Lenovo is really crap
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@TimeBandit
But at least there is Only One to kinda work
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@Luhmann said in Lenovo is really crap:
But at least there is Only One to kinda work
You speak like a married man
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I recently got a new laptop at work because the old one's warranty expired. It's a T480s. Overall it seems decent but I fucking hate what they did with docks.
Before this generation you got an actual docking station that you just put your laptop in from above, it clicked, and everything Just Worked. Now you get a brick with some ports that you have to connect to your laptop with a USB3/Thunderbolt cable like some kind of neanderthal. The dock also has a sleep button on it for reasons I'm not nearly drunk to comprehend.
By the way, charging your laptop from a small USB port feels weird, and I wonder how many days it will take for that thin, tiny connector to wear out so bad it becomes impossible to keep it in when the laptop moves at all, like microUSB did on every phone I've ever owned. I predict a great deal of anger in my near future.
The best part about it though is that when I first got it, the dock did not work. I plugged everything in and all that happened is the laptop started charging and all the lock status LEDs on my external keyboard lit up and couldn't be turned off. None of the peripherals, input or output, worked. Turns out, the docking station needed a firmware upgrade. What the FUCK.
I do like the integrated webcam cover though, it's a nice touch.
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@blek said in Lenovo is really crap:
By the way, charging your laptop from a small USB port feels weird, and I wonder how many days it will take for that thin, tiny connector to wear out so bad it becomes impossible to keep it in when the laptop moves at all, like microUSB did on every phone I've ever owned. I predict a great deal of anger in my near future.
If it's USB-C then apparently it lasts a lot longer than micro USB
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@blek said in Lenovo is really crap:
I recently got a new laptop at work because the old one's warranty expired. It's a T480s. Overall it seems decent but I fucking hate what they did with docks.
Before this generation you got an actual docking station that you just put your laptop in from above, it clicked, and everything Just Worked. Now you get a brick with some ports that you have to connect to your laptop with a USB3/Thunderbolt cable like some kind of neanderthal. The dock also has a sleep button on it for reasons I'm not nearly drunk to comprehend.
I have T470 and normal docking station, whew!
It's a fine machine, I like it very much.
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@MrL Yeah, that was the last generation they had normal docks for. The X series have been suffering this fuckery for years though.
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@blek said in Lenovo is really crap:
@MrL Yeah, that was the last generation they had normal docks for. The X series have been suffering this fuckery for years though.
I've seen those around the office, thought people requested this instead of normal docking station and couldn't understand why.
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@hungrier It is, yeah. I also heard it's not as bad, but given that microUSB was a total abortion of a connector and this looks almost the same, just symmetrical, I'm not very hopeful. I'll make sure to post an angry rant when it starts getting loose.
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@blek said in Lenovo is really crap:
microUSB was a total abortion of a connector and this looks almost the same, just symmetrical
The USB-C connector is very much like what you get when you actually learn from the mistakes of microUSB. So of course there's now a new connector being brought into the USB fold to muddy the waters again!
I used to have a phone that used a USB-C connector. That was nice, but the phone had bulging battery syndromeβ¦
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@dkf said in Lenovo is really crap:
The USB-C connector is very much like what you get when you actually learn from the mistakes of microUSB.
Yup. Rather than having to turn it over at least two times before it fits, it always fits the first time.
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@PleegWat said in Lenovo is really crap:
@dkf said in Lenovo is really crap:
The USB-C connector is very much like what you get when you actually learn from the mistakes of microUSB.
Yup. Rather than having to turn it over at least two times before it fits, it always fits the first time.
It's occasionally handy to be able to plug the charger into either side of my laptop too.
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@blek I had blissfully forgotten what topic I was in until I saw that yellow connector. God fucking dammit. My computer had a port exactly like it, then one day a cat stepped on the plug and the square bit in the middle just broke clean off. Replacing it would have been, again, expensive, so until it finally died I ended up just bending the pins with tweezers every time they started to go out of alignment.
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@levicki Huh. That sounds kinda dumb but kinda badass at the same time. I could walk up to my desk, plop down the laptop and go "Full warp confirmed, captain!" while pulling the lever. Hmmmmmm.
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@blek said in Lenovo is really crap:
@MrL Yeah, that was the last generation they had normal docks for. The X series have been suffering this fuckery for years though.
After my experience with those things at work, I affectionately now call them the "Box of Horrors." I'm sure you can work out just how positive my experience was.
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@Cursorkeys said in Lenovo is really crap:
Yep, my personal preference is HP ProBooks, but our little fleet of ThinkPads has been fairly trouble free.
Generally I've been very anti HP, mainly because I've had nightmare experiences with their support here in Australia and mainly having had to deal with the cheap crap they churn out, but at my new job they have pretty much HP everything, so I got an Elitebook 840 G5.
