Lippy

Yeah, it’s a fair point. It’s also because newer TVs are generally less repairable as well, but I didn’t get the message across very well.

Stuff like this is why I’m still holding on to my old TV for dear life. It’s seen better days but it’s at least easily repairable.

The amp went bad which causes the internal speakers to give up after a couple of minutes, so I just run it with a soundbar. Then one of the cats broke the optical port for it, so now it’s taped on lol. The panel still works great, so I think I’ll just replace the main board on it to keep it going for a few more years.

Once something on it finally goes where repairing it becomes unviable, then I’ve no idea where to go from there. I guess I’ll just keep buying used TVs and fix them up.

To add to this, below are the group policy and registry locations to change this setting to do the same as the comment above in order to allow for automation. Of course with the disclaimer that you should only use these if you know what you are doing.

Group policy

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata. Set the policy to enabled.

Registry (also works on Home edition)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Device Metadata. Create a REG_DWORD within called PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork and set the value to 1.

I tend to stagger my platform and GPU upgrades. It tends to be about 3-4 years between something being upgraded. So I’d technically call the platform upgrade a new build, even though it inherits some older components.

My last build was used for 10 years, and the one before that 4 years. I was planning to have my previous build last for about 5-6 years, but those were the days when Intel stagnated with 14nm++++ and AMD wasn’t really showing up, so I ended up prolonging its life a bit more. My current build should last me well into the 2030s since it’s an AM5 platform. So this is the timeline:

2008: New build. 2012: New build, plus old hard drives inherited as data drives. 2015: GPU, PSU and SSD upgrade. 2018: GPU, CPU and heatsink upgrade, retired old data drives from previous build and replaced with new ones. 2022: Platform upgrade (motherboard, CPU, RAM), case upgrade and new SSD to use as the main drive. 2025: GPU and PSU upgrade. 2028: Most likely going to be another CPU and SSD upgrade (provided that prices come back down to sane levels), and retirement of older drives.

That was my situation too initially. I first tried while using my Steam Deck and it kept running into errors during checkout. So I yeeted myself to my main desktop where it went through without a hitch.

Mobile always seems less stable than desktop when making purchases.

I ran my old 3770K machine for 10 years and it got the job done. I’ll run my current PC well into the 2030s if I have to. Just gotta hope that nothing dies on it because at this rate it’s gonna be worth more than a car shortly…

If things still aren’t affordable after that, I guess I’m going back to pen and paper again…

Ah yes, the Atari Jaguar approach.

The entire GPU market has gone to shit.

It’s unacceptable that there’s new cards for sale (if you can even find one) that cost more than I paid for my 1080 Ti 8 years ago and have essentially the same amount of VRAM (12 GB vs 11 GB).

I thought that maybe the 9070 XT would be at least a reasonable option if I could get it for MSRP. Of course that launch ended up being another farce.

At this point it looks like I’m going to be riding my 1080 Ti until the bitter end. Sure, newer cards will wipe the floor with it, but I can’t justify the current prices.