The expensive computers break
So recently, I have been having a slew of issues with my computers. I have two; I have a laptop for small stuff, like maintaining this site. I also have a desktop for playing games and stuff. I invested some good money into these computers. The desktop has a Ryzen 3950, which I preordered, and a bunch of new super-fast SSDs. Then there is my laptop which is a Surface pro. The best part about the laptop is I managed to score a free upgrade to Windows 11. However, it is fun to think about how my current two computers have given me more problems in the past couple of years than my previous computer did over the course of its life.
My previous computer was first built around seven years ago. This is a computer that was hand-me-down parts. I have a friend who is very much into making computers, so he spends a ton of money on them. Sometimes he orders parts and then does not use them. So I get them as a gift. About 90% of that computer was just free parts from him. It ran smoothly and never once gave me any trouble, except for a minor fan issue. It was so nice. I could do whatever I wanted with this computer, and nothing happened. Then I got these two computers.
Let us start off with the desktop. Depending on the time of day, weather, and what combinations of programs I am using. Well, it will just run out of memory. I mean, I have 16 or so gigs of memory. I do not do much more than play games and stream anime on the computer. Yet it will just run out of memory. Sometimes multiple times in a row. Then other days, I can do lots of stuff that would have caused it to run out of memory on previous days, and it works just fine. So it makes doing other fun hobbies of mine hard because some of my capture tools do not do well when the computer just decides to crap itself.
Then there is my laptop. This is wonderful, too, because Windows is really bad at releasing updates. So now I have a surface that cannot use my USB mouse or keyboard, which makes doing stuff that I would need to do, like typing, REALLY hard on that computer. So I get to figure out how to use it when I can only do touch screen stuff, which is rather painful, especially since that is my work-from-home computer. So that is just going to be fun for me too. I guess the question is, am I patient enough to try and fix the USB issue myself, or do I pay someone to do it for me.
So yes, I have all this stuff and no time to do it. I guess I should be happy that both computers still technically work. However, I am not a huge fan of having to think like that. I guess I need to replace my motherboard on my desktop. That seems like the best course of action. All my tools say other hardware is fine. So I guess I will have to find some magical way to keep my sites up to date so that when my laptop is working again, I can quickly update my local version of this site.