Warning about HP Laptops - incompatibility with Win 10 Creators Update

[Mouse]

Thank you for trawling through all that information for me Mark

Maybe the reason that I haven't had any problems with the Office apps you are talking about is because my copy is Office 2013, not 2016? Most people who own Office can also afford to upgrade it. I can't.

The other reason could be that I've only used Word and Excel with any regularity, and only then to titivate my CV, do a bit of writing now and then, and create purely functional spreadsheets to solve mathematical problems - nothing graphic.

My situation is such that I can't afford to make any kind of a purchase that isn't food for the foreseeable future, so I think I might struggle to finish my City map and then let it be at that.

EDIT: The one thing that upsets me most of all, is that I keep asking the question: What would it have cost Microsoft to have written a couple of lines of code into their installers that checked the system details of the machine - knowing that Microsoft were fully aware of the problem before they even started writing the updates. In essence: Why did a multibillion dollar international corporation take it out on me?

[Mark Oliva]

Maybe the reason that I haven't had any problems with the Office apps you are talking about is because my copy is Office 2013, not 2016?

You probably don't do the level of graphic embedding that some of the users with problems do. I get the idea that this problem deals with files that are huge ... books filled with graphics, Excel tables filled with a lot of embedded PNG and JPG graphics. However, Office 2013 and Office 2016 use the same framework for graphics.

Most people who own Office can also afford to upgrade it. I can't. The other reason could be that I've only used Word and Excel with any regularity, and only then to titivate my CV, do a bit of writing now and then, and create purely functional spreadsheets to solve mathematical problems - nothing graphic.

I realize that this has no financial priority at present, but it might be of some future value, particularly if it's of value to your CV to show you're up and running with the current version of Office. Microsoft sells annual subscriptions to Office 365 for prices that I consider reasonable. Here on the continent it's € 69,- a year for one machine and € 99,- for 5 machines. I have the latter, with my license used for the three computers here. The other two go to the two laptops of my daughter, who's a schoolteacher.

This is not cloud software but rather the full local installation package, with Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Access, OneNote, etc. Microsoft keeps your installation always current with updates to new Office versions when they're released.

Again, I know this isn't a current topic for you, but in the future, it might be of value.

My situation is such that I can't afford to make any kind of a purchase that isn't food for the foreseeable future, so I think I might struggle to finish my City map and then let it be at that.

I've been there already too. I understand how it is.

[acrosome]

ChickPea - I'm confused by the diagram in the notes to step 5 in the instructions you linked me to for installing Mint, and I'd rather people tut, roll their eyes and think me a coward for not doing the partition, than ruin the only machine I have to my name by making a critical mistake at that point of the installation.

I'm pretty sure that the only way you can destroy your machine is if you have an aneurysm or something during partitioning and tell it to clobber the whole hard drive, in which case you would actually still have a functional machine but you'd lose everything in Windows including all of your files.

However...

I have done Linux installs where afterwards the graphics drivers were so screwed up I only got a black screen. I would have to go in on the command line to change some settings to at least get a functional window up and then install the proper driver. Which was a PITA involving a lot of searching forums and copy-pasting "magic words" into the command line. Generally speaking Mint is less prone to this since they include all of those proprietary-IP drivers, unlike Ubuntu. But I mention this because HP seems to be a company that really likes to do their own off-the-wall things, and they may use some sort of nonstandard in-house graphics card that will need a driver installed. (My issues were with Panasonic Toughbooks, and Panasonic also likes to do their own off-the-wall things.) If any driver is going to be missing, it's going to be one for a single company that likes to be different.

[Mouse]

Oh dear.

And to think I was only worried about possibly losing the partition I set aside for Mint if the installation went wrong! (one of the reasons I wanted to keep it as small as possible, since I only have a 500GB disc).

I think I will limp on for a while - finish my City map one tiny 60 second brush stroke after another, see if I can't get a job of some kind that will last longer than 6 weeks, and save up to get a new machine - a non-HP laptop with Mint already installed. I'm sick to death of both MS and HP.

