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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2019 12:11:28 GMT
I think I have been appointed tech support for my neighbour upstairs, eve since the tech guy from town 'fixed' her system by wiping the drive and changing the OS it has been 'slow' and freezes up.
Any advice on action apart from go to another tech guy in town?
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Post by ChrisM on Jun 4, 2019 12:42:59 GMT
How old is the hardware? Is it a laptop/airbook or a desktop?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2019 12:57:38 GMT
A laptop, about eight or nine years old. It might not be up to running the latest OS, possibly.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Jun 4, 2019 13:15:39 GMT
I'm no expert but it sounds like it needs some extra RAM. With ordinary laptops it's cheap and easy to fit but I don't know about Macs. Apple never like to make it easy.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2019 14:59:17 GMT
I have no idea how to check the ram fitted to a mac tbh, pc easy as but a mac.........
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Post by LandieMark on Jun 4, 2019 15:10:49 GMT
If you click the apple in the left top corner and then "About" it will tell you the specs. My late 2008 Macbook became fairly useless with the last couple of OS X versions installed, despite having the maximum RAM installed and a SSD to replace the mechanical HDD.
I am back on a PC as I got sick of Apple's "upgrades".
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Post by Boxer6 on Jun 4, 2019 15:12:04 GMT
I have no idea how to check the ram fitted to a mac tbh, pc easy as but a mac......... Can't remember exactly where it is, but I'll check and let you know when I get home. Somewhere in the Apple logo top-left I think, then preferences or settings. Not certain though. |
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Post by Boxer6 on Jun 4, 2019 15:12:50 GMT
If you click the apple in the left top corner and then "About" it will tell you the specs. My late 2008 Macbook became fairly useless with the last couple of OS X versions installed, despite having the maximum RAM installed and a SSD to replace the mechanical HDD. I am back on a PC as I got sick of Apple's "upgrades". I have no idea how to check the ram fitted to a mac tbh, pc easy as but a mac......... Can't remember exactly where it is, but I'll check and let you know when I get home. Somewhere in the Apple logo top-left I think, then preferences or settings. Not certain though. There you go - I was nearly right .. .. .. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2019 16:01:24 GMT
Right, she has 4gb of RAM and about 75% of the HDD free but the thing is very slow so I can only guess this means she has shed loads of temp files.
Apart from buying more software I cannot think of anything that will clear out the sort of bloat these things get. I am thinking perhaps there are too many calls to system memory but with 4GB she should be OK. Is there a HDD cleanup/sort facility within the OS, like that in Windoze?
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Post by ChrisM on Jun 4, 2019 16:50:43 GMT
8 or 9 years old laptop...... in my experience laptops slow down with age anyway, and if the local techy did a re-install it should be working as fast as possible unless he didn't do a great job. There is a way to do a sort of re-install because we had a serious issue when my elder daughter had her Macbook for her 1-year foundation course about 7 or 8 years ago when it was almost new - installed a printer driver and it would not boot up properly
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Jun 4, 2019 17:17:49 GMT
Right, she has 4gb of RAM and about 75% of the HDD free but the thing is very slow so I can only guess this means she has shed loads of temp files. Apart from buying more software I cannot think of anything that will clear out the sort of bloat these things get. I am thinking perhaps there are too many calls to system memory but with 4GB she should be OK. Is there a HDD cleanup/sort facility within the OS, like that in Windoze? 4 gig is a bit low. I would add another 4. |
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Post by Ben on Jun 4, 2019 17:24:37 GMT
Right, she has 4gb of RAM and about 75% of the HDD free but the thing is very slow so I can only guess this means she has shed loads of temp files. Apart from buying more software I cannot think of anything that will clear out the sort of bloat these things get. I am thinking perhaps there are too many calls to system memory but with 4GB she should be OK. Is there a HDD cleanup/sort facility within the OS, like that in Windoze? Given today's software requirements 4GB is a bit low. My own MacBook Air is on 8GB RAM and even sometimes it's not quite enough (mostly when gaming though). |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2019 18:21:42 GMT
Thanks folks.
