Fixing a Laptop - Rage vent

[K PhaNTOM]

I haven't done this in a while, I need to quickly vent.

My brother who lives a few doors down from us, decides to bring his 7 year old laptop to me and say "it's running very slow and I can't manage to get on the internet." Well, I know what I'm going to see. The first problem is when I asked him to turn on the internet, he double clicked on Internet Explorer. Then I see 5 different toolbars up top. "Oh really, bro, you think it's slow because of the latest toolbar you installed?" No, it's the other 30 programs ranging from his kids installing Spongbob squarepants games to 3 different programs that his wife uses to video chat with her family. What pisses me off more? 2 minutes of just staring at the screen because it's been frozen he goes "Hey, if you don't know how to fix it, I'll just keep working on it." I can't fix it? I CAN'T FIX IT? You spent hours on it before me and expect me to fix the piece of crap in 2 minutes? I can't get past the bloody internet explorer screen. Years of junk, years of him and his kids installing bloat, spy, mal, and all kinds of ware and you think that can't be fixed? I deleted a few programs, turned on his internet and sent him on his way, of course, after whining to him for 20 minutes. Then he has the nerve to go "He thinks we're all 'computer experts' like him." You know what? YOU CAN GO **** YOURSELF!

Thank you for reading. (I'm overplaying it a bit, but it was frustrating.)

[Fenris]

I know your feels, dude. I used to play on a desktop, but my wife and kids got me a laptop about two years ago? I may be hazy on how long I've had it. That's irrelevant. I set up the desktop for my girls to play on nickjr.com and such. I left some harmless games like Minecraft on, and my wife installed The Sims 2 for them to play with.

Well, the 6 year old is fine just playing with what she knows (although she constantly asks for new games when she gets bored for five seconds playing Star Stable), but the 3 year old will click anything that looks like a link. She's installed bowling games, toolbars, hundreds of "download our game for free!" crap... the system still runs fine, but I had to move it recently to a new desk and I took the time to clean up their desktop and holy crud... all these "more free games!" advertising icons all over the place.

I bought them a copy of the legend of the seven crystals unicorn breeding game through Steam last week and they've both been too busy playing that to download anymore crap.

Oh, and I made a bookmark for them in Google that's just a google image search for the word "horse". You wouldn't believe how much time a 3 year old girl can spend just scrolling through an endless sea of pony pictures.

[Qicmee]

I have to mention that XP will stop updating in Spring of 2014 (Windows XP, Service Pack 3, April 8, 2014).

My ancient uncle asked whether this would matter for him, since he hardly ever uses his PC. I explained it's probably okay as long as he never connects to the Internet or to a network. Otherwise, his PC will eventually become cheese for a herd of rats. "Oh," he said.

[goldenfooler]

I have to mention that XP will stop updating in Spring of 2014 (Windows XP, Service Pack 3, April 8, 2014).

My ancient uncle asked whether this would matter for him, since he hardly ever uses his PC. I explained it's probably okay as long as he never connects to the Internet or to a network. Otherwise, his PC will eventually become cheese for a herd of rats. "Oh," he said.

Oh that's funny.

[FrOgM]

Sir Phantom, just pat him on the back and smile ...then say enjoy the money you spend on getting the EXPERT to fix your computer....that tells you the same thing ...now GOOD DAY SIR...and done ...lol hand him a coke tell him to smile and i think he will get the part about stfu

[Fenris]

Which brings me to my next point: Don't smoke crack.

[K PhaNTOM]

Which brings me to my next point: Don't smoke crack.

Lol no! It takes a while to understand the style that Frogm types in. I get his point.

Thanks for the replies

(Golden didn't know what to say because he was stuck behind 13 toolbars on his internet explorer)

[goldenfooler]

Oh I feel for you phantom. People come to me for cooking advice all the time. My parents do come to me sometimes for computer stuff. I already tell them I HATE touching others computers and only do it in a few instances.
Plus my brother works in IT and now gets most of the questions. I do have the problem at work all the time. Most people I work with don't know how to cut and paste.