Busting Some More Myths
To complete last weeks’ Byte Me article on IT Myths, please read on to see more myths that need to be busted! A new PC will always be quicker than your old PC. This is not always true if the previous PC was a middle of the range item and the new one is a cheapy. We have seen many people purchase a new PC which turned out to be less powerful than their old one.
If you put a new PC away in the cupboard for 5 years it should then work fine because it has had an easy life. Absolutely false as the CPU or brain of a computer does not slow down over time or from use but rather software programs become more comprehensive every year and therefore require more power to run. A mid to cheap 5-year-old PC will struggle with modern software because it the IT world has moved on so much in 5 years.
Microsoft gave copies of Office away when you purchased your old PC. This has never been the case! Many PC have come pre-installed with a trial copy of Office and lots of people had old versions of Microsoft Office that we hacked or cracked copies (illegal) – but either way, if you had a genuine copy then you paid for it separately at some time along the way. Microsoft Office is still not free, so if you need the latest versions then they will add to the cost of a new PC.
Your email account does not have a password. ALL email accounts have a password, even if you forgot to write it down 10 years ago when it was created. Without a password, anyone could setup a copy of your email account on their computer and receive a copy of your emails and / or impersonate you.
Your Internet is not working but you are still getting emails. This is not possible since your emails require Internet connectivity to send and receive. Most likely in the above case your Internet browser has stopped working or a firewall is preventing it from working. Try a reboot of the PC or check your firewall settings or try a different browser – because the Internet is still getting to your PC.
A dedicated graphics card will make it run faster. If you have read many of my previous articles, then you will know this to be a fallacy for the majority of people. Unless you want to play fast paced computer shoot-em-up games or you are a professional photographer or CAD operator then a dedicated graphics card will only cost more initially, consume heaps more power, produce a lot more heat, offer an extra point of failure and offer zero performance improvement.
A cheap computer will do the job. I should not need to bust this myth, but in case you are still wondering – a cheap computer will take ages to boot up and shut down, it will infuriate with its use, it will often crash as it confuses itself, it will make you open applications twice – which will again crash it. A cheap computer will also have a cheap mechanical drive which is far more likely to crash and lose your data. It the long run it can cost way more than a proper PC would have initially.
Computers are out of date before you even buy them. No – a good powerful proper PC from 5 years ago will still run Windows 10 very efficiently today – even when a brand new cheap one will fail. PC’s are getting more powerful all the time, but not at the rate suggested by this myth. Your copy of Windows 10 is not faulty or broken – something else is.
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Future Byte Me topics can be emailed to [email protected] and Bruce is contactable at Kerr Solutions, 205 Musgrave Street or on 49 222 400.
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