Hello Frank,
The fix is: go out and buy a brand new PC, pre-assembled, pre-installed,
with a windows office package, such as word, excel etc. And don't even
think about being an expert. Just use it. Don't upgrade, don't do any
maintenance, don't defrag, don't be smart. Use it. After 4 years, ditch
the darn thing, including *everything* (including application software)
that came with it, and start all over again.
But you never tried that, did you?
That's pretty much what I am doing except for throwing them away after
four years. Why should I do that if they work as well as ever?
I buy a new one every 2-3 years or so and yes, they are pre-loaded with
everything except CAD, compilers and so on. My observation is that the
new ones are worse than the old ones in terms of stability :-(
I see that it now has spreaded to cars. In my neighbourhood most cars
are pretty new. Perhaps 3-4 years on average. I never see any tow trucks
here, expect once or twice for the damned Porsche that belongs to my
wife.
That may be because you live in NL with a pretty mild and even climate.
I know it can get cold there, having had to ride my bicycle from a pub
in Maastricht back to Vaals when it was -19C. But what gets cars and all
the fancy schmantzy electronics in them is continuous heat like we have
it here. Several weeks in a row at 40C and the inside of a car almost
glows. That's when we see the tow trucks. In Europe I was used to
batteries lasting 7-8 years. Here it's four, tops. And when that battery
fails it does so quite rapidly. With my car I am able to get home but
one with a few dozen micro controllers in there is a different story. It
may not even start, and forget about giving it a good push. Doing the
jumper cable thing might cause a barrage of relay clicks and a gazillion
dashboard lights to dazzle for one last time.
Regards, Joerg
