry it to office.

— Today is the Appreciation Day, to counter self-hate linked to gadgets. In a bad mood, I tend to perceive L399 buy as a waste of money.  Some positives about L399:

  • shop is big and accessible (Simlim), rather than remote, or online-only. The generous RajaRaja computer is nearby.
  • usability .. win11 is somewhat similar to win10, not as “alien” as feared
  • touchpad, keyboard layout, speaker .. all functional without usability showstoppers
  • motherboard, screen, wifi .. brand-new. No worry about sudden failures
  • the modest price tag matters actually. When something breaks, the  level of guilt/pressure/despair/ is proportional to the $cost, not so much the tcost!
  • win11 was a terrifying monster. This purchase gave me an up-close view
  • cockpit5 .. only after the L399 purchase did I set up cockpit5. It proved useful.
  • battery .. lasting longer than HP71, A95,,,, There is a battery charging threshold. See https://support.lenovo.com/eg/en/solutions/ht078208-how-can-i-increase-battery-life-thinkpad-and-lenovo-vbke-series-notebooks

Q: why do I spend so much time and energy on this /lengthy/ introspection? Does this L399 deserve so much?
A: Actually, this is one of many self-hate agents. Device requires lots of installation effort, but the real heavy part is … setbacks. FHR [forward hazard rate] is high with any “new” laptop.

If you want to set it up as a workhorse laptop, then better use it more during the first 3M.

— trick: Fn+FnLock key to toggle “hot function key mode”.
eg: You want to hit F1 key alone — without the “Fn” key — to mute all.

longRest.. tempRecovery in laptops

Posted on by tiger40490

Periodically, we had better bring out each laptop (also spectacles) to use for a while. This sentence is vague until I point out 1) oxidation and 2) longRest->recovery.

More than one laptop has shown “longRest->recovery”.
I had to power down for many days to get a few hours (or longer) recovery from a defect.

This pattern has many implications.

A slightly defective laptop (eg: A299) can be used in place of a new laptop to prolong the latter’s shelf life.

all-green @a computer: unhealthy idealism

Posted on by tiger40490

 

k_detach .. k_all_green_dashboard

Genesis .. BigBrother was a system monitoring tool I used in 2001-2003. I remember it says if any system component has an issue, you will see some red or amber . If you find yourself in a sea of green then you are very lucky, but it probably won’t last forever. Similarly, we should feel lucky-for-now if any laptop is all-green

  • no serious windows/MSOffice activation issue
  • no browser crash
  • wifi stable
  • printing OK

Detach .. Don’t develop an unhealthy dependency on all-green. It can disappear any time. Like perfection, all-green is not as important as it appears. In fact, all-green could develop into all-deep-green, a unhealthy obsession with minor imperfections.

— wear-n-tear .. a new laptop can progressively lose the all-green.  For example, A95 hit “slow-start” .. see A95: issues #all-green

Trying hard to eliminate any of the above [like demanding a 1-minute start-up ] is unhealthy idealism, even if it is achievable. After trying for a while, I choose to give up and allocate my time to bigger battles.

— pre-owned .. Some pre-owned laptops have delivered all-green service for quite a while, such as the $120 CashConverter and the $250 Dell

— j4 multiple laptops .. Since all-green is rare, having multiple machines would increase the chance of having at least one all-green when needed.
— J4 low-cost laptops .. When a laptop starts giving too many headaches, I would simply buy another (pre-owned?) laptop and enjoy an all-green honeymoon.

jolt: even with an expensive laptop 3 times the price, its all-green honeymoon won’t last 3 times longer.

— current all-green laptops:
* HP71
* L360

 

## pre-owned laptops%%xp

Posted on by tiger40490

J4 using 3 laptops concurrently at home:
keep every laptop actively maintained and monitored, so they don’t come out of “warehouse” damaged by disuse
get used to no-touchscreen.
get a concrete feel of how fast a 2023 entry-level laptop can be.
try out Win11 in various usage scenarios

“Pre-owned laptops%%xp”

I guess I would stop buying pre-owned laptops from now on, due to

  • higher cash position
  • experienceS of higher risk

Pattern inferred based on roughly 7 experiences. Each machine has 5Y average lifespan before giving big or small problems. Even though reseller would polish it up on the exterior, the internal components are still nearing EndOfLife.

Tip: we never know what problems it had before, in hard disk, or motherboard, or screen,
Tip: never buy a pre-owned laptop and leave it unused for years.
Tip: never pay more than $200 for a pre-owned, as it could fail within 3M.
tip: better power up each unit at least once a week, otherwise oxidization would ruin it
Tip: regular laptops are designed for 8 hours of usage.

— long-service awards across pre-owned and brand-new laptops

  • two Toshiba (2006, and $2009) are both long-lasting. Had problem after 5+ years
  • wife’s $700 acer Aspire bought in 2011 – had minor problem with keyboard in 2015/2016 after 5+ years. Also improved battery, RAM and glue… See 16 Aug mail.
  • HP$499: bought in 2015, used many years in SG and during c++us
  • Dell250: see below
  • HP71 .. bought July 2021
  • A95: bought new from LaptopSG in Jun 2020 right after first lockdown.
  • — hopefully long-service:
  • L399 .. bought new as 2022 X’mas gift

–S$120 acer  netbook from cash converter? keyboard fixed; OS was in Chinese so needed a reinstall; replacement battery good lifespan
—S$250 dell bought in mid 2016, including 10M warranty.

  1. Down within a few months.
  2. Had problems with the additional RAM.. removed
  3. Then it started freezing up in the middle of browsing or file editing. Recovered
  4. In Jul 2018, win-key mysteriously stopped working, but recovered in Aug 2018 … 2021 good
  5. As of Jul 2021, the only minor issue is – when I reopen the lid, mouse would freeze so I need to make it sleep->wake again. 8 out of 8 times mouse always recovered.

Overall, this is the best experience among my pre-owned laptops. I should trust the Simlim shop who said it would last at least 1 year.
— Above are the two good pre-owned laptops. Below are the other pre-owned:
$99 IBM T40? broken within a few months
$350 HP mobile workstation? Broken within a year. Too expensive
$180 IBM bulky one? GM used for a while. Can’t remember what went wrong.
$500 + $500 Two identical Acer small laptops including one from Wenqiang. After some years both went bad.