Macintosh Users - Do you ever have to wait for your computer to catch up with you?

Alright Don...

I wish I had been able to talk you into a Toshiba before you bought that HP. Moreover, I wish I had pointed you in the direction of EBay to have bought a used Toshiba Satellite A75. Sure... it's a 6 year old laptop. Sure, it still uses XP. But mine has a 3.33ghz processor and 1.5gb Ram... and for XP, that's plenty. It doesn't hang, or tell me it's not responding.. it does what I ask, and it does it fast.

Now. I don't know what specific machine you have there. I do recognize that Vista is a big part of the problem. Microsoft doesn't learn from their mistakes, and Vista is just another Millennium Edition.. a bloated, trouble magnet that only works if it is replaced with XP or Windows 7. The first piece of the problem you have is Vista.

The second piece of the problem, is that it is an HP. I know, some people sing the praises of HP to High Hosanna... but I can prove to you that HP builds 2 year machines. That means that they build machines they only expect to last for 2 years... they want you to replace them, and they want you to return to HP when you do, within 2 years. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&... Peruse that. It is a Limited Warranty Service Enhancement. Apparently HP made some large mistakes in the construction and design of the motherboards that went into a HUGE percentage of their DV2000, DV6000, and DV9000 product lines (as well as the Compaq V3000 and V6000 lines) An improper bonding substrate applied to the chipset chips that would fail after extended heat was applied to the board, causing the chips to fail. Note the large list of symptoms in that document. So... how did HP decide to handle this? With a Recall? Nope. They created this Limited Warranty Service Enhancement. If a person had one of the affected laptops, AND it exhibited the symptoms listed, AND the problems were being reported to HP within 2 years (24 months as per that document) of purchase... only THEN would HP repair the issue for free. If the laptop had the right model number, but developed one of the symptoms AFTER 24 months... well, the owner was responsible for paying for the repairs.... meaning that HP did not expect the laptop to last more than 2 years anyway, so they would only be responsible for their mistakes for 2 years.

System optimizer programs... they are really nothing more than scams. I don't mean infections wrapped up in nice looking packages... I mean scams. Is there optimization that can be done to make Vista more responsive? As I already pointed out... replacing it is one way to optimize it. Another way is to remove some of the visually beautiful aspects of Vista... which would make it look like Windows 2000. Windows Aero is one of the largest resource hogs in Vista. Other optimizations that would actually work are manual optimizations.... removing unnecessary programs from startup, shutting down other features of Vista, etc.

Now... this is not all talk to make you keep your computer. It might be a 1.6ghz, 1gb ram trouble magnet. And you can't really go wrong with a Mac. They are built to a higher standard of quality, they are made from better quality components.... they cost more because they are better made computers... in the way that a Mercedes cost more because it is a better made car than the rest. I just want you to be aware of the fact that there are good laptops out there that won't cost you $2000 (Ok, $999 for a Macbook).

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Earlier in the year I upgraded from an old Mac G4 powerbook to the latest 27" iMac (quad-core i5, 8Gb Ram, 1Tb Hard-Drive, HD-4850 graphics). My new Mac has never crashed or frozen in anyway. I don't use anti virus software at all. I have never had a virus on any Mac I have owned. I also have Windows XP professional installed on a Bootcamp partition. The funny thing is, Windows seems to be far more stable under Mac hardware than your typical PC box (like the ones I have to use at work). The only problem I have seen (which applies to PC boxes too) is that some of my old windows games don't like the hyperthreading of the core i5/i7 chips, but they still work under windows. On the Mac OS X side its not a problem at all. Snow Leopard automatically uses 64bit or 32bit as required (no reboot necessary) by programs. It does it on the fly. In case you were wondering - its fast - blazing fast. My 7 year old G4 powerbook would take 8 hours to convert a DVD to something suitable for my iPod touch . The new iMac does it in 45 mins flat (in H.264 no less). Is that fast enough for you?