Windows is driving me NUTS. :(

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Tanis143

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Well, I'm throwing in the towel. Tried dozens of fixes, disabling all kinds of things, can't get anything to work, and the problem actually seems to be getting worse. The 3-4 second freezes happening at least once a minute, sometimes 4-5 times a minute, and this morning at work it totally locked up on me twice (though the Caps Lock key would turn on/off) and do absolutely NOTHING. Then, after 3-5 minutes of waiting on it, I held the power button down to do a hard reboot, and it would bring down a half-screen window asking about rebooting, if I swipe up on this to cancel, it restores functionality. Everything works (as before, with occ freezes).

I just can't work this way. This is the 2nd Surface 7 Pro that has done this to me in the last 2 weeks, and I am done with it.

Sad thing is, I have THREE of these sitting at home, waiting to give them to the nurses for our non-profit so they can use them for our new EMR and I'm afraid they're going to have the same problem. Jeebus!

So tonite, after work, on my ONLY night this week I had nothing to do, I am going to drive BACK down to Tulsa to go BACK to Best Buy and return this thing. Problem is, they'll only give me store credit, so I have to get something to replace it from them.

Can't stand Apple, so iPad is out of the question. Have to have a touchscreen (so no Macbook), have to have a keyboard, detachable is ok, doesn't matter.

So it looks like a Chromebook or Pixelbook is probably going to be my best bet. So I'll spend some time playing with those, and see how they do.

<sigh>

This may be a bit late, but look into the Dell Latitude tablets. They have a detachable keyboard to run in tablet mode, but with the keyboard attached its just like a laptop. They are a bit bulkier than the surface, but still lighter and thinner than a laptop. We have been using them for our work laptops for a few years now and with the exception of me dropping one, and one dying after being in my hot van for a hot summer, they have worked pretty well.
 

tRidiot

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Just got home... long day #3 in a long week.

I ended up with a Lenovo 14" i5 touchscreen laptop. It seems to be working ok, so far.... we'll see. It is slightly bigger and tiny bit heavier, but I think it'll be fine, as long as it functions ok.

I just need to get used to the keyboard, it's a slightly different feel, so it slows down my typing, but I'll get there. it's still pretty lightweight, which is a big factor, since I carry it around all day long. I'll need to get some kind of protective case for it, but I'm going to hold off on that and on getting a second charger just yet, to make sure it's going to be ok.

So far, no problems, no freezing up or stuttering, which was showing up on the Surface in just a few minutes of operation. So, here's hoping...
 

Catt57

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Maybe your problem is in these settings..

windows_settings.png
 

tRidiot

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It's very appropriate.

After a full (and very busy) day at work yesterday, the only complaint I have with my new Lenovo is still just the keyboard. I am getting used to it, but it is taking some time. A few keys I am missing or have to use extra steps for. Like the "home" and "end" and "page up/down" buttons, I like having dedicated keys for those, I use them constantly on the forums and in my EMR, but this keyboard I have to use function and the arrow keys to achieve most of those. Kind of annoying, but it's a minor thing I will get used to.

That's not usually something you look at or can remember to check on a keyboard when you're demo'ing a product in the middle of the store.

Like I said, though, otherwise, I've very happy with this thing, and ZERO episodes of freezing up with my new laptop. I talked to my nurses last night from our non-profit and they are leery of the Windows Surface 7 Pro, too, since I went through two of them. So I'll be returning 3 more to Best Buy and getting something else. Just to avoid the headaches.
 

TSQUARE

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I feel your pain. About 3 months ago I started looking for a new laptop. Long story short, last Friday I got the new MacBook Pro 16.
Every single windows computer I bought had varying issues. Here are just a few that i tried, hp x360, msi, Dell XP’s 15, razer blade stealth 13 and blade 15, Dell Inspiron, 13” surface laptop 3 and surface pro 7. The 2 dells had horrible blue screen, the ho just sucked all the way around, the razer each had bad light bleed, and the msi had an enormous fan sound. The surface pro 7 had sluggish and hang up on os, power management issues. The surface laptop 3 was the best out of all of them, and it still had the freezing and hang ups.

I need a fairly powerful machine for my work. I got the i9-16-1tb MacBook Pro 16. It hurt paying that much, almost $700-$1200 more than some of the ones I tried. But I recently was with someone that had a 5 year old MacBook Pro. They opened the lid and it came right on, os ready to go. It ran amazingly fast for a 5 year old computer. I asked when the last time the reset it to factory was, and to my amazement they said they never had.

Yes, they cost a lot more, but you truly get what you pay for in terms of longevity. $49 parallels and a $50 license of windows pro and I have windows when I need it. So far I am super impressed. The learning curve is there, but it’s just learning a different way of getting the same thing.

You can also go with a little less power spec wise than a windows machine if you are doing straight Mac OS apps and software. Apple manages memory and storage a lot better than windows.

Hope you get it figured out. Hollar if I can help in any way. Also, you can go to the education web version of Mac website and generally get $200 off a new Mac.


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tRidiot

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My Lenovo seems to be working out great. We went yesterday and returned 3 Windows Surface 7 Pros unopened and ended up with 3 HP X360s. My wife wanted to choose those for connection ports, including extra USB and HDMI. There are some instances in our non-profit's situation where HDMI will probably be useful. They are slightly thicker than the Lenovo I got, but they had those ports and were $100 cheaper. So... we'll see how they go.

Ours are not high end like yours and we don't have super demanding needs. Just the i5, 8gig 256GB versions. They'll do for what we need, for now.
 

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Hope it works out for you. I’ve been straight MS for 20+ years, but now that I’ve switched I am happy with the decision. I too was extremely against Apple and their proprietary crap, BUT I have discovered that’s what makes them work better and last longer than MS (or Android). MS machines and Android phones are very fragmented. They have a billion manufacturers all adding their stuff on top of windows (or Android), and that’s when the most problems start. Apple controls the hardware and software from start to finish, and it gives a very streamlined and pleasant experience to me.

I got the x360 15” when they had it for $1099 on Black Friday. Amazingly beautiful hardware, but I had the most problems with that one out of all. The surface laptop 3 was the best of the bunch (it had minimal ports). Hope it works out for you.


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