[Discuss] Think I need a new computer
My Dell XPS 13 7390 is getting old creaky, and at nearly 4-years, it isn't new, but how annoying, it has been a nice machine. This morning it was dead, I had left it plugged in, running, with the lid closed. And this morning its battery was dead. It has been complaining about disconnects, so maybe there is an intermittent in my cables. Reboot, look at log files, see nothing interesting before the messages from my powering it up. Then a while later, as I unlock it the dialog asking for my password went away, the background of the lockscreen refreshed, and the mouse pointer froze. Trying to switch consoles didn't do anything. I forced a powerdown. Looking at logs it looks like it saw me plugging and unplugging power, closing the lid, and pressing power button. I ran a memtest and it passed. I installed an unrelated-looking Dell firmware update it has been wanting for a long time: FW 22001070 Device Update Dell 2200 NVMe SSD Firmware Update *Fix the "Drive not detected" issue reported by the Dell ePSA tool in some rare cases. Reboot and things are slow: Login and my desktop sits dark for sometime before painting my background picture. That sites blank for sometime before drawing my desktop icons. And now I think I am noticing funny delays here and there, hard to be certain. I'd willing to be suspicious of my upgrade from Debian 11 to 12, but that was nearly a month ago, rebooted several times, and all seemed to be working well. Grrr. I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a new computer right now. But the battery is supposedly only 57% of what it used to be. The trackpad doesn't like to click in the location where I like to click and is only slightly more agreeable in other places. One of USB-C jacks seems grumpy (not noticing things I plug in) and the others are maybe a bit odd, not sure. God I wish everything weren't so damn disposable. Let me see what https://frame.work has in stock, their computers can be repaired, even upgraded. Do I want an AMD Ryzon 7040 or an Intel i5-1340P? Is one better better supported for Linux for these days…? Grrr. -kb, the Kent whose incremental backup just finished, time to do another on another disk. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@driftwood.blu.org https://driftwood.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Think I need a new computer
On Sat, 15 Jun 2024 12:38:39 -0700 Kent Borg wrote: > Do I want an AMD Ryzon 7040 or an Intel i5-1340P? Is one better > better supported for Linux for these days…? I say go all in with Ryzen w/ AMD graphics. I tried Tumbleweed on my old Razer Blade 15 (2019) and it runs fine but dealing with the nVidia drivers is a pain. And I wanted something lighter and more portable and not needing a 2 pound power brick so I picked up a ASUS Zenbook 15 OLED earlier this year: Ryzen 7 7735U w/ Radeon 680M integrated. It's been really good for the five or six months I've been using it. Not having to deal with binary blobs and Optimus switching is a huge win in my book. And the 680M is a step up from Intel Xe Max. Bonus for the ASUS kit: everything works out of the box with Tumbleweed: WiFi, Bluetooth, audio, all of the keyboard Fn sequences for things like brightness and volume controls. -- \m/ (--) \m/ ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@driftwood.blu.org https://driftwood.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Think I need a new computer
Minor point, but this is not a bad time of year to find a computer at a low price. School's out, nowhere near back-to-school season, no Christmas rush. On Sat, Jun 15, 2024, at 7:38 PM, Kent Borg wrote: > My Dell XPS 13 7390 is getting old creaky, and at nearly 4-years, it > isn't new, but how annoying, it has been a nice machine. > > This morning it was dead, I had left it plugged in, running, with the > lid closed. And this morning its battery was dead. It has been > complaining about disconnects, so maybe there is an intermittent in my > cables. > > Reboot, look at log files, see nothing interesting before the messages > from my powering it up. Then a while later, as I unlock it the dialog > asking for my password went away, the background of the lockscreen > refreshed, and the mouse pointer froze. Trying to switch consoles didn't > do anything. I forced a powerdown. > > Looking at logs it looks like it saw me plugging and unplugging power, > closing the lid, and pressing power button. > > I ran a memtest and it passed. > > I installed an unrelated-looking Dell firmware update it has been > wanting for a long time: > > FW 22001070 Device Update > Dell 2200 NVMe SSD Firmware Update > > *Fix the "Drive not detected" issue reported by the Dell ePSA tool in > some rare > cases. > > Reboot and things are slow: Login and my desktop sits dark for sometime > before painting my background picture. That sites blank for sometime > before drawing my desktop icons. > > And now I think I am noticing funny delays here and there, hard to be > certain. > > I'd willing to be suspicious of my upgrade from Debian 11 to 12, but > that was nearly a month ago, rebooted several times, and all seemed to > be working well. > > > Grrr. I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a new computer right > now. But the battery is supposedly only 57% of what it used to be. The > trackpad doesn't like to click in the location where I like to click and > is only slightly more agreeable in other places. One of USB-C jacks > seems grumpy (not noticing things I plug in) and the others are maybe a > bit odd, not sure. > > God I wish everything weren't so damn disposable. > > > Let me see what https://frame.work has in stock, their computers can be > repaired, even upgraded. > > Do I want an AMD Ryzon 7040 or an Intel i5-1340P? Is one better better > supported for Linux for these days…? > > > Grrr. > > -kb, the Kent whose incremental backup just finished, time to do another > on another disk. > > > ___ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@driftwood.blu.org > https://driftwood.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@driftwood.blu.org https://driftwood.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Think I need a new computer
Kent Borg wrote: > My Dell XPS 13 7390 is getting old creaky, and at nearly 4-years, it isn't > new, but how annoying, it has been a nice machine. > > > Grrr. I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a new computer right now. > But the battery is supposedly only 57% of what it used to be. The trackpad > doesn't like to click in the location where I like to click and is only > slightly more agreeable in other places. One of USB-C jacks seems grumpy > (not noticing things I plug in) and the others are maybe a bit odd, not > sure. > > God I wish everything weren't so damn disposable. iFixIt will sell you a new battery for about $100. The trackpad might be fixable by opening it up and blowing out dust. The USB-C jack can't be fixed without replacing it, which involves soldering, but they are notorious for being grumpy when there is a small amount of dust inside. > Do I want an AMD Ryzon 7040 or an Intel i5-1340P? Is one better better > supported for Linux for these days…? My work desktop is a Ryzen 7 7735HS (which is a laptop CPU; the thing is a NUC-sized box) with 32GB RAM and a 1 TB NVMe disk. It runs Debian stable very nicely, with a 4K monitor in landscape and a 1920x1200 monitor in portrait mode. I like the AMD chips a lot. -dsr- ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@driftwood.blu.org https://driftwood.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
