Thread: Computer personalities

All computers [of the same model] were created equal, but time has shown that they do not remain equal even if they are never upgraded. Every computer develops its own quirks with time which range from minor annoyance to irritation. Software also has a hand in the kinds of personality traits that arise in a computer.

If there are traits that have come and gone, they can also shape the quirks that have since arisen. Though much of what I call quirks and traits are in fact technical or hardware issues that have some kind of fix, it's not so interfering as to demand a permanent solution.

I myself have had a few computers with interesting personalities.

My 2003 VAIO Laptop developed a tendency to have IE crash the first three times I tried to open it, only working after I opened it for the fourth time. Firefox refused to uninstall, update, or just plain work.

The CD drive sometimes did nothing but "hiccup" while it spun the CD...without reading it.

As for my desktop, I would best describe it as a healthy old man who has occasional bouts of senility and a poor ability to get rid of excess heat.

Regarding the latter, the issue was prominent when I still had a graphics card that usually ran at around 70-degrees Celsius at system idle. With the help of a removed case cover and a 15" table fan, it ran around 45-50-degrees Celsius at system idle speed. Essentially, if I didn't have the fan blowing on that thing while playing a game involving heavy 3D graphics, the computer would shut itself off without warning roughly 30 minutes later. Temperature safety devices at work, I suppose.

No surprise, I'd usually reboot the computer to find that hal.dll was corrupted and preventing Windows from loading. I had a spare copy of it around as well as a Linux Mint disk, so it was no big issue aside from having to re-enter the Vista product key. Finally broke the camel's back, I think, when I dared to see if my new power supply and its huge intake fan would help the heat issue. It wasn't hal.dll that time around--it was a whole list of essential services that didn't have a whole lot to do with hardware. No surprise at any of this considering my desktop is about 8 years old, and a "Frankenstein" to boot.

As for senility, it has rare (maybe once every several months) moments where it'll hang and BSOD on me. Recently, some spat between Windows Update and my computer that happened at 3:00 AM (read: I was knocked out) caused my user profile to become corrupt. Luckily, there was a fix for it, albeit with no ultimate reason given behind the corruption. I lost my desktop wallpaper, but that was it.

That said, I'd like to hear what others have to share about their computer's personality.

Ah, I get you.

From memory, all I can remember about my computer is: Upon startup, Nvidia will open, as will Smart Doctor.
My most annoying perk is YouTube - everytime I open a new video (as in, not from side links) I'll get a java script.null warning.

Oh, and because 2 of my HDDs are literally rest onto of my disk drive, the fan has to work twice as hard, making an irritating sound in the process.

My PC likes to play hide and seek!

It will hide my pages on the task bar, I have to shift things around until I come across the page it's hidden for it to reappear on the task bar.

And it seems to have the need to inform me that it's opening a trusted website and if it's okay.

Oh, and it doesn't like my camera.

My computer and laptop are actually business computers. They think highly of themselves, and as such, when I have a big problem with them there's sometimes fuck nothing I can do about it. An old computer from 2005 was custom built and became very ill. At the time it could run top-of-the-line games, but eventually started groaning very loudly. I had to give into computer euthanasia and put it out of its misery. That computer was called Frank. Fortunately, my computers since have been relatively healthy.

I have the (currently) fastest phone in the world with a dual-core processor and the same amount of RAM as my 2005 computer: 1GB. It's the Samsung Galaxy S2. It's extremely arrogant and constantly mocks an iPhone I possess, which often cries in the corner and writes depressing poems about its eventual demise to Steve Jobs. I own an Open Pandora which wears a fedora and generally acts in a Bohemian manner! It knows it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it doesn't care. It loves its independence and the small community of people who appreciate its company and niche views.