Microsoft woes. Again.

[estepheia]

Microsoft sucks!
A while ago I was complaining that my laptop shut down during extended periods of using MS Word. I pinpointed the problem to cut & and paste and the use of the 'track changes' function. Upon loading a doc with tracked changes or upon cutting and pasting (or even just marking) large portions of text, the laptop's fan would fire up noisily, and sometimes the computer would shut off. So I downloaded and installed all the recommended Office service packs. And things got worse.

So, new improved laptop. Well, hubby's old one. As quiet as can be. No excessive fan noises. While hunting for an English dictionary for Word I fell prey to MS's assurances that I need the service patches for security reasons. So, thinking that the problems with the other laptop were hardware related, I downloaded the patches and service updates and whatnot. And now?

The frigging thing turns itself off under exactly the same circumstances that the old one couldn't handle. Something makes the damn thing hot and it shuts down. But for crying out loud, all I'm doing is editing a Word document. Nothing else. I'm not even playing music. Argh!

So, if anyone knows a patch that fixes Windows XP or Word or whatever, could you please let me know? I want my laptop to be cool and silent and reliable. Really, is that too much to ask?

Comments

[drc1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I heard (or rather read) about problems after installing MS's latest security patch so I didn't install it. It should be possible to uninstall it, though (Systemsteuerung -- Software). If so, I hope it helps.:-)

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

A friend found another patch that I hadn't installed yet. It seems better now. *crosses fingers*

[rachelmap.livejournal.com]

So, if anyone knows a patch that fixes Windows XP or Word or whatever, could you please let me know?

The best solution I found was to switch to Linux (Mandrake 10.1, in my case) and OpenOffice 1.1.4. The benefits to me have been many.
1) My intallation of Windows had gotten so unstable that it used to crash 3 ~ 5 times a day. It doesn't crash any more. (Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Billy-Boy.)
2) The new OS was free. (Note: some distros aren't; Red Hat's, for example.)
3) It was actually no more difficult to install and set up than Windows.
4) I don't have to worry about viruses and malware nearly as much now.
5) I am no longer supporting Bill Gates' evil empire with it's draconian EULA and it's huge donations to the stupid politicians who are in power in the USA today, and it's monopolistic trade practices, and it's over-charging for a crappy, bug-ridden, virus-prone product... Bitter? Who, me?

There are many versions of Linux. Some work better in some situations than others. One version you could try out easily without actually doing anything to your computer is Knoppix. From http://www.knoppix.org/ :
KNOPPIX ist eine komplett von CD lauffähige Zusammenstellung von GNU/Linux-Software mit automatischer Hardwareerkennung und Unterstützung für viele Grafikkarten, Soundkarten, SCSI- und USB-Geräte und sonstige Peripherie. KNOPPIX kann als Linux-Demo, Schulungs-CD, Rescue-System oder als Plattform für kommerzielle Software-Produktdemos angepasst und eingesetzt werden. Es ist keinerlei Installation auf Festplatte notwendig. Auf der CD können durch transparente Dekompression bis zu 2 Gigabyte an lauffähiger Software installiert sein.

It's so cool. I always carry a disk with me in case I have to work on unsecured Windows computers.

About the fan, that may be Windows causing that, but it may also be a coincidental mechanical problem due either to poor design or construction, or it may also be that your fan is out of alignment. If you try running Knoppix and it still does that, I'd certainly consider getting it checked out, if I were you. As you've said, computers are prone to erratic behavior when they overheat.

[rachelmap.livejournal.com]

Ummm. Oops.
KNOPPIX is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it.

Sorry about that.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

LOL. I can read the German, because, hey, I *am* German. *chuckles*

Thank you, my husband keeps saying Linux Linux Linux, but I'm so used to my shortcuts and macros and everything, I really don't want to switch TOS. I know that makes me embarrassingly conservative. On the other hand, if enough people repeatedly bug me, I may eventually do it. :-)

Thank you so much for your help and suggestions. I will certainly keep them in mind. :-)

[shatten.livejournal.com]

Linux: Good for geeks, but still work in progress.

I've looked at it and its not the end of the rainbow and seemed to be missing many features of XP and Word XP that I would not like to do without.

Still, I had a play with it here, just to see what all the fuss was about and to be honest it crashed out more than my computer XP does, but then I don't find XP a problem... 98se and ME yeah, horrible, and Win2K was really unfriendly, but XP, that seems to be the OS that MS got right.

The problem I had with linux is that its terribly difficult to do simple things - such as sharing a network drive. And there was a clear lack of wizards.

Other than that, the free-days of Linux must come to an end and someone must buy the kernal and develop it comericaly for it to even think about taking on MS. Until then, it will remain a minority sport IMHO.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine noticed that I had downloaded many but not all necessary updates. He fixed that. Since then the program has been running stable. Thank god.

I hope you have agreat time in Vegas!

*is green with envy*

Do you at least get to see a few shows?