john01dav

I'm very angry right now, so bullet points it is to get the point across:
I bought a Pixel 4a in November, after a long string of phones that fell apart way too early, so I decided to take a chance on a higher end product. $300 is a lot of money for me to spend on a phone, as I was previously getting very old generations that still had some semblance of repairability in them, but of course all the software just can't keep working there (at a reasonable speed)! That would just make too much sense! It was alright, but not great, for awhile, about as I expected, but then I was sitting on a concrete bench and my phone shifted about 1 inch lower in my hand onto said concrete. ONE INCH. Cracks emanated up from the USB port across the screen. Obviously, a one inch "drop" (if it can even be called that, which it really can't, but I don't have a better word) is well within the scope of normal operations (really, all drops are for a device that one is to carry with them everywhere, as google's data collection makes a massive amount of money off of), and thus if a phone can't handle it is a severe engineering flaw. As such, I contacted Google and appraised them of the situation, and yet they refused to fix it, citing "physical damage" as a way to void a warranty EVEN THOUGH THEIR DESIGN FLAW CAUSED THIS PHYSICAL DAMAGE! I considered doing a repair myself, but of course they had to make that damn near impossible too. A new LCD assembly is over US$100! This is absurd, the price of a new phone!. Everyone knows that glass failure on a phone is a common failure point, so any company designing a phone to last (to not do so is planned obsolescence) would ensure that the repair in this failure mode is both cheap and easy, for example by facilitating replacing just the glass and not the much more expensive OLED panel. There are some guides for replacing just the glass, but they seem very, very risky. The cracks weren't huge, so I went on ignoring them for awhile, but then when I set my phone down on my counter, the upper-left corner shattered emanating out through the entire upper half of the screen (I strongly suspect that the original cracks somehow weakened the screen, but I have no way to know for sure.), and this corner was the first part to be set on the counter. There was no screen protector because this industry is just as rotten as the phone industry! I could not find even one screen protector brand at any price point that offers any sort of long-term (e.g. 5-10 years at a minimum, although really permanent would be best since there are very rarely compelling features on new phones that I want, it's just this planned obsolescence that is the only reason that I'm not on my galaxy s5 still) guarantee that if their protector fails they pay for whatever repairs are needed. As such, I ask, how can I force Google to support their damn product, take responsibility for their numerous design flaws, and ensure that I have access to a phone of the quality that I paid for? Failing that, what company will do this without any fuss at a reasonable price point? I am never paying Google one cent of my money ever again, after how thoroughly despicable they have been here. It'd be one thing if repairable, modular, upgradable, phones built to last were available at a reasonable price point for those of us who care, but not one company (that sells in the US, at least) makes these!

I'm very angry right now, so bullet points it is to get the point across:
I bought a Pixel 4a in November, after a long string of phones that fell apart way too early, so I decided to take a chance on a higher end product. $300 is a lot of money for me to spend on a phone, as I was previously getting very old generations that still had some semblance of repairability in them, but of course all the software just can't keep working there (at a reasonable speed)! That would just make too much sense! It was alright, but not great, for awhile, about as I expected, but then I was sitting on a concrete bench and my phone shifted about 1 inch lower in my hand onto said concrete. ONE INCH. Cracks emanated up from the USB port across the screen. Obviously, a one inch "drop" (if it can even be called that, which it really can't, but I don't have a better word) is well within the scope of normal operations (really, all drops are for a device that one is to carry with them everywhere, as google's data collection makes a massive amount of money off of), and thus if a phone can't handle it is a severe engineering flaw. As such, I contacted Google and appraised them of the situation, and yet they refused to fix it, citing "physical damage" as a way to void a warranty EVEN THOUGH THEIR DESIGN FLAW CAUSED THIS PHYSICAL DAMAGE! I considered doing a repair myself, but of course they had to make that damn near impossible too. A new LCD assembly is over US$100! This is absurd, the price of a new phone!. Everyone knows that glass failure on a phone is a common failure point, so any company designing a phone to last (to not do so is planned obsolescence) would ensure that the repair in this failure mode is both cheap and easy, for example by facilitating replacing just the glass and not the much more expensive OLED panel. There are some guides for replacing just the glass, but they seem very, very risky. The cracks weren't huge, so I went on ignoring them for awhile, but then when I set my phone down on my counter, the upper-left corner shattered emanating out through the entire upper half of the screen (I strongly suspect that the original cracks somehow weakened the screen, but I have no way to know for sure.), and this corner was the first part to be set on the counter. There was no screen protector because this industry is just as rotten as the phone industry! I could not find even one screen protector brand at any price point that offers any sort of long-term (e.g. 5-10 years at a minimum, although really permanent would be best since there are very rarely compelling features on new phones that I want, it's just this planned obsolescence that is the only reason that I'm not on my galaxy s5 still) guarantee that if their protector fails they pay for whatever repairs are needed. As such, I ask, how can I force Google to support their damn product, take responsibility for their numerous design flaws, and ensure that I have access to a phone of the quality that I paid for? Failing that, what company will do this without any fuss at a reasonable price point? I am never paying Google one cent of my money ever again, after how thoroughly despicable they have been here. It'd be one thing if repairable, modular, upgradable, phones built to last were available at a reasonable price point for those of us who care, but not one company (that sells in the US, at least) makes these!

