I don't want to give my brother my old computer

[Bright_Star]

I had an old laptop laying around that I hadn't used in a while so I cleaned it up by getting rid of all the stuff I had on it & basically restoring it to the way it was when I bought it. My brother has never had a computer so I thought I'd be nice & give him this one.

So he gets so excited that he orders the high speed internet package from Comcast. Then he bitches at me cause he says there's nothing to plug the ethernet cable into the laptop. I told him that it was designed to get on the internet wirelessly. I told him all he has to do is get a router & a network card. How simple is that? NOT to him it isn't!!

He asked me why didn't I tell him that he needed this & that. I told him he didn't ask me. Had he asked me I would have told him to start off with dial-up. Yeah, dial-up is SLOW but it gets the job done.

I told him I could give him my 7 year old desk-top computer that's siitting in my closet. It can get him online in no time flat cause it has an ethernet port for broadband.

He seems to think that with Windows 7 coming out that he's going to upgrade from Windows XP!! I said it's not powerfull enough for that. He states that he's read a few PC magazines & he'll know what to do. I tried telling him that I've been working with computers for 25 years & I know what I'm talking about but he doesn't want to listen to me.

I'm having second thoughts about giving him my old desk-top PC. I should just tell him to buy the router & network card. I mean, it's not that hard or expensive.

[MsCrankypants]

I feel you. I wrote this whole big long ranty post detailing my own experience giving my own laptop to a relative who is barely a step up from a poo-flinging monkey when it comes to technology, but it was way longer than it needed to be. So what it boils down to is this: DON'T DO IT.

Trust me, your life will be SO much easier. Don't do it!!

[iradney]

Tell him if he really thinks your laptop is so "crappy", he's welcome to give it back. In fact, he can just give it back now since he's being such an ungrateful jockwad, and maybe next time someone gives him something, he'll reconsider acting like a brat.

[protege]

People like that are *exactly* why I don't give away my old computers. I have better things to do than rebuild a machine, and then listen to someone blame *me* for whatever travesty they've managed to do to it.

I've probably posted about this before... but for the past several years, my father's computer has been acting up. Actually, it's because he doesn't update his virus defs, doesn't run the XP updates, etc. But, that's a rant in itself...

While all that crap was going on, I'd managed to score a pair of older computers from work. Nothing really wrong with them, but they were being "retired" for newer models. I pinched the RAM from one machine (scrapping the rest)...and gave it to a more-deserving cause. That is, the computer I used to play GTA The other machine...got a good going-over, including a thorough cleaning, all the XP and virus updates I could find, etc. But, what to do with it?

Rather than have another machine sitting around (I currently have about 4), I thought it would be nice if my father had a newer computer. So I took the rebuilt machine down there, and said he could have it. I warned him though, that the hard drive was relatively small, and he might want to upgrade the RAM.

No sooner did I do that, when he started complaining about how he could spend (multiple times) more for a new one. Which the hell out of me, since he'd spent the past month whining about how he couldn't afford a new one Needless to say, I was a bit pissed--try to do something nice, and get bitched at. So now that computer is back at my place...and is currently awaiting its fate.

Dad, on the other hand...bought a Vista-based machine, which has pissed him off greatly. He can't handle Vista

[Jester]

Your brother seems to be a pissy little brat. If he doesn't appreciate or like what you have given him, take it back and give it to someone who will more appreciate your generosity.

[blas]

If people have an issue with what I have to offer (especially if it's free!), then they don't need to have it.

[gremcint]

just tell him he can have it but if he complains even once your taking it back and he's on his own for a computer. Heck get it in writing.

[Becks]

I'm always willing to give a computer a new home.

[lordlundar]

Your brother seems to be a pissy little brat. If he doesn't appreciate or like what you have given him, take it back and give it to someone who will more appreciate your generosity.

yeah, like me.