I’m currently running 10GB of RAM in this thing with the expectation that I’ll be trading the 16GB of DDR4 RAM stick from our old computer for an 8GB stick of RAM to someone, maxing out this computer as soon as it is put in. This computer can not run DDR4 RAM, which I found out when I ran CrucialScan on it to get a deeper feel as to the specifications (and to confirm some things, like “which kind of RAM can this run?”)… and I’d like to max it out on everything as soon as possible to avoid having to take the bottom casing off of this computer apart again, even if it is almost always for a good cause. But given the specs that this computer otherwise has, the fact that it takes DDR3 RAM is actually really negligible in the grand scheme of things…

I am still impressed with the fact that it has a completely functioning touch screen, though. I really am, heh.

But the one thing that I don’t like is that more and more recent laptops require that you take the entire bottom casing off of a computer to swap parts out, whereas older laptops let you more easily access RAM with the purpose of being able to upgrade (and max it out). I’ve gone through two or three laptops over the course of the last several years that have required that the entire bottom casing come off just to put an additional stick of RAM in, or to swap RAM in and out, and some of them have made the process really tetchy with how the bottom casing sits on the computer. It’s not a process that I like to go through, especially now that almost all laptop manufacturers practically force you to do it. And I’m not even sure why they do it.

Will wonders ever cease? They better not, and this thing better keep working.

Seriously.

I just need to put one more stick of 8GB RAM into it to max it out (it currently has one 8GB stick, and the other slot is empty), and then it’s pretty much as far upgraded as I can get it. I’ll gladly take that, though.

This thing has given me so many migraines alone setting up, especially given that two prior Windows updates on it failed… but somehow, for some reason, this most recent one did not fail, unless I find out at a later point that it did fail, but I mean, that kind of would not surprise me given the track record of how tetchy this computer has shown itself to be. When this computer works well, it works awesomely. When it tries to throw every single possible error under the sun at me, obviously that’s when we start to have problems, heh.

I did manage to make an actual restore disc for it today, though, which is impressively good (that it let me)!

However, I have learned my lesson about buying PCs used, even if the prices on them are magnificent.

I don’t think I’m going to be doing this in the future. I think I’m going to keep on buying refurbished “new”.

I’m also going to continue to buy them from more reputable vendors than pawn shops, even though this one does have an extended warranty on it, simply because of how much time it took to set the whole thing up to functioning satisfaction. And I mean, I did a clean install of Windows 10 on the thing from complete scratch, which it let me do with the recovery partition since I could not get the former administrator’s name off of the computer even though I had their login credentials. So that much I had going for me at the start of all of this.

And I’m not even sure if that was what took the longest to do given these two Windows Update fails.

As far as Hewlett-Packard goes, it’s not a bad brand of computers. This one has just been, well, really tetchy.

I have had to roll back the most recent Windows update twice now because for some reason, actually getting it on this computer has been the most difficult process… and this thing doesn’t have bad specs, so it confuses me as to why the process of updating it seems to be the most cumbersome and difficult. I’ve tried to follow the advice of tech blogs and tech message boards that I have found, and have tried different ways to download the update, so we will see how that goes since I am now doing the lattermost of those things…

I mean, when this new computer works well, it works great. Don’t get me wrong.

However, when it decides to throw random errors, they are some of the worst that I have seen, and I thought that I liked Windows 10. As this continues to bother me and give me migraines, I am beginning to rethink that given the sheer difficulty of updating a computer that should effortlessly be able to update (from a fresh Windows 10 load a few days ago, no less!). I’m still thankful that the system restore that I attempted when everything seemed absolutely amiss with this computer actually worked… thankful, and equal parts surprised that it actually did restore nearly everything, to include my files and some of the most important settings on this computer that I wanted to keep. Hopefully at some point I can actually update this thing…

For some reason, when doing one of the last Windows updates to this laptop, it completely froze at 27% and just… sat there, so I had no choice but to power down the computer, start it back up, and have it “undo” the update. Now I’m following the advice of some tech blogs to see if this can’t be fixed, because I see no reason why this Windows update shouldn’t seamlessly install. I know that sometimes Windows updates can take a really long time to install (the infamous “blue screen”), but this one absolutely hung on 27%. I’m going to run Disk Cleanup, make sure that this continues to be as defragmented as possible, and continue to do some research into this to… get it not to hang, although I may also just wait until I can purchase a replacement USB since our last one stopped functioning due to old age and make a backup of Windows, which this actually suggests, in the event that this tries to brick this computer. But I really don’t want it to hang again…

Once I get this final update successfully on this computer though I am done with setting it up!

Okay, but that was how many migraines that needed to be medicated between now and then though?

Now that all of this is loaded to my liking, the hard drive is compressed and defragmented, the only thing that I have to do left is drop one 8GB stick of RAM into it to max it out and everything will be precisely as I want it to be. Sadly I can’t drop the 16GB stick of RAM from our previous laptop into this one because that one ran DDR4 RAM and this one runs DDR3, but the specs are otherwise nearly comparable and in some aspects actually exceed the previous laptop that we owned. I just need to get used to the slightly different keyboard schematics that this one has because our previous laptop was a Lenovo and this one is a Hewlett-Packard (and at that, the first Hewlett-Packard laptop that I have ever owned… not that I have anything negative to say about it, of course), but once I get past the minor changes in how the keyboard is set up, I think everything will run completely smoothly. And while I’ve been doing that, to save myself some space and some trouble, I’ve been uninstalling some of the apps that have come with it that I have no need for.

I also came to the surprising conclusion that this has a fully functional touchscreen. I did not realize that until I accidentally touched the screen and something moved. You weren’t supposed to do that, computer! I haven’t gotten around to disabling it yet because the kids actually have not noticed it yet, but I think I will.

Did you know that after compressing one’s hard drive, it gets fragmented like… well, whoa, though?

And that the best thing is to go back in and defragment it all over again? I don’t understand this one bit.

I seriously had some files that had fragments as high as in the six thousands. Luckily not a whole lot, but…

I was able to take the game data from those large Origin and Steam games that I had mentioned, put it in the correct (anticipated) folders, have Origin and Steam “find” that the games were there and verify all of the game files, and I saved myself what would probably have been ten hours worth of downloading and patching by following some instructions online! Now all I have to do is defragment the computer, compress the hard drive, make sure that Windows is fully patched, make restore discs if Windows 10 still lets you do that and I am done loading this computer! Needless to say, it’s been awhile since I have had to fully load a computer, and since I happened to pick this one up at a pawn shop I had to load Windows 10 on it from complete scratch because there was an administrator account already on it that I had the password to and there was no getting around that to put my own administrator account on. At least we’ve long cleared that problem. Frankly, it has been worth all of the migraines that this has literally caused. It has caused several.

At least now I know how to save myself a lot of time on down the line if I need to replace this computer too…