Who calls a computer a CPU?

A LOT of people I know call the computer a CPU, technically it´s incorrect.
"Bring me your cpu to fix it"
"My cpu has gone crazy"

They never call a laptop/notebook a CPU knowing it has one inside.
Even fellow Engineers even computer science mayors! call a computer a cpu.

I could careless what people call a computer, but it does annoy me people that study something related to computers call it a CPU

Is it just me, is it becuase I live in Mexico (and somehow it got mixed with the language)

This has been bugging me for a while :confused:

I believe it's due to common misconception/uneducated aspect of PC's. My parents call it "CPU". Lots of other friends do as well because they just don't know the technical differences. You will just have to be forgiving and learn to live with it. :)

Anyone who calls a computer a "CPU" should be sent to this page

Even some computer ads have that misconception :BIG ROLLEYES:

I say, don't live with it. Correct them. Actually, pull out a CPU and show them the part. And tell them what a CPU stands for.

And if they still mix it up? Keep on correcting them. That's the way to teach them.

AFAIK, CPU = Central Processing Unit - in other words, the main processor inside the computer. However, enough people call the whole thing a "CPU" that it would be difficult to change their perception of what a CPU is.

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Originally posted by rock
Anyone who calls a computer a "CPU" should be sent to this page

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Lol, my roomate and I kept singing that last year.
Afterwards, any one of us (mostly me, wait always me) who does a stupid thing gets thte song blasted into the head :)

My girlfriend drove me crazy with that!!!
She would always call my computer a "CPU" :o

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Originally posted by Terry
Even some computer ads have that misconception :BIG ROLLEYES:

I say, don't live with it. Correct them. Actually, pull out a CPU and show them the part. And tell them what a CPU stands for.

And if they still mix it up? Keep on correcting them. That's the way to teach them.

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That´s what I try to do, correct them.

I once called a guy searching for an old p3, and each time I mentioned that I wanted to buy a cpu he would ask what cpu I was talking about.

: D

A: I would like to buy a CPU please...
B: Wow! only $100!? I'll take it!
A: Here you go *hands over a chip*
B: What the fu*k? You trying to screw with me?
I am calling the BBB (Better Business Bureau)

BBB: How may I help you?
B: This store gave me some weird clay thing and claimed it was a CPU!
BBB: *after careful examination*
I find the store guilty...

:o

Anyways, enough of parodies :)

You know, if people knows what CPU stand for, then they won't be so confused.

It's like... "I'd like to buy an engine please... Hey! Where are the wheels?"

The few times I have corrected someone just led to an impression that they really didn't care enough to change. So I killed them :D

yeah, only stupid soccer mom's and old men call a computer a cpu. They should be beaten. The only words I will accept for computer are: computer, comp, rig, box (my favorite), boxen, and machine. But, "cpu" makes me want to kill someone, usually the person that called the computer a cpu.

Three things I hear people doing all the time:

Calling their computer a "CPU".
Calling their computer a "hard drive".
Referring to their monitor as "the computer" (like if you tell them to turn the computer off and back on again, they'll press the power button on the monitor).

here in belgium people give the name computer to the whole set (screen, computer, mouse, keyboard, .....)

and my mother (nows nothing about 'puters(she also gives the name computer to the whole set) calls the computer itself mostly and i quote: "the thingy with all those cables coming out of it" :p

Before I knew anything about computers, a friend of my dad that was supposedly a "technician" came over to "fix" my computer. When we opened up the case, he called the hard drive a motherboard. I wanted to cry because I had an idiot working on my computer.:D

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Originally posted by number1sixerfan
he called the hard drive a motherboard.

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now that's pathetic

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Originally posted by benneke
now that's pathetic

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Tell me about it. I told my dad to try to get the guy to leave and my dad was link no he's an expert. Next thing you know the computer won't even turn on and he just leves like he had nothing to do with it.

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Originally posted by number1sixerfan
Tell me about it. I told my dad to try to get the guy to leave and my dad was link no he's an expert. Next thing you know the computer won't even turn on and he just leves like he had nothing to do with it.

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so what was the real problem?

wasnt the processor good seated in the harddrive?
or wouldn't the motherboard start spinning?

:p

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Originally posted by benneke
so what was the real problem?

wasnt the processor good seated in the harddrive?
or wouldn't the motherboard start spinning?

:p

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We must have overclocked the floppy drive to much and it must have overheated. Or was it that the ram wasn't cooling of the cpu properly? I can't remember which.:D

You're all full of crap. Any idiot knows it's the muffler bearings went out...;)

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Originally posted by pudad
yeah, only stupid soccer mom's and old men call a computer a cpu. They should be beaten. The only words I will accept for computer are: computer, comp, rig, box (my favorite), boxen, and machine. But, "cpu" makes me want to kill someone, usually the person that called the computer a cpu.

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Watch it pudad, I am an "old" man and I don't call them "cpu's"
;)

Hey! What about peeps that call them "'puters" Don't you just HATE that?

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Originally posted by gurutoo
Watch it pudad, I am an "old" man and I don't call them "cpu's"
;)

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Edit: After some thought, I concur, soccer moms should be beaten...

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Originally posted by gurutoo
Hey! What about peeps that call them "'puters" Don't you just HATE that?

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YES!!! I HATE THAT!!! It isn't in my list either ;).

Heh, Yeah, I should modify my statment, because I know a lot of cool old guys that know so so much stuff. Heh, my last semester cs proff has been coding for like 35 years now.

My tech coordinator calls the computer a CPU! It bugs the hell outta me! I always correct him, so do the other SWIFTY's, but he still does it.

Heh, half my family calls computers "Harddrives", "CPU's", or f*$@%& pieces of sh1t.:p It was sooo funny when I had a conversation with my mom about putting together my sister a new pc. Here's a few :D "So she just needs the cpu right? The box thing?" "Wait, isn't that the harddrive?" "What's an operation system?"