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I just bought a new laptop for a friend (Lenovo). It came with a Win11 install partition. I tried EVERY TRICK I COULD FIND to disable [MS Account and Bitlocker]. It simply would not do it. Something Lenovo did to the install? Frustrating.

I HATE the 11 GUI. I dislike a good number of changes it’s made under the hood. It’s acceptable with a GUI overlay. But the other problems did not seem to be overcome.

I installed a clean copy Win10, loaded a few missing drivers, blocked W11, and it’s going to have to work for a good while that way. The friend is not computer savvy, so any kind of problem or complexity ends up being my problem. I suspect there are a good number of people in this forum like that.

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TaskForce141, Cybertooth

ALL batteries have…..some…..self discharge. HOW much can be variable. WHAT the voltage state was when you got yours was?
I’d guess you don’t know. Without checking you are in the dark. No telling how long that battery was sitting on a shelf. Yours probably went dead just sitting.
Get yourself a cheap digital voltmeter and learn how to do simple volt tests.  (Harbor Freight has them also.)

I disagree with nOads:[The protection circuit is a type of fusible link and, once it melts, it won’t matter how long you leave the battery connected to a charger, it will not recharge!]
I have LOTS of Li batteries with protection circuits. It is a circuit ‘breaker’ NOT a fusible link.
It CAN be reset, BUT LOTS OF CHARGERS WILL NOT DO SO. You have to get a 3.7 volt source and ‘short’ the + to + and – to -, for just a few seconds. (Ignore the contacts that are NOT +/-). THEN try to charge it normally.
(Note-it does not have to be a 18650 lithium. It can be a holder with 3xAAA Nimh in it often used in 18650 compatible lights). ANY 3x NiMh in series will do it.
If it will not charge after that, consider it dead.

Replacements – Good luck with OEM replacements of batteries of that sort. LOTS of things, especially cameras and older phones come with that style of battery. They almost NEVER have the same capacity as the originals, and the seller/source frequently claims MORE than the original. At the 98% level people don’t have the equipment or skill to check…..so they go on faith. I DO have the equipment and I’ve measured HOARDS of them. I’ve found 2x non-original batteries that were as good as the originals.

What you SHOULD have done:
1. Immediately check the voltage of the new battery. It SHOULD be between 3.0v > 4.2 volts, the normal range for lithium. Below 3.0v is harmful. Above 4.2v may cause fire. Keeping it in that range is the function of the charger and protection circuit.
2. If it met #1, you should have charged it and used it to see how it worked. You’ve had it long enough you could likely get a ‘seat of the pants’ feel for the working capacity.
3. TRY to keep the battery between 20%-80% charge. Full discharge, and CONTINUOUS full charge is hard on lithium. (Note-The charge circuit SHOULD charge to 4.2v and shut off, exactly like a laptop.).
4. If you want to have a ‘spare’, try to get it to 50% charge (40-60% is fine), and keep it in a dry cool place. Check it once in awhile and maybe give it a few ‘cycles’ of use.

Moderator’s Note: Cleaned up bbCode in post that made a portion hard to read.

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LHiggins

Will this work as well as the [Do Not Call List]? <yeah, sarcasm>

As an experiment I’ve used Macrium to “restore” (move actually), Win10 from one PC to a completely different PC.
It booted, complained a bit, loaded new drivers, and then mostly ran OK. It was not activated. I think you can move a version you legally own, but you are probably (certainly) going to have to call MS.

If you are going to use Ventoy you have to download the iso  for those also. Same one’s will work for Yumi.

I have found that you really don’t NEED individual PC Macrium bootables. I’m all Intel, but I can boot any of my Intel PC from the same boot disk and it works.

In an odd twist  on that theme, I have an Acer/Intel desktop. When I make a boot disk, from the Acer, and test it, EVERY TIME, the resolution comes up completely wrong. It is so bad I can’t get to the lower controls. Functionally it will not work.
Frustrated I tried a number of  backup CD’s from other PC’s and found one (only one) that DOES work. I have no idea why.

I don’t think you can cross platforms successfully – Intel >AMD .
But, I haven’t tried it.

