slffl said:
It doesn't matter how many apps I have running on my XP machine because eventually I will have to reboot it. I leave it on 24/7 and I need to reboot at least once a week. Windows eventually slows down to a crawl and programs begin freezing like crazy. It's very annoying when I'm able to keep programs open on my 17" PB for what seems like forever (reboots required on some program and OS updates).
Strange... My laptop's Windows install is about a year old and it usually runs 1-2 months between reboots. When I'm rebooting I'm not doing it because of problems though, but rather because of system updates and the likes.
I might also add that BSODs almost always are caused by malfunctioning hardware or possibly bad drivers. Before blaming Windows, you really should check out the other parts. In almost 6 years of XP usage, I don't think I've ever had a blue screen that wasn't related to hardware problems, bad drivers or overclocking. I know that most of you aren't using Windows, but for those who are, it might be good looking into this before wiping the drive. Having hardware problems also means that the BSODs are going to appear soon again, despite the fresh install, which seems to be what many of you have experienced.
I always test new hardware thoroughly, since problems are somewhat common. Especially when it comes to RAM, which also happens to cause major instability when it's defective. Considering the amount of bad RAM sticks I've gotten through the years, I can only imagine how many users that are out there thinking Windows is a piece of **** software when it's in fact the computer hardware acting up. It's not like the average user knows how to run Memtest86. Hell, most probably don't have a clue about what RAM is...
Anyway, I just checked the original XP install date on the work machine that I'm writing this on. March 14th 2003. In this time it has never blue screened once and still feels fresh as new (booting it up takes just a few seconds longer now). The most interesting thing might be that it has been connected to the net 12 hours a day the last year and a half without any protection and still hasn't caught a virus or spyware infection (ran a few online scans).
Maybe it's just luck?
😀
P.S. My brother just started reading the above and I asked him when he last got a BSOD on his XP machine. He thought for a second or two and then replied "Never. The OS has actually never crashed on this machine.". So, the question is: Are be both just lucky or are BSODs (and other crashes for that matter) more related to bad hardware and drivers. I think they are. D.S.
EDIT: The above might be totally uninteresting to you, but I thought I'd post it for discussion anyway. As I've said many times before, though, Windows is hardly secure. Entering pretty much any porn site would get me some nice spyware immideately.... So, not very good in that aspect. As you might have understood by now, I'm far more impressed by the stability than the security.