my aged computer

I've been having problems with my computer lately. There's never a dull moment with this thing. It overheats a lot and gets really slow when I play facebook games. I have a feeling this is because most of the games I play on facebook are flash games. It could also mean that this laptop that has given me a lot of problems is nearing the end of its useful life. Or the fan is just clogged. Whatever it is I think its about time I got a new computer. I just hope that this piece of crap I'm using at the moment does not die on me when I need it the most.

As a temporary measure I've disabled flash on chrome. Just type about:plugins in the url bar and there will be a list a plugins you are currently using and a link to disable each plugin. I think I'll have to actually turn off my computer when I go to bed also. Lets see how much more life we can squeeze out of my aged computer.

Its funny I was just going through all the posts I've made about this computer, from when Ben, my previous computer died, to the decision to get a dell, and all the weird issues I've been having and compared to Ben, Delia has been a handful.

-ONWARD!

my hate-hate relationship

In the latest installment in my hate-hate relationship with Dell and my inspiron 1420, just the other day I woke up to find my computer off. I usually live it running days on end, thinking nothing of it, when i tried to turn on the computer, it came on for a while and i wondered why it was running on battery but didn't care too much, it was on or so i thought until after 2 minutes it went off, the battery does not last the 2hrs it used to. There was no indication that the power adapter is faulty, it just decided one day to stop working, the power led indicator was still on but for some reason it was not powering the system.

I needed a new one and guess how much you can get it from Dell? Rm 189. They make cheap computers that break right after your warranty expires and then when something breaks they charge you 200 bucks for it. Luckily I found someone on lowyat forum who was selling the 90w adapters for 80, shipping cost me another 10 bucks extra. Usually i won't buy from people selling stuff on forums but decided to take the risk and fortunately for me it paid off, the package took one day to arrive and everything is fine for now. I dont know how long more before something else breaks.

-ONWARD

why delia why

In the latest in the series of misfortunes I've been having with my computer, the screen suddenly started to flicker violently so much that I can hardly make out what's on the screen. This is the progression of the previous benign 1 pixel line across the top of the screen and the occasional flicker when the screen brightness is low.

I sent it to the pc image shop at boulevard Miri and they plugged it to an external monitor and after they couldn't get the display to come on they told me its the graphics card problem. n00bs! Naturally I didn't accept their prognosis so I tried it on the lab computers in campus and it works. So for now the only way to use my lappie is with this ~19" monitor.


Cost me 400 bucks of unplanned, unbudgetted money but much cheaper than getting a new lappie. Why delia, why? You're not even three years old yet.
-ONWARD

dell inspiron 1420 graphics card issue

I felt compelled to share a bit of my experience with my computer. 2 years ago i bought my current Dell Inspiron 1420 {Delia} with the Nvidia Geforce 8400m gs graphics card because my previous computer, a BenQ Joybook 2000e, {Ben} one of the first notebooks the company release lacked one so I didn't get to play serious games on it. I miss Ben especially the fan noise. Its easy to mistake it with a plane's engine.

I've always regarded Dell's customer service to be one of the best. This and the customization feature on their website contributed to my decision to get one. In the 2 years since I've had Delia I've not run into any problems what so ever. There have always been a suspicion that the fan may be blocked which explains some of the heat issues I've been experiencing but no deal breaker. Until a few days ago after using it for a while, I shut down and headed for home only to turn it back again and be greeted by a blank screen.

There was no familiar Dell logo and the option to choose between windows 7 and ubuntu. Nothing. So as you can imagine i freaked out. This is not the kind of thing you want to experience when your warranty expires. After exhausting all alternative options i called the Dell helpline and took the option to extend my warranty since they didn't provide any other alternative. It was that or nothing. The nice lady didn't expect me to complain about my computer having display issues but I didn't care. I explained that this issue is suppose to be resolved by Dell since its a known defect with this particular graphics card and I read online on the Dell forum that they were providing replacement motherboards for customers worldwide with this issue free of charge so I made my claim and sure enough one day later I get a call from one of the Dell technical officers with a replacement motherboard. He even cleaned my heatsink and thats where I found out the heatsink was blocked with dust and stuff.

What have I learned?
Know your rights. I think its dubious of Dell to keep quiet when they know this is an issue. And i think they don't do well to inform their customers. I would expect a recall of all the 142o models and a change in either firmware or graphics card. They are big. They can pressure Nvidia to deal with this issue.

Extend your warranty. Yes the computer was dirt cheap but there's a reason for that. They don't make them last so they recover some of their money with warranty costs. From what I understand from the technician, its cheaper if you extend before it runs out. Here too Dell is dubious.

Backup. I was not too scared to lose my data even though I didn't since most of the important documents are in a separate harddrive sitting at home in miri. My songs are on a separate harddrive, portable enough to carry about. Same goes to my pictures.

Get your hands dirty. I know for some people opening up a computer is a scary thing. For me its not. I can't count the number of things i've ruined just because I was too curious and got a screw driver. Especially for laptops its good housekeeping to open the heatsink once in a while and by a while i mean months to clean it, get rid of the dust and things that clog up the vents.

Stay aware. In this age of the internet, ignorance is not an excuse. Make sure you know atleast the basics about your computer. The make, model, and components inside. Occasionally go to manufacturers websites and look for updates to the firmware on your system.

Hope it helps. Gong xi fa cai to all the chinese :)

-ONWARD

red pink or yellow

I've not made my mind yet what color Delia will be. I wanted to get a pink on initially just for the fun of it but decided not to. Someone promised to steal it if it was pink. So i thought red is not a bad color, but jacqueