Disclaimer: This article is written to express my point of view, based on my personal experience and comprehension of the things I deal with. It doesn’t mean it is right or the absolute truth. Regarding my Intel hypothesis, it is mainly this; a hypothesis. I wish it is not even close to the truth. But a wish is just a wish, like a hypothesis is only a hypothesis. Nothing more or less.
What the heck is going on? I mean, really, what the heck? Things in dealing with tech problems were never smooth, but lately, I have noticed an upsetting negative upswing. With over a decade of practical experience in systematically dealing with computer troubleshooting, it is the first time I considered giving up. OK, I don’t really mean to give up, but some things push me too hard. I dealt lately with so many insane PC issues that even a saint would doubt his religious beliefs.
A few years ago, most problems were mainly OS-related, software/driver incompetence, and, in the worst-case scenario, malware or old hardware that faded away. Nowadays, the issues have multiplied and become even more sophisticated to deal with. Windows updates—a standard headache back in the day—were improved but still refuse to be trouble-free or deal with acknowledged issues on time. And please, for God’s sake, stop auto-updating GPU drivers and such because you create more problems than you intend to resolve. I mean, you should really stop this tactic.
About drivers, what can I say more? Some drivers are so bad that they conflict so hard where they shouldn’t, and it would have been best to prefer a generic driver instead. And I don’t refer to the AMD GPU drivers meme. Or at least, not mainly on them. I refer to driver issues in general. And now, about poorly written OEM software solutions. I don’t want to refer to anyone specifically, but come on. STOP pushing us too hard with your home-brew bloatware. They are usually useless in the best-case scenario and even dangerous. And I refer to almost every OEM crapware. If you can’t do something right, don’t do it all. It is a shame that free alternatives do much better work than you offer. Much, much better.
About cybersecurity, there’s not much to tell. Cyber threats are advancing day after day and are way more sophisticated now than they were back in the day. It is no longer a simple virus that your antivirus would deal with. Malware combos and sophisticated net attacks are way more prevalent than they were before. And no, only a decent anti-malware tool and common sense are inadequate to be protected by only these. Enough with this flimsy excuse. It would be best if you were extra-cautious, well-informed, and even a bit lucky, combo with your anti-malware tool, safety precautions, and common sense. And still, nothing is guaranteed. It takes one simple wrong move, and even the strongest have fallen. Keep that always in mind.
But what troubles me the most is the hardware failure rate and how often and premature it is now. And the RMA or DOA processes are even more of a nightmare now than they used to be. Some vendors should reconsider their practices. They really should. Lately, I have had to deal with really hard-to-spot failing hardware if it was a hardware problem and not a power-related or similar issue (not necessarily depending on PSUs. Decent units are doing a great job nowadays—maybe better than any other component).
And this is a real hassle: digging deep into the settings to see what might be wrong. The worst thing is that a respective amount of failing hardware wasn’t old enough to justify the premature failure. Some components were less than a year old or lightly used. I can’t explain it. Can you? It might be time for some things to change and improve. Otherwise, I can’t really guess what is yet to come, but it can’t be good. It’s just a hypothesis, though.
And speaking of hypotheses, let me write down my opinion on the so-called Intel degradation issue (mistakenly called this way, in my humble opinion). Intel, you knew it. Admit it. You knew it from the beginning. It is mainly your fault and partially the fault of the motherboard vendors. I can’t believe that a team that was so experienced and highly trained didn’t see that coming. And they had warned you. I can’t believe they didn’t. It was reasonable, after all. And you chose to ignore it because you thought shrewdly. Because you knew that by the time the issues were reported, it was a way better risk than improving them from the ground up. But it might be earlier than you expected and caught you by surprise.
That’s why the first thing you suggested was sticking with your official power limits. And you were sly enough to load part of the responsibilities on the motherboard vendors. By acting like you weren’t aware of what was going on already. Pretending that you didn’t know of the sky-high power consumption and the challenging cooling performance. You didn’t know that these factors might cause any problems soon enough? Admit that you knew that the chips were pushed too much, and you knew the risks, but you frantically wanted the performance in numbers against the stiff competition by AMD. Because this way, all these things somehow make sense. I don’t know if the reason is the degradation. I am not fond of this theory (sounds more like “flawed by design” to me than degradation), but I know that you really should have done better.
Intel, you messed things up the worst way possible with the current-gen chips. I hope the newer-gen chips will significantly improve over the current ones. The competition is tough, and AMD challenges you more than ever, and with great success, I have to add. So, please stop hiding behind lies and irresponsible statements. Admit that you were wrong and already knew it, and improve your next-gen platform. It is not so hard. That’s how a leader should respond, not with excuses, if you want to be a leader.
On the rest of the subjects this article deals with, I hope that things will be better in the future. I don’t know what measures, training, or quality control should be taken, but I know that some things should be changed for the better. At least offer solutions, and not more problems. When someone pays for a product, it must work as it should, and the provider should have accurate and convenient solutions, if any. Otherwise, things will only get worse. Let’s hope that this won’t be the case. I really hope.
