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GF bought a Windows PC....

trigonometry

trigonometry

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 19, 2010
363
42
South Carolina
Now she keeps asking me about this and that. The battery won't charge past 78%, something about BIOS downloading, etc. I have no idea what to do. We got in a big argument about connecting her old desktop to the Airport Extreme, blah, blah, blah. Last Tues., it got so bad I bought a bottle of Patron and stayed in a hotel. I have no interest in learning about PCs. The real sticking point is she now has two computers but wants to borrow mine to use while one recharges and the other reboots. Burns me up! I offered to buy her a Mac, anyone she wanted, but she refused. Do I need to dump her? Any advice is appreciated.
 
If a computer is enough to get between you too, then yes you should break up.

On a more practical note, it sounds like she got a computer that should have been considered DOA, why doesn't she just return/exchange it?
 
sounds like a lemon ... return it ... (the PC not the GF) and learn a bit about PCs so you can help her out.

If you are not willing ... she should dump you.
 
Apple OC said:
sounds like a lemon ... return it ... (the PC not the GF) and learn a bit about PCs so you can help her out.

If you are not willing ... she should dump you.
Click to expand...

It's not up to me to return it. She just wants me to fix it. She won't take any of my advice. My fear is ***** up even worse and she goes ballistic. Gotta go, she wants to use my computer to watch a video on Facebook that won't play on her PC because of the Antivirus software. Is that even possible?
 
trigonometry said:
She just wants me to fix it. She won't take any of my advice.
Click to expand...

Those two don't get along too well... As others have mentioned, there might be something wrong with the actual computer. The battery should be 100% and there should be no need to hassle with BIOS in a brand new laptop. Try to ask her to return it, there is nothing you can do.

Seriously, I think you both should calm down. It's just a one damn computer, nothing more.
 
If she won't take it back or follow your advice, then tell her she is on her own to troubleshoot her computers. Also, I wouldn't let her kick you off of your computer.
 
trigonometry said:
It's not up to me to return it. She just wants me to fix it. She won't take any of my advice. My fear is ***** up even worse and she goes ballistic. Gotta go, she wants to use my computer to watch a video on Facebook that won't play on her PC because of the Antivirus software. Is that even possible?
Click to expand...

Yeah, anti-virus software will block videos on sites that are known hosts of malware. She's probably OK using your mac because you don't run any anti-virus on it, and it won't get infected by a PC virus.
 
Hellhammer said:
Those two don't get along too well... As others have mentioned, there might be something wrong with the actual computer. The battery should be 100% and there should be no need to hassle with BIOS in a brand new laptop. Try to ask her to return it, there is nothing you can do.

Seriously, I think you both should calm down. It's just a one damn computer, nothing more.
Click to expand...

There is a little note that comes with the computer that says to charge it for 12 hours and download the latest BIOS before using it. She went ahead used it without doing either. I guess I'll go back to the Dell forums and try to figure something out. It's painful just reading that mess. But she is so fine! I guess I'll try. If I can't figure it out I'll tell her I'm done with it and it's on her. She'll be mad a couple days but she'll get over it. If not, oh well, there's more fish in sea.
 
Dang, sounds like you two aren't meant for each other, a computer definitely shouldn't be causing that much drama. OTOH, one of my best friends is married to a nerd much like me and they generally don't share hardware or anything. (I just helped her buy a computer, and he in the end gave a thumbs up ahahhaa).

The "must charge 12/24/whatever hours before using and perform a black magic ritual before using this device!!" warnings are all bull. Some battery tech apparently works even better if you just go ahead and run it down to 0 on your first shot. I hardly doubt that ANY problems were caused by your gf's operation of the computer, sounds like she has a defective battery.

Since the battery is clearly defective you can call Dell and see about getting a new one. My question to you is, what's going to happen when you guys have REAL issues to take care of, like financial stuff?
 
I suggest beating her to death with her new laptop.

In all seriousness though, it's not a big deal, if you're having this big a problem with this situation, you two do not belong together.
 
Both the computer and your relationship is not working! Fix them both (one needs returning to the store).
 
Upgrade the girlfriend for a thinner model with bigger chips and tell the computer "It's not you, it's me."
 
Ya I think you need to upgrade to girlfriend 2.0

In all seriousness, if computers cause this much grief between you, then I would cut your losses and move on...to a new girlfriend.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Dell Support:
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/byphone_prod?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

tel (877)-293-1197

you'll need the service tag# so they know the specs. It should be a label on bottom of laptop.

Have your Mac/iPhone handy to play games while on hold, or to look up info when instructed.
 
I would install Windows 95 when she isn't looking. Then she is limited to mindless card games, minesweeper, MS Paint, and the pre pre precursor to Word. She might also be able to use Netscape Navigator and the original AOL. Also, there is at least a 100% probability that her computer will also crash more than 50 times every minute, and that she will soon start dreaming of "Fatal Errors" and "Illegal Actions"
 
NickZac said:
I would install Windows 95 when she isn't looking. Then she is limited to mindless card games, minesweeper, MS Paint, and the pre pre precursor to Word. She might also be able to use Netscape Navigator and the original AOL. Also, there is at least a 100% probability that her computer will also crash more than 50 times every minute, and that she will soon start dreaming of "Fatal Errors" and "Illegal Actions"
Click to expand...

Your pillow talk is unmatchable.
 
trigonometry said:
There is a little note that comes with the computer that says to charge it for 12 hours and download the latest BIOS before using it. She went ahead used it without doing either. I guess I'll go back to the Dell forums and try to figure something out. It's painful just reading that mess. But she is so fine! I guess I'll try. If I can't figure it out I'll tell her I'm done with it and it's on her. She'll be mad a couple days but she'll get over it. If not, oh well, there's more fish in sea.
Click to expand...

You can still upgrade the BIOS. It's fairly easy on most machines nowadays and can be done from Windows, unlike the old days where user was forced to boot off a floppy and do it all in DOS mode. That should solve your battery issues.

But I do agree with others here: if something as silly as a computer can get you apart so easily perhaps you belong apart permanently. On the other hand, learning a few things about PCs (which is what you Mac essentially still is) doesn't hurt.
 
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