Being a piece of glass that breaks like a kitkat bar *is* a design flaw. All modern smart phones have design flaws, some more than others. It's not too hard to imagine a phone that has an easily replaceable piece of glass, though, protecting the more expensive screen in all common failure modes.

Yes, shit happens. I'm sick and tired of phones being designed as if we live in some fantasy world where no one ever drops them, batteries never wear out, and other such fictional nonsense. If a phone can't handle these events, it has no business being sold as a phone. At the *minimum* common failure points need to be easily replaceable (e.g. replace just the glass on the screen, a user replaceable battery, and the USB port being on its own board behind nothing but a few standard screws). People would rail against it, and rightly so, if the common failure points on a car were not replaceable — e.g. if one could not feasibly change tires or oil, yet it wouldn't be qualitatively different from the reality with phones right now. You'd buy a car, have it fully working for a few precious months, and then tolerate it failing and failing until after a few years you need a new one, even when a properly designed car can last for 20+ years. I drive a car that was manufactured in 1997, and it's still going strong. What wonders good engineering can do!

I'm very angry right now, so bullet points it is to get the point across:
I bought a Pixel 4a in November, after a long string of phones that fell apart way too early, so I decided to take a chance on a higher end product. $300 is a lot of money for me to spend on a phone, as I was previously getting very old generations that still had some semblance of repairability in them, but of course all the software just can't keep working there (at a reasonable speed)! That would just make too much sense! It was alright, but not great, for awhile, about as I expected, but then I was sitting on a concrete bench and my phone shifted about 1 inch lower in my hand onto said concrete. ONE INCH. Cracks emanated up from the USB port across the screen. Obviously, a one inch "drop" (if it can even be called that, which it really can't, but I don't have a better word) is well within the scope of normal operations (really, all drops are for a device that one is to carry with them everywhere, as google's data collection makes a massive amount of money off of), and thus if a phone can't handle it is a severe engineering flaw. As such, I contacted Google and appraised them of the situation, and yet they refused to fix it, citing "physical damage" as a way to void a warranty EVEN THOUGH THEIR DESIGN FLAW CAUSED THIS PHYSICAL DAMAGE! I considered doing a repair myself, but of course they had to make that damn near impossible too. A new LCD assembly is over US$100! This is absurd, the price of a new phone!. Everyone knows that glass failure on a phone is a common failure point, so any company designing a phone to last (to not do so is planned obsolescence) would ensure that the repair in this failure mode is both cheap and easy, for example by facilitating replacing just the glass and not the much more expensive OLED panel. There are some guides for replacing just the glass, but they seem very, very risky. The cracks weren't huge, so I went on ignoring them for awhile, but then when I set my phone down on my counter, the upper-left corner shattered emanating out through the entire upper half of the screen (I strongly suspect that the original cracks somehow weakened the screen, but I have no way to know for sure.), and this corner was the first part to be set on the counter. There was no screen protector because this industry is just as rotten as the phone industry! I could not find even one screen protector brand at any price point that offers any sort of long-term (e.g. 5-10 years at a minimum, although really permanent would be best since there are very rarely compelling features on new phones that I want, it's just this planned obsolescence that is the only reason that I'm not on my galaxy s5 still) guarantee that if their protector fails they pay for whatever repairs are needed. As such, I ask, how can I force Google to support their damn product, take responsibility for their numerous design flaws, and ensure that I have access to a phone of the quality that I paid for? Failing that, what company will do this without any fuss at a reasonable price point? I am never paying Google one cent of my money ever again, after how thoroughly despicable they have been here. It'd be one thing if repairable, modular, upgradable, phones built to last were available at a reasonable price point for those of us who care, but not one company (that sells in the US, at least) makes these!

