A small crack but a big disappointment

I loved my little HP spectre but last week I opened it and found the touch screen didn’t work, and deeper investigation revealed a small crack across the screen towards the base. This is the second cracked screen in under two years and in this case the computer definitely hasn’t been mishandled. It was sitting on my desk and I opened it in the same careful manner I always used. The cost of replacing a screen in Australia about a year ago was around AUD$800. Ouch!!

The spectre can be turned on and off, the touch screen doesn’t work and it works with the mouse but with multiple mouse icons that jump around the place. Its effectively unusable.

However then I started to look on the HP forums to see if there was other repair options and what I saw was an avalanche of similar problems, most after no obvious rough handling or damage. With the only conclusion that HP spectre x2 & 360s are prone to unexplained cracking. Suddenly I am thinking twice about spending more on a computer that is at risk of yet another crack without any mishandling.

Then I tried to explain my story on the HP forums, and despite spending a couple of hours to try and log in, get a new password (I got an email without a link to change my password, shown on the right). Then I tried to set up a new account on the forum and you guessed it! Error!

The only HP advice I could find was where to find a dealer or HP repair service to replace the screen, or screen damage is not normally covered under warranty, and I looked around a lot, enough to kill my faith in HP.

Ok I’ve lost the ability to warn other HP users but I am still able to tell this story my colleagues and acquittances, those I train and the readers of this blog. Why should I pay a lot to give HP a third chance. Its my money and I’m not. Am I likely to recommend HP gear to others, I really doubt it.

Death By Update (again)

My joy at having my little HP Spectre home again was very short lived. Last Friday Window’s 10 updated itself and progressively lapsed into the same crashing, hanging and blue screen of death restart symptoms as before until today it can no longer finds its own boot sector, so back to the store again today.

Size matters

My HP spectre has a 256 GB SSD drive, which seemed ample for me when I bough it. Roughly 50 GB for operating system and software and around 200 GB for photos. Well that was the theory!
In practise after a week on the road I only have only 64 GB free, but my picture folders (and subdirectories) is only a little 104 GB so what has happened to the space. The culprit is mainly windows 10 update between Windows.old, $windows.~bt & SYSTEM.SAV account for 25 GB. I don’t want to deleted these just now in case I have to recover the install version.
There is still another 50 GB that’s hard to fully account for, Windows itself is Approx 16 GB and my software, mainly photo packages, is just under 10 GB, which only explain around half of this.My original theory was I would use the system for a week or so in earnest before I set up all the system recovery files so I knew I had a viable system to rely on. I just don’t have much confidence in Windows 10 & Microsoft.

Traveling companions

It didn’t take long to collect some extra things to take along with the new computer when I’m on the road again (that’s tomorrow). The most import items are the USB adaptor (the HP spectre only had USB C sockets and my card readers which are the older USB A (I have more than one because they are prone to damage and being lost). Once I had the adaptor to the conventional USB I figured a backpack style USB harddrive (for backups on the road) and a mouse (easy of use in full screen mode) may as well tag along. The mobile Wifi is to give me web access when there are no local WiFi hot stops. the phone can also acts as a local hotspot at a pinch but it is here as an extra camera.

The full kit and chargers is just over 2kg (that’s light).

Hello from my new photographic travel mate

After the frustration of travelling with the upgraded laptop, that was having trouble connecting to wifi, amongst other frustrations. I felt it was time to get a much lighter but still powerful enough PC to use specifically for my photographic endeavors as I travel. The basics were pretty simple to map out, I wanted a browser, email, something run to Lightroom and OnOne 10 and Aftershot Pro. That would require 8GB as the minimum workable memory, an SSD drive if possible at least 256GB, a decent screen and light weight. Whilst there are lots of laptops that fit the bill I was attracted to just 3. The Microsoft Surface 4 Pro, the HP Spectre and the Apple MacBook Pro, Whilst the Apple with retina had the nicest screen it was by far the most expensive and I would have to restock my software tools and I’m not a fan of apple OS anyway.  Relearning the way I work while I travelled was really not an option. The decision between the Surface Pro and the Spectre was more difficult. They are both 2 in 1 machines that can run as a Windows 10 PC but also be run in tablet mode and have touch screens. It ended up just being the spectre is a sexy build, very James Bond, metal case and much nicer keyboard and the backlight IPS screen has a lower resolution than the surface but looked better with my photos (I spent some time on each computer looking at my recent daily photos on flickr, then stress tested the wifi access and checked out their keyboard. Not exactly a detailed technical investigation). So all three would be fine but the spectre looks more durable & stylish, something I could confidently lug around and still get down to serious photographic post processing and management. I'm not used to touch screens (yet) but the spectre comes with a pen that works a lot like the pen stylus on a wacom tablet, so that feels natural and powerful for me. Keyboard and pen are extra costs on the surface putting it significantly higher in price for a comparable setup. At 1.4 kg with the power block its less than a fifth the weight of my toshiba laptop and power brick (7.5kg). Travel fun awaits...

A Stumbl on Scanning my Sketch for Tumblr

http://myscratchings.tumblr.com/post/136641318235/some-doodles-thinking-about-an-icon-for-the-tumblr

I do so regret upgrading to Windows 10 (but fear an uninstall more)