Johan Bové

> You can find detailed instructions for disassembling your computer model and reapplying thermal compound on the web

Good luck trying to open up a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 to reapply thermal paste...

Started keeping all of my thoughts and ideas in plain text files (in markdown format) and it feels liberating. Syncing everything with Syncthing, it allows me to edit the files on the go using Markor. On the desktop, I'm syncing with both my Surface as well as a Ubuntu VM and it's awesome to have it all under control.

Wanted to "upgrade" my almost six year old Surface Pro 3 with a more powerful and upgrade-able PC. I find deciding on which refurbished PC laptop to buy a lot harder to do than getting a brand new machine. Comparing specs is tricky, checking refurbished states and upgrade-ability is often unclear on the e-commerce shops I checked; Verifying remaining battery life feels like a leap-of-faith. Often manufacturer websites lack latest documentation. Optimizing value for money is very difficult. This is harder than I thought it should be.

Shopping for a new replacement laptop for my aging Surface Pro 3 - I really _want_ to get a nice refurbished laptop, but none of the websites I looked at are able to help me pick a device that I consider would suite my needs. Would be nice to have this info: release year, touch-capable, RAM-upgradeable (max ram, free slots), HD swappable yes/no, Battery replacement available, user serviceable yes/no (service manual, ifixit link)

Microsoft's "Malware Service Executable" is basically designed to make you want to buy new hardware as it is making perfectly fine PCs feel sluggish and close to unusable. When this service is active, my Surface Pro 3 is slower to react than my Raspberry Pi 3. So I am seriously considering switching back to a Linux distro because of it. How is Linux Mint these days?

So it's decided. Unless it breaks through hardware failure, I'm keeping my Surface Pro 3 at least until May 2020. Then the design and the hardware will be six years old. I'll look for a good refurbished recent machine, probably a laptop again around that period.

Updated my Surface Pro 3 to Windows 10 Version 1903 (build 18362.446) and after the obligatory reboot it became complete unusable. CPU load is maxed out and even the GPU load was over 80% on the Windows Settings screen. Not sure what is going on here.

#Windows

Updating #Windows 10 to version 1903 (2019-04) required me to unplug and disconnect all USB devices as there is some potential issue that can arise with drive letters. Also, the update itself is really taking a long time to install. My #Surface Pro 3 has been at it for about an hour now.