All things considered, it's actually not a bad laptop, the keyboard is nice, the screen is only full HD but it's a nice full HD screen and the clickpad is tolerable - not that I use these much, it usually sits plugged into two screens on my desk.
About the only complaint is that HP still insist upon loading a heap of crap on it most of which I doubt anyone uses so that all came off very quick. So apparently, if HP put their mind to it, they can design something decent.
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@blek said in Lenovo is really crap:
By the way, charging your laptop from a small USB port feels weird, and I wonder how many days it will take for that thin, tiny connector to wear out so bad it becomes impossible to keep it in when the laptop moves at all, like microUSB did on every phone I've ever owned. I predict a great deal of anger in my near future.
I've heard really good things.
My personal experience: So long as it gets fully in, you should be golden. If it doesn't, magic can happen...
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@Douglasac said in Lenovo is really crap:
the screen is only full HD
I know I've said this before but from my experience this is actually a blessing. I have a 4k laptop at work and I really wish I didn't. Sure, it looks pretty at first when used in isolation but the moment you start plugging anything external into it (which tends to not be 4k), you're in trouble...
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@Douglasac said in Lenovo is really crap:
HP still insist upon loading a heap of crap on it most of which I doubt anyone uses
Honest question: is there any manufacturer that doesn't? The amount of garbage that comes with laptops is out of control. I tend to just wipe everything and put clean Windows on it. That way I
don't have to deal with any of this craponly have to uninstall Candy Crush Saga.
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@Deadfast said in Lenovo is really crap:
Honest question: is there any manufacturer that doesn't?
Lenovo put on their Vantage app and the drivers on their Thinkpads\Thinkcentres. Being a UWP app, Vantage can be removed quickly but it does all the Lenovo specific controls e.g. F key behaviour, system updates etc.
Depending on the model, I believe Dell put on three apps (edit: I believe Power Manager, Command Update and Supportassist), drivers and a shortcut for bonus dropbox space on the desktop. (It's been a while since I've dealt with a fresh from box Dell, but the were pretty light on and I don't believe this has changed much)
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@Deadfast said in Lenovo is really crap:
@Douglasac said in Lenovo is really crap:
the screen is only full HD
I know I've said this before but from my experience this is actually a blessing. I have a 4k laptop at work and I really wish I didn't. Sure, it looks pretty at first when used in isolation but the moment you start plugging anything external into it (which tends to not be 4k), you're in trouble...
At my work it's the opposite. We have laptops with 1080p screens, and 4K TVs in the board rooms. But FWIW, between Lenovo and Windows 10 it mostly works once you fiddle the settings.
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Also, we have normal docks, but unlike the old docks from our previous laptops, they don't have enough DVI ports
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@TimeBandit said in Lenovo is really crap:
Linux Laptops
Those come with systemd so it still doesn't count!
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@Deadfast said in Lenovo is really crap:
Those come with systemd
My work desktop is running Debian 9 without systemd.
How do you achieve that?
Install Debian 7, then upgrade to 8 then 9
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@levicki said in Lenovo is really crap:
Such as?
I could list them but
http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Arguments_against_systemd
I maintain multiple Debian Stretch installs and I haven't had any problems with it
Yet
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@TimeBandit said in Lenovo is really crap:
@levicki said in Lenovo is really crap:
I maintain multiple Debian Stretch installs and I haven't had any problems with it
Yet
Maybe he lives on Earth-73 with @pie_flavor.
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@blek said in Lenovo is really crap:
@hungrier It is, yeah. I also heard it's not as bad, but given that microUSB was a total abortion of a connector and this looks almost the same, just symmetrical, I'm not very hopeful. I'll make sure to post an angry rant when it starts getting loose.
I've had a computer with USB-C charging for a couple of years, and it's still as firm as it was when new. The port that is. The laptop is a bit banged up now, the metal case having bent corners and stuff.
I actually like having a USB-C dock since it means I can shove the computer somewhere out of the way, unlike the docks where you plonk the computer in and lock it flat on the desk. That takes up way too much desktop real estate for my taste.
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@TimeBandit said in Lenovo is really crap:
@dcon said in Lenovo is really crap:
I thought they had about 50 of them?
Not quite 50 but you have lots of choices
- bash
- dash
- tcsh
- ksh
- zsh
- sh
- csh
- ash
- scsh
- mksh
- psh
etc
Back when I was at AT&T, there was a surly-shell. Don't remember much about it - but it was surly.
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@Deadfast said in Lenovo is really crap:
@Douglasac said in Lenovo is really crap:
the screen is only full HD
I have a 4k laptop at work and I really wish I didn't.
@hungrier said in Lenovo is really crap:
At my work it's the opposite. We have laptops with 1080p screens, and 4K TVs in the board rooms.
My lenovo is 1366x768
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@sockpuppet7 said in Lenovo is really crap:
My lenovo is 1366x768
Fits perfectly with the title of the thread
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@sockpuppet7 said in Lenovo is really crap:
@Deadfast said in Lenovo is really crap:
@Douglasac said in Lenovo is really crap:
the screen is only full HD
I have a 4k laptop at work and I really wish I didn't.