I'm very angry right now, so bullet points it is to get the point across:
I bought a Pixel 4a in November, after a long string of phones that fell apart way too early, so I decided to take a chance on a higher end product. $300 is a lot of money for me to spend on a phone, as I was previously getting very old generations that still had some semblance of repairability in them, but of course all the software just can't keep working there (at a reasonable speed)! That would just make too much sense! It was alright, but not great, for awhile, about as I expected, but then I was sitting on a concrete bench and my phone shifted about 1 inch lower in my hand onto said concrete. ONE INCH. Cracks emanated up from the USB port across the screen. Obviously, a one inch "drop" (if it can even be called that, which it really can't, but I don't have a better word) is well within the scope of normal operations (really, all drops are for a device that one is to carry with them everywhere, as google's data collection makes a massive amount of money off of), and thus if a phone can't handle it is a severe engineering flaw. As such, I contacted Google and appraised them of the situation, and yet they refused to fix it, citing "physical damage" as a way to void a warranty EVEN THOUGH THEIR DESIGN FLAW CAUSED THIS PHYSICAL DAMAGE! I considered doing a repair myself, but of course they had to make that damn near impossible too. A new LCD assembly is over US$100! This is absurd, the price of a new phone!. Everyone knows that glass failure on a phone is a common failure point, so any company designing a phone to last (to not do so is planned obsolescence) would ensure that the repair in this failure mode is both cheap and easy, for example by facilitating replacing just the glass and not the much more expensive OLED panel. There are some guides for replacing just the glass, but they seem very, very risky. The cracks weren't huge, so I went on ignoring them for awhile, but then when I set my phone down on my counter, the upper-left corner shattered emanating out through the entire upper half of the screen (I strongly suspect that the original cracks somehow weakened the screen, but I have no way to know for sure.), and this corner was the first part to be set on the counter. There was no screen protector because this industry is just as rotten as the phone industry! I could not find even one screen protector brand at any price point that offers any sort of long-term (e.g. 5-10 years at a minimum, although really permanent would be best since there are very rarely compelling features on new phones that I want, it's just this planned obsolescence that is the only reason that I'm not on my galaxy s5 still) guarantee that if their protector fails they pay for whatever repairs are needed. As such, I ask, how can I force Google to support their damn product, take responsibility for their numerous design flaws, and ensure that I have access to a phone of the quality that I paid for? Failing that, what company will do this without any fuss at a reasonable price point? I am never paying Google one cent of my money ever again, after how thoroughly despicable they have been here. It'd be one thing if repairable, modular, upgradable, phones built to last were available at a reasonable price point for those of us who care, but not one company (that sells in the US, at least) makes these!

