Worst computer hardware feature you have seen?

Chromebook keyboards.

EDIT: I should specify, the design/layout. Also the lack of a BIOS.
 

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It looks to me that even top of line Dell Precision laptops started using chicklet style keyboards by Gen6 processors.
Trackpad offset to left.. Why I am not a leftie.
 
I also hate those dual webcams in many laptops, among them Thinkpads, that have regular and infrared. They don't even work in Linux. And even if they worked they would serve no purpose.
 
Touchpad on ThinkPad`s. See no reason to have trackpoint with touchpad ... but there are models from older gens where there was no touchpad.
Slim versions of laptop, no hot-swap batteries
 
GlitchyDot said:
Touchpad on ThinkPad`s. See no reason to have trackpoint with touchpad ... but there are models from older gens where there was no touchpad.
Slim versions of laptop, no hot-swap batteries
Click to expand...
I have a Dell Inspiron 3800 with all the modules, Floppy, SuperDisk, DVD-RW, CD-RW, External Floppy Cable (for the floppy module), Zip Drive and x2 Hard Drive Modules with X2 batteries and you can put batteries in both bays if you want extra battery. It's also got a sweet dock and x2 pcmcia slots. It's an awesome machine. I'm hanging on to it until someone comes out with something cooler.

EDIT: Yes, I actually have superdisk floppies and zip floppies and floppy disks. It's a legit setup. Too bad it's only a PIII 733Mhz with 128MB of RAM. But no'one has made a cooler system yet. Also, all the modules work with my Latitue from 2002. So it's just an exceptional platform.
 
Besides Apple's already mentioned touchbar - was it really worth the effort to pimp the keyboard with some colorful blinking toy for to have an extra complicated key just for volume adjustment, only? (yet I have not found any other useful thing to do with it, nor knowing anybody else using it for something else), I have no use for touchpads on laptops at all (always have a trackball with my laptops). I really disliked HP's non-standard-conform connectors (at least within their "Elite" towers) To me it's another reason added to my list not to buy HP. (If some one opens a HP flame thread, I'm in 😁 - let's start with their printers... 😅)

But if I should name my #1 hated hardware features in the last 40 years it was the Windows key on keyboards.
I actually took a screwdriver, or glue to deactivate it ultimately. 😲 - yes. I did.
Today using FreeBSD only the key doesn't bother me much anymore. To me it's just dead weight I yet have no use for. But I hated it when I was working under Windows, accidently touched it, then this menu appeared offering functions I had absolutely no use for, especially not at the very moment. But you couldn't just quickly close the menu again by just pressing this key again. No! You have to grab for and then move the mouse to do that. I hated that! 😤 To me that's a design error.
(Maybe content and function changed after 7; but since I don't use no Windows at all anymore, I don't give a...)
#2 on my list was discussions about how stupid I was, that I just don't get this fantastic, great Windows key...
screwdriver, *clack*, end of story.


Really cool was those (old) docking stations the IBM Thinkpads came with (~20y ago?)
One and the same workspace, doesn't matter if you was at your desk, or out.
When getting back, simply placed it on its dock, no fumbling with cable heaps like other "docking stations", and then use a full solid and cleanly cabled machine, with real monitors, real keyboard, real ethernet with capicity...
 
cracauer@ said:
Woah. And no buttons for the trackpad. That looks like a real Stinkpad.

Which gen of the X1C was it?
Click to expand...
If I recall and looking around it was Gen 2.

Yes, the top corners of the trackpad (functioned as the buttons) were very awkward to use, especially with one finger on the trackpoint. I was quite underwhelmed with this model ThinkPad I must admit.

When the shift key broke (probably because it was quite long, adding stress to the plastic clip underneath), I found out that I had to replace the whole facing because the keyboard was built in. I decided to call it a day and went with a more traditional X240 instead.
 
cracauer@ said:
What's the worst hardware feature on a laptop or PC that you've seen?

For me it is the touchbar on many medium age Apple Macbook Pros. Still suffering from it.
Click to expand...
Hardware RAID (especially after ZFS was invented).
When it acts up, you can only do what the vendor lets you do/diagnose/fix.
I had one back in the days when Adaptec was still a company and considered the Mercedes of SCSI HW. FreeBSD supported it, but performance was underwhelming and after a while I sold it and went with just a bunch of disks.
 
Basically any form of lockdown feature, all this TPM boot protection and things which make it clear that you spent money on not-your-computer.
 
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