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Post by Big Blue on Jun 4, 2019 22:28:26 GMT
I am back on a PC as I got sick of Apple's "upgrades". Yeah because Windows 10 and O365 are never pushing upgrades every minute.....  I reckon I get an O365 update twice a week on my MacBook. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2019 0:22:01 GMT
They have to do something to make us buy new software every year where would the profits go if we actually used the same software for two years or more? Latest scam is monthly subscriptions which is basically saying, "Here's my bank account please rape it".
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Post by LandieMark on Jun 5, 2019 6:09:37 GMT
I am back on a PC as I got sick of Apple's "upgrades". Yeah because Windows 10 and O365 are never pushing upgrades every minute..... I reckon I get an O365 update twice a week on my MacBook. What I meant was the computer I bought which worked fine, got worse with each update. Clean install of OSX made no difference. When it got to the stage that it beach balled with every track pad click and the keyboard lag was in to the 10 second or so range, something is wrong. I don't think the hardware is what it once was and certainly not worth the money any more. The Dell I bought refurbished was £300 and is a pleasure to use compared to my old Mac. Relearning Windows was a minor pain. It's a shame, but my experience in the last couple of years hasn't been great and the amount of times I ended up wanting to punt it out of the window was ridiculous. |
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Post by PG on Jun 5, 2019 20:49:04 GMT
I would say that regardless of the RAM, a Mac of that age will never run the latest OS. It's called forcing you to upgrade. Mrs PG's previous Mac ran like a bastard on the newest OS even with 8MB of RAM as I upgraded it (and that was 2 years ago). And then the fan blow up and could not be replaced. It's called forcing you to upgrade.....
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Post by LandieMark on Jun 5, 2019 21:25:36 GMT
I bought a Mac Mini last year and it is virtually unusable. Expensive mistake.
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Post by Big Blue on Jun 6, 2019 18:52:43 GMT
Maybe there is an element of forced upgrade but my old MacBook Air was 8 years old when it failed. At about £100 a year that’s not bad. I spend that in Caffè Nero every 6 weeks then piss the results down the toilet.
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Post by LandieMark on Jun 6, 2019 20:31:43 GMT
Don't get me wrong. My old Macbook lasted well. I was less happy with my iMac and the mini was a complete mistake.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2019 9:59:19 GMT
Can anyone suggest a product that the elderly neighbour can acquire reasonably cheaply to use email function and perhaps restart writing books again? Not likely to be heavy use but either way she goes with this macbook it is likely to be expensive and not a guaranteed result. She basically has little self confidence having been caught out three times by con merchants, one of them a computer tech.
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Post by ChrisM on Jun 7, 2019 12:25:57 GMT
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Post by clunes on Jun 8, 2019 8:23:49 GMT
For cheap, secure and simple I’d be tempted to go to a Chromebook.
Get an office online subscription for basic writing needs etc.
Simple, no locally stored data to worry about, no viruses etc
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2019 9:49:28 GMT
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll pass them along.
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Post by ChrisM on Jun 8, 2019 10:23:11 GMT
Depends on whether or not your neighbour is happy with a device that has almost no local storage and does not mind using The Cloud
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2019 10:46:34 GMT
That is a sticking point what with confidence being quite low. The chromebooks look a little small screen wise but making a decision may take a while, dithering is an understatement but considering how she was conned not a surprise. She is also considering getting shot of her car too a Clio so despite being a diesel it should be reasonably easy to move on. When she actually makes a decision.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Jun 8, 2019 16:01:58 GMT
If it's for writing has she considered an A4 lined notebook? No software issues, no hacking, no viruses, etc.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2019 18:21:11 GMT
But completely useless for checking emails. Very funny though.
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