New Computer

On Thursday June 16th my new Compaq (HP) Presario CQ56-115DX arrived after over 12 weeks of waiting!  I filed my claim for the Nvidia GPU Litigation on-line Jan. 25, 2011, received my approval letter  March 4, 2011 and sent my old computer  on March 8, 2011.  So from March 8 to June 16 I was without my primary computer!  This was unacceptable.  I called twice and wrote two letters - got no response - it was like pushing at a brick wall.  I think the Claims administrator company - Rosenthal and Company now owned by Kurtzman Carsons Consultants LLC should be sued for lack of performance.

So am I happy with the new computer?   It's a mixed bag.  It has no camera (my old one had a camera); I went from a 32 bit processor to 64 bit;  An extra 90 gig of Hard Drive;  A different processor (2.3ghz single core vs my old 1.6ghz dual core); I now have a 15.6" LED screen (1366x768) vs my old 14.1" (1200x800);  But no Bluetooth; No Firewire or extra card slot; Same amount of RAM - 2gig.  Windows 7 vs Vista.

It took all day Friday to begin to configure the new computer and naturally moving to a 64bit created a problem with some old legacy programs.  Part of the problem was solved with some freeware DosBox that emulates the old DOS environment.  I needed to create a virtual XP environment for my old eschwab program - but that requires an $89 upgrade to Windows 7 Professional.  And I still  haven't decided whether to buy Windows Office 2010 or stay in dinasour land with Windows Office 2002 or 2007.

It is both frustrating and in some cases a fun problem to solve - how to get old stuff to work on the new computer.  You can see why Microsoft is successful - just stop supporting the old and force people to buy the new.  I can see why the general consumer just "punts" and has started buying Apple.