Naahhhh. HW and SW is not the issue. CKI is always the root cause. ...and I should have said that to my manager when he "offered" me to be back at dealing with users issue instead of telling him that it was the job I did... 20 years ago. Astonishingly, he wondered if I took it as a regression.
Look at you, with your fancy new-fangled operating systems! Windows 8 is still supported for another 2 years and 10 months, no need to be in a big rush to move to the latest fad! /s (and I wish it could say Windows 8.1, but no, it is Windows 8.) I wish I could. I have used Linux to breathe some life back into older systems before, and for some systems that normal users never see, but I get push back, anytime someone with bill-paying power comes face to face with it.
My sister really dislikes change, often encouraged by our faither who also doesn't like change or adapting anything to modernity. I partially blame their desperate clutching to 90s-grade comedy where neophobia was all the rage: "The internet is a dumb idea!", "I can't get my printer to work!"etc et-fucking-c A result of this is that my sister refused the free upgrade to Windows 10 so now her PC is, basically, fucked. They then suggested that a great idea would be to get a new one from PCWorld - that would be easy and simple :) I was like,
As a matter of fact, free upgrade is still working (or at least last week it was for sure). Why don't you suggest then to go back to pencil and paper, VHS and such 90's marvels ?
I'll give the update a look - I thought that window had already closed a while back. The machine itself is a bit of a clanker anyway; I can't remember when they bought it. Funny you mention it, though - they do still use a VHS player.
You can dowload the W10 image, then unplug your ethernet and it should upgrade without checking if the deadline is over or not (as it can't contact the server to know). Once upgraded to W10, you can get back to the interwebs and activation should be done automatically. That's what I did and it worked like a charm. My own little WTF: every morning right before leaving home for work, I roll 2D6 to "forecast" my day - the higher the total is, the better the day is supposed to be. It's more like a funny ritual rather than an actual act of faith - but still. This morning, a friend of mine saw that and wanted to roll the Fate Dice too for the lulz too. I rolled a fucking 3 (:'(), he rolled like three or four 12's in a row. I told him he should stop, as the "rules" are: each new roll replaces the previous ones if it is worst and has no value if it is better. That dumbass told me "But I want to beat my 12!" and then proceed to roll another 12. Dude - WTF. Lucky idiot. I'm so jealous.
It's pretty much the equivalent of the magic 8 ball rule : " you can't ask twice the same question unless you change the phrasing to be more specific".
I got force-upgraded to Win10 from Win7 (because I saw how good the upgrade to Win8 was and didn't trust M$ to not fuck it up again), and then managed to drown that computer. Friend in IT hooked me up with a work-refurb with Ubuntu on it, something like 2 years ago. Maybe 3. I still don't like Linux, but it was a free computer.
I have mentioned my wife's parents and their god-damn dog, Biscuit, before - she's nuts and very poorly trained; they acted as if she was born 3 years old. They'd do dumb things like sit her down and try to have a conversation with her about how she's poorly behaved and needs to improve, like the hyperactive Labradoodle would undertand and, indeed, give a shit about anything they say. Well, they've found whole new ways to be weird with this dog! My wife does regularly go round to their house to discuss business, swap materials, or even just for a visit. Of course, wife does bring Shae-Konnit Baby with her , who is now 19 months old. She loves our dog, and wants to play with Biscuit as well. It must be noted that our dog is a French Bulldog, so there is a huge size difference between the two beasts. Shae-Konnit Baby reached out and grabbed Biscuit's face. Of course, Biscuit pulled away and Wife tried to keep the two separated, not least because Biscuit is so much bigger and heavier than Baby so her blundering gait could possibly hurt her by accident. The next day, Wife was talking on the phone with her mother and the big drama was that Biscuit was injured! How was she injured? By Baby grabbing her face the previous day! How did this injury manifest? Biscuit was having difficulty eating! With further questioning, "difficulty eating" actually meant "chewing her bone in a slightly different manner". Wife's parents already denounced our dog as "dangerous" but now, apparently, we also have a Dangerous Baby. Give it a week, and the story will morph into Shae-Konnit Baby trying to tear Biscuit's head off with her bare hands and it took 3 adults to pull her away.
That's what I said - they're being weird via the dog. I think the mother likes to think she's living a real-life soap opera, so injects convoluted drama wherever she can.
My wife once took her to one of those Softplay joints and she pulled a Grand Theft Auto on a girl driving one of those trundle-cars. She stopped the car, opened the door, pulled the girl out and drove off herself. Shae-Konnit Baby was 14 months old at the time. The other girl was 5 years.
While I'm on the subject, there was another GTA incident at home involving one of her toys. She had a toy parrot and a stroller with all these buttons on it to make it talk/sing songs. She threw the parrot on the floor, then rushed to get the stroller. She drove over the parrot and, looking down at its dented body, pushed the button on her stroller to make it say, "Hi, friend!"