@hungrier said in Lenovo is really crap:
At my work it's the opposite. We have laptops with 1080p screens, and 4K TVs in the board rooms.
My lenovo is 1366x768
Are you sure your laptop isn't a phone from five years ago
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@hungrier said in Lenovo is really crap:
Are you sure your laptop isn't a phone from five years ago
Most cheap laptops still have a screen like that
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@hungrier said in Lenovo is really crap:
@sockpuppet7 said in Lenovo is really crap:
@Deadfast said in Lenovo is really crap:
@Douglasac said in Lenovo is really crap:
the screen is only full HD
I have a 4k laptop at work and I really wish I didn't.
@hungrier said in Lenovo is really crap:
At my work it's the opposite. We have laptops with 1080p screens, and 4K TVs in the board rooms.
My lenovo is 1366x768
Are you sure your laptop isn't a phone from five years ago
My phone from 3 years ago is full hd. That's the difference when you buy something for yourself and when someone in a suit buy something for other people to use.
My home notebook is also 1366x768, but it is older than 5 years. It's from a time when having a bluray drive was cool.
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@sockpuppet7 said in Lenovo is really crap:
having a bluray drive was cool.
I backed up the family photos on two discs as the secondary local backup.
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@TimeBandit said in Lenovo is really crap:
@hungrier said in Lenovo is really crap:
Are you sure your laptop isn't a phone from five years ago
Most cheap laptops still have a screen like that
Now?
I had a cheapish Lenovo consumer laptop from late 2014 which had a 1920x1080 screen.
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@loopback0 said in Lenovo is really crap:
Now?
I quickly looked at Best
BorrowBuy's Canada website and yes, they're selling laptops with crappy screen
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@TimeBandit Also, our local version of dell website, crappy screen, 4GB RAM, intel core i3. And I wouldn't call any of this crap cheap.
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@TimeBandit that's the one on sale on Dell's website. I've seen ads for computers with 2GB not long ago
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@sockpuppet7 said in Lenovo is really crap:
I've seen ads for computers with 2GB not long ago
My previous phone had more RAM than this.
And it was released in 2014
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@TimeBandit said in Lenovo is really crap:
@sockpuppet7 said in Lenovo is really crap:
4GB RAM
And you're trying to run Windows on that?
I'd be more concerned about trying to run Chrome or the new Chromium-powered Edge on that. 4GB is like a couple of tabs.
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@loopback0 I would be concerned with opening Notepad
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@TimeBandit TRWTF is if I could show you all the security software they put on these things to slow it down (I'm aware of 5 of them)
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@loopback0 said in Lenovo is really crap:
@TimeBandit said in Lenovo is really crap:
@hungrier said in Lenovo is really crap:
Are you sure your laptop isn't a phone from five years ago
Most cheap laptops still have a screen like that
Now?
I had a cheapish Lenovo consumer laptop from late 2014 which had a 1920x1080 screen.Poking around, it appears that 1366x768 is still the most common desktop resolution on the web.
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@sockpuppet7 said in Lenovo is really crap:
TRWTF is if I could show you all the security software they put on these things to slow it down (I'm aware of 5 of them)
Can't do anything insecure if you can't do anything.
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@Parody said in Lenovo is really crap:
it appears that 1366x768 is still the most common desktop resolution on the web.
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So apparently, on the thunderbolt dock, there's a TB connector in the front and in the back - but only the one in the back supplies enough power to actually charge your laptop, it won't charge if you connect it to the front one. It's especially awesome considering the supplied TB cable is really really short, it's maybe 15cm.
Yes, the actual charging port is marked with a different icon, but it's still duuuuuumb.
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@sockpuppet7 said in Lenovo is really crap:
@hungrier said in Lenovo is really crap:
@sockpuppet7 said in Lenovo is really crap:
@Deadfast said in Lenovo is really crap:
@Douglasac said in Lenovo is really crap:
the screen is only full HD
I have a 4k laptop at work and I really wish I didn't.
@hungrier said in Lenovo is really crap:
At my work it's the opposite. We have laptops with 1080p screens, and 4K TVs in the board rooms.
My lenovo is 1366x768
Are you sure your laptop isn't a phone from five years ago
My phone from 3 years ago is full hd. That's the difference when you buy something for yourself and when someone in a suit buy something for other people to use.
Milton Friedman could not be reached for comment.
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Back to the original topic...
@dcon said in Lenovo is really crap:
I have an old B570 (2012) that I put thru hell. (It's the computer that's used outdoors for scoring dog shows) It's still working fine...
Oh yeah. Except when the fingerprint reader locks up after waking it up from sleep. Then it requires a hard boot. (Guess what just happened...) Now it'll be okay for a while again...