Why do people binge watch TV shows?

[BadMouth]

I had one, then switched to a refurbed Alienware Alpha (currently in for repairs after only 6 months ) in the living room with Kodi installed

What happened to it?  I have an Alpha I bought new for Xmas last year that is having serious hard drive issues right now.

I had no issues prior to this.

Around the beginning of the month it wouldn't boot.  LEDs by alien head flashing yellow (not sure about number of times).
Took apart, reseated memory and it booted up ok.  (may or may not have been the memory, as simply disconnecting from power may have fixed it)

Last Monday (a few days later), it wouldn't boot and gives 5 yellow flashes (dead cmos battery or defective mobo).
Took apart again, tried each memory stick individually, cmos batter tests 3v,....no dice.  Will not boot.
I did not try it with the hard drive removed.

Called in for repair based on a few old posts by a dell service tech on their message boards.
Basically the tech asked them to check a few things (which I'd already done) and then instructed them to send it in because the mobo was probably bad.
When I called in for service and told them what I'd already tried, they didn't ask me to do anything but send it in.
I assume it's a known issue.  They just received it today, so I haven't been informed what the issue was yet.

EDIT: should have used the word post instead of boot.  Fans spin up, but it wouldn't post, no video output.

[ChadTower]

Ah.  Mine will boot very slowly.  KODI works most of the time for some reason but if you go into Windows it runs like total ass.  Five minutes to open up Chrome and regular dialogs about memory that could not be written.  I ran it through a total system diagnostic last week and everything passed except the hard drive.  Hard drive load test failed.  I spent over an hour going through their support website and could not figure out how to submit a ticket so  I'm going to have to just call them on the phone.      Still under warranty until December, though.

[BadMouth]

Got the alpha back today.  Seems fine.  They replaced the mobo which is what I expected.  Hopefully this mobo differs from the original and lasts longer.  It took 12 days from my phone call to getting it back.  The longest stretch was waiting for it to get back to them via fedex ground.  They shipped me the box and shipped it back to me via fedex air which was only a day or two.  It would be faster if you lived closer to Houston.

Luckily they didn't mess with the hard drive so I didn't have to reinstall Kodi and the Steam games I had on there.
It's strictly a console for me, so there isn't any personal info on it. 

A bit convoluted, but I added Plex this evening so I can download stuff from Kodi then access it from my Tivo OTA.
It's more of a PITA than just streaming it, but this way I can access live tv, recorded OTA shows and the few shows from kodi all on the same device with one damn remote that also controls the tv volume and power.   

[jtslade]

What kind of UPS/APC do you have the computer plugged into?

[BadMouth]

What kind of UPS/APC do you have the computer plugged into?

No UPS.  Just an APC brand smart strip/filter.  The power brick only gets juice if the surround sound receiver is turned on.  I don't want it sucking power continuously for no reason.  I don't have any interest in maintaining a collection, so only need Plex running when I want to watch a specific show once or twice a week.

[Ginsu Victim]

We just binged Game of Thrones, 60 episodes in 52 days. Didn't think we'd get into it, watched one episode, and were hooked.

We'll binge a good show, but shows that don't hold our interest might take longer to get through (still on s1e5 of Daredevil).

[ChadTower]

Got the alpha back today.  Seems fine.  They replaced the mobo which is what I expected.  Hopefully this mobo differs from the original and lasts longer.  It took 12 days from my phone call to getting it back.  The longest stretch was waiting for it to get back to them via fedex ground.  They shipped me the box and shipped it back to me via fedex air which was only a day or two.  It would be faster if you lived closer to Houston.

Luckily they didn't mess with the hard drive so I didn't have to reinstall Kodi and the Steam games I had on there.
It's strictly a console for me, so there isn't any personal info on it.

Finally convinced them to send me a replacement hard drive.  Should arrive today.  They kept trying to string me out telling me "you have to run the diagnostics and get us an error code so that we can send you the right replacement part".  Telling them it can't complete the stupid tests because the hard drive is dying didn't seem to compute for them.  Took a while but the new drive is coming.  I'm hoping they put an OS on it.  I really don't feel like doing a fresh Win8 install.

[BadMouth]

I'm hoping they put an OS on it.  I really don't feel like doing a fresh Win8 install.

Is it still on Win8 or have you updated it to Win10?

This was a concern of mine since I'd updated to Win10.
They told me that doing the update converted my old Win8 key to a Win10 key and I could install Win10 using it.
When the alpha was returned to me, in the box there was a CD sized card with a Win10 key on it, but I didn't compare it to the key on the case.

[ChadTower]

It was still Win8 because one of my son's favorite Steam apps doesn't run well on Win10.


Just got the drive installed and booted the machine with a net connection.  This is so different than when I used to do desktop work.  I'm not sure what it had on it already, seemed more basic than Windows, but it grabbed Win8 from someplace.  Proceeded to get the appropriate drivers, Steam, Kodi, and everything else from the internet on its own.  Here I was thinking I'd have to grab Win8 off Microsoft.com, make a bootable USB image, etc etc and spend all night babysitting the thing.  I guess desktop recovery has progressed in the ten or so years since I last did it on a regular basis.

[Cakemeister]

I think I will binge-watch Westworld when all of Season 1 is available.

[vwalbridge]

I think I will binge-watch Westworld when all of Season 1 is available.

I watched the pilot last night....the verdict is still out on this show for me.

I feel like I've seen this kind of story half-a-dozen times. So it feels very predictable.