I'm very angry right now, so bullet points it is to get the point across:
I bought a Pixel 4a in November, after a long string of phones that fell apart way too early, so I decided to take a chance on a higher end product. $300 is a lot of money for me to spend on a phone, as I was previously getting very old generations that still had some semblance of repairability in them, but of course all the software just can't keep working there (at a reasonable speed)! That would just make too much sense! It was alright, but not great, for awhile, about as I expected, but then I was sitting on a concrete bench and my phone shifted about 1 inch lower in my hand onto said concrete. ONE INCH. Cracks emanated up from the USB port across the screen. Obviously, a one inch "drop" (if it can even be called that, which it really can't, but I don't have a better word) is well within the scope of normal operations (really, all drops are for a device that one is to carry with them everywhere, as google's data collection makes a massive amount of money off of), and thus if a phone can't handle it is a severe engineering flaw. As such, I contacted Google and appraised them of the situation, and yet they refused to fix it, citing "physical damage" as a way to void a warranty EVEN THOUGH THEIR DESIGN FLAW CAUSED THIS PHYSICAL DAMAGE! I considered doing a repair myself, but of course they had to make that damn near impossible too. A new LCD assembly is over US$100! This is absurd, the price of a new phone!. Everyone knows that glass failure on a phone is a common failure point, so any company designing a phone to last (to not do so is planned obsolescence) would ensure that the repair in this failure mode is both cheap and easy, for example by facilitating replacing just the glass and not the much more expensive OLED panel. There are some guides for replacing just the glass, but they seem very, very risky. The cracks weren't huge, so I went on ignoring them for awhile, but then when I set my phone down on my counter, the upper-left corner shattered emanating out through the entire upper half of the screen (I strongly suspect that the original cracks somehow weakened the screen, but I have no way to know for sure.), and this corner was the first part to be set on the counter. There was no screen protector because this industry is just as rotten as the phone industry! I could not find even one screen protector brand at any price point that offers any sort of long-term (e.g. 5-10 years at a minimum, although really permanent would be best since there are very rarely compelling features on new phones that I want, it's just this planned obsolescence that is the only reason that I'm not on my galaxy s5 still) guarantee that if their protector fails they pay for whatever repairs are needed. As such, I ask, how can I force Google to support their damn product, take responsibility for their numerous design flaws, and ensure that I have access to a phone of the quality that I paid for? Failing that, what company will do this without any fuss at a reasonable price point? I am never paying Google one cent of my money ever again, after how thoroughly despicable they have been here. It'd be one thing if repairable, modular, upgradable, phones built to last were available at a reasonable price point for those of us who care, but not one company (that sells in the US, at least) makes these!

My pixel 4a is in the mail, and I need to protect it properly. I don't coddle my phone, and I tend to carry it with my everywhere, so dropping *WILL* happen, and I need proper protection to make this a non-issue, even if dropping happens frequently and/or from a significant height. For previous phones, I have just gone on Amazon and picked something that didn't have any clear red flags and offered a sufficient warranty, but this has recently failed me where my case (an otter box) for my LG G5 caused the phone to overheat to the point that it was a bit too hot to touch, and then the battery responded predictably (swelling a *lot*, to the point that it cracked the screen, burst the back off the phone, and now it is, in all, about 1.5 inches thick at the center). I want strong protection, with a warranty where the manufacturer will pay for fixes if my phone gets dropped or otherwise damaged and the protection fails (even if it happens multiple years after I buy the case, as I intend to keep this phone for a long time), I want an affordable case and/or screen protector, and I don't particularly care about aesthetics. What is the best option?

Usually antivirus is pretty good, but it isn't perfect. If I were you, I would do this:
 - Get a live Linux USB stick (these are pretty easy to make -- all you need is a USB stick that you can overwrite. When one boots to it, it runs Linux off the USB stick.).
 - Temporarily remove *all* storage from a computer (eg. all hard drives, ssds, etc.).
 - Boot the computer into Linux using the live usb stick.
 - Attach the external disk
 - Delete the files
 - Run clamtk (a Linux virus scanner), optional
 - Shut down Linux and reformat the live USB
 - Run a Windows virus scanner on the external drive
 
That should get rid of 99.99% of viruses as it usually isn't worth the virus-maker's effort to write the code to get around that, but it is theoretically possible. The reason to use Linux is that there are far fewer viruses for Linux, and you're almost certainly on Windows so you probably don't have one that is able to do anything under Linux. For a bit of extra security, you can copy the important files (copy as few as possible) to a different drive using Linux.
 
EDIT: Regarding homeap5's comment about autorun. If you decide to look at the drive in Windows, definitely disable autorun, but be aware that it isn't a perfect solution. There are many ways that a program can start running, eg. if it infected a word document without you realizing and added macros.

Hello,
 
I would like to add wifi support to my desktop computer running Linux via either USB3 or PCIe, but ideally the latter as I need to be able to make the best of a fairly weak signal. When I went to look for PCIe wifi cards, however, I found that all of them are made in China. As there is mounting evidence that they are using their position as a major electronics manufacturer to spy on people all over the world, this is not an acceptable trade off for my personal wifi card (link, also note the Huawai controversy). As such, I ask, how can I get a wifi card that both officially supports Linux with FOSS drivers (again, spyware is bad) and that I can be reasonably sure China didn't get its hands on?
 
I know that probably half the components in my computer, if not more, were made in China. For many things, however, this does not matter (ie. the PSU), and for others it matters less as those parts won't have such a perfect way to get data out.
 
Thank you

Steps to fix the Display Port: 1. Power off the monitor by pressing the Power button. Power off the PC as well. 2. Unplug the power cable and the DisplayPort cable from the back of the monitor. Wait 30 seconds. 3. After waiting 30 seconds, plug the monitor back in with the Power Cable and the DisplayPort cable. Power on the monitor and power on the PC. 4. Enjoy! Your monitor should be working now.
 
Found this on Youtube, If it dont work with pc off Then try letting the pc power up completely. Then try again.
 

Testing with that may not work. Be aware that older computers didn't use PCIe for the GPUs. As such, if you get it in and it doesn't work that doesn't prove that the card is bad. Getting it in and seeing that it works, however, does prove that the card is good. Also, don't run any graphically intense work loads while the card is in the other system as that could over load the power supply (I would be weary before putting it in at all).

I've used it before (albeit a few years ago) and it was honestly fairly buggy. Other Linux distros like Debian or even Ubuntu are a lot more stable, so if you use Elementary OS, don't use it to judge all of Linux.

I've used it before (albeit a few years ago) and it was honestly fairly buggy. Other Linux distros like Debian or even Ubuntu are a lot more stable, so if you use Elementary OS, don't use it to judge all of Linux.

I've used it before (albeit a few years ago) and it was honestly fairly buggy. Other Linux distros like Debian or even Ubuntu are a lot more stable, so if you use Elementary OS, don't use it to judge all of Linux.

Oops. Here's the screenshot.

Hello,
 
I have a motherboard with 2 CPU power connectors: a 4 pin connector, and an 8 pin connector (see the attached screenshot from the manual). My PSU (650W, should be plenty for the build that should use ~300W), however, only has a single EPS cable. Is it a good idea to get one of these and connect it to a PCIe cable, that has plenty of? It's a fully modular PSU, and the EPS/CPU and PCIe cables have interchangable slots on the PSU, so any of them should be able to handle the power draw patterns of a CPU.

It's worth a shot calling the manufacturer and asking for a replacement. Most have some sort of warranty. Something else you can try is to use a different motherboard and sata cables. I had somewhat similar issues in the past because my case's only drive mounts were through a sata hot swap thing, and the hot swap thing was broken. Removing the hot swap device and wiring the drives directly to the motherboard fixed the issue. I suspect that you may have a failure in the motherboard's sata system and/or in onr or more sata cables. If they're m.2 drives, it may also be worth a shot to try a different motherboard, but I haven't use those enough to say anything more.

Thanks! This is really useful

If you want something that can be restored to have full functionality o the OS, just copy/pasting the files will not work. You need an image-level backup. If you are comfortable with risking the destruction of your data (as this tool is somewhat error prone if you haven't had a lot of practice with it), you can use the Linux tool dd, for which you will need to boot into a Linux live system (ie. from a usb disk). There is also probably at least one image-creating tool for Windows, but I don't know what it is called. Additionally, most imaging tools require that the disk you are imaging isn't being used during the process, necessitating the use of a live system anyway.

Submitted it, this is essentially now just a thread for bodged solutions

It does spike my cpu usage, but not that hard.

Make sure that the single plug can handle the wattage that whatever is plugged into the powerstrip uses. I am not an electrician, but, it would not surprise me if a single plug adapter was only designed to handle the wattage from a single device.

You should only alter your BIOS settings if you have a need to do so. If you want to overclock, enable visualization, etc. then definitely do so (but make sure you do so correctly). If, however, you are just messing with them to improve performance without overclocking or due to a "because I can" mentality (which I doubt is possible -- although I am not all that knowledgeable in that regard), then I recommend against it because its defaults should work well.

You should only alter your BIOS settings if you have a need to do so. If you want to overclock, enable visualization, etc. then definitely do so (but make sure you do so correctly). If, however, you are just messing with them to improve performance without overclocking or due to a "because I can" mentality (which I doubt is possible -- although I am not all that knowledgeable in that regard), then I recommend against it because its defaults should work well.