[acrosome]

And to think I was only worried about possibly losing the partition I set aside for Mint if the installation went wrong! (one of the reasons I wanted to keep it as small as possible, since I only have a 500GB disc).

No, no- seriously, you would have to have a stroke or something to clobber the whole hard drive. (I was actually trying to be reassuring, above.) Mint's installation wizard is very clear on the matter. Unless they've changed it dramatically it includes a big bar-graphic showing the partitions that you have chosen. And, if you get to that point and find it at all confusing, abort the install. No harm done.

Frankly, someone who has dealt with a Mint install more recently than I have can probably tell you more. I think my old laptop is running v13 LTS or something. I haven't broken it out in a while.

For future reference, Dell sells Ubuntu machines. There is a specialty shop called System76 that does, also. They're almost the default source, actually, but they are in Denver and I'm not sure about international sales, British keyboards, etc. (They are having a Holiday Sale right now, too.) And there is a company called Emperor Linux who specializes in optimized Linux machines of various distros. He tends to be pricey, though, because he's a one-man shop. But his tech support is awesome. And he'll dual-boot it for you if you like.

[Mouse]

Thanks acrsome

Don't worry - I doubt I would have gone ahead with this even if you had said nothing at all. The logical way forward isn't to risk upsetting my HP machine while it is still at least working... after a fashion. The most logical way forward is to be patient with the situation, save up, and get a better machine that has nothing to do with either MS or HP. That this plan may take months, or even years, is irrelevant. Having something that half works is a whole lot better than having no money to pay an expert to make it better tomorrow if half the drivers are gone because HP are famous for being... er... unique(?).

LOL! I'm just not a gambler

[johnvanvliet]

I have done Linux installs where afterwards the graphics drivers were so screwed up I only got a black screen

normally that is NOT a screw up
and 9.9999999 times out of 10 the Noveau driver works just fine for most people and for the system install

unless you do not RTFM and try to replace Nouveau with the nvidia driver and did not read the instructions

ubuntu and mint can do things a bit differently than Debian

fedora has a bit of a different set up than redhat
and suse dose it's own thing - so much so that YOU NEED to RTFM

if you blacklist Nouveau and did not rebuild the boot image after rebooting into text only and reboot again ..........

normally you use the package manager to install the nvidia driver IN your OS's software repositories

or

you did not know you have a optimums CPU/GPU combo in the laptop and tried to install the NON bumblebee driver

as for AMD cards -- i do not use them but the default open driver is AUTO installed as system install
-- NOT the AMD closed source driver from the AMD web site

if you want to use that one you ALSO need to rebiuld the boot image

[selden]

Mouse,

It seems to me to be quite reasonable to go on as you have been, booting Linux from an external drive and Windows from the internal disk. There's no need to install Linux internally except for whatever convenience that might provide. If you have a spare thumb drive, you might consider installing Linux on that instead of always booting the "Live" version, but only because that would make it somewhat more convenient to install software permanently. Having Linux on an external drive also means that you aren't tied so tightly to your current hardware. Just plug you copy of Linux into whatever new computer you get (or old computer that you might have put in a closet and forgotten about) and you're off and running.

[Mouse]

Selden - the thumb drive is presumably what I'm calling a memory stick?

The live boot does not allow me to save files on either it, or the hard drive, so its only a demo as far as I can see - that and an invitation to install it properly. I will google 'install mint on thumb drive' and see what's what. Atm the largest one I have is only 15 GB, which I don't think is large enough for the job.

I'm managing to work a bit on my City map in Krita at about half the speed I was working on it before

[selden]

Right, sorry, yes. I guess it's a difference between US and UK dialects: It's a (USB Flash disk) drive the size and shape of your thumb. To me, "memory stick" also could be taken to mean an SD memory card: same technology but different form factor and connections.

15 GB might be big enough, depending on how much is in the Live disk and whether or not its individual files get decompressed. A minimal Linux can be a lot smaller than Windows. Why, I remember when... 1GB was more than enough for everything!

On the other hand, a maximal version, with all possible graphics utility programs, can be gigantic.