 

That ‘information’ on long term data retention issues is something I had gotten out of discussion forums and accepted without further research. It seemed plausible.

I did a Google search on [long term data storage ssd vs hdd]. Lots of hits, most in websites that do a large amount of tech research and testing. It appears a SSD/NVME may be more subject to data loss associated with a sudden power loss while working. This does NOT appear to be true if powered off and disconnected. There would not seem to be a problem with data degrading due to not being “powered up and refreshed” periodically.

If anything I came away thinking that SSD/NVME may be a more reliable way to store data long term.

YUMI is a great suggestion. A possible issue might be long term data integrity? I have seen a number of references to SSD/NVME losing data if the media is not attached and “live/refreshed” for a good while. How much of a problem is this? Is there a time frame if so – weeks/months/many months/year+?
Does the same limitation apply to flash drives?

FWIW, I’ve used boot CD multi-tools in the past [Ultimate Boot CD]. I’ve also learned the hard way that a written CD doesn’t necessarily last forever either. There seems to be a rather complex relationship of brand/quality of the CD and the brand/quality of the writer that affects the longevity of the CD.

Not a big deal. Why not update it?
Likely it’ll work. I’ve used rescue media from different computers and those worked.
OTOH, I have an Acer/Intel that will NOT make a usable RM for it no matter what I do. It’ll boot, and I “think” the required functions are there but the screen size is completely wrong so I can’t get to the controls.
I found a RM from a completely different Intel PC that works properly.
Go figure.

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Cybertooth

Most of the mess is the fault of the health insurance business. They will do ANYTHING for the business, and don’t really care about your health. IMO, avoid advantage plans, get Medigap, but even those are confusing.

https://hartmannreport.com/p/the-medicare-advantage-plan-to-kill

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wavy

I upgraded a test bed PC to 22H2. Went quickly so must be more of a ‘patch’ than a full upgrade. No problems…..but, this is a pretty ‘bare’ PC and sees little use. There could be lots of gremlins in the works I don’t know about.

This should do you:
https://www.askwoody.com/2021/tasks-for-the-weekend-january-30-2021/?mc_cid=ec65b636de&mc_eid=df78e5ca04

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Sly McNasty

I stayed on 1909 because on Pro you could defer updates…..easily….for 365 days. Later versions removed that option. I can use [gpedit], but frankly I NEED to have a ‘recipe’ of exactly what to do in front of me. It’s not user friendly.

Somewhere I saw a Registry Edit that allowed the recent 35 day deferral to be increased to much longer. Can’t find that again. Anyone have a link?

Procedures discussed are the same for all USB drives. OTOH, not all drives are the same quality. Familiar brand names is not a guarantee. Quality and speed can range from abysmal to outstanding. Some good USB2 are faster than poor USB3. You ‘usually/mostly’ get what you pay for.
So….you may be having a problem with a bad device if the [formatting] procedures don’t fix things.

I’ve used Mint in their various forms for several years now. They are probably the most like Windows and easiest to adapt to. Hardware support seems to be pretty good. Like most Linux distros, if you have a serious issue with a hardware driver you may find yourself struggling to find a driver and install it. Linux ‘tinkering’ is completely unlike Windows and I find it very confusing.

Tried Zorin 15 something like a year ago. Different look which was OK. Not bad to use but seemed more incomplete. After a couple months I uninstalled it. Thought Mint was still more acceptable to me, but then I had been using it for a good while.
When Zorin 16 came around I tried it again. The new look and changes made it much more acceptable. IMO, a Mint version appropriate to your hardware, or Z16 would both be worth a trial. If both work, pick the one that suits your preference.

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DrBonzo

Using CrystalDiskMark yesterday, on a HP 128MB x702W USB 3.o, and a newly booted PC I got: Read 200Mb/s, Write 144Mb/s.
After the PC had been on a good while:
Sequential Read : 58.912 MB/s
Sequential Write : 10.326 MB/s

That kind of drop is ‘typical’. I’ve found the same thing with an SSD in a cassette. Transfers VERY well when newly booted. Can slow down to laptop HD levels later.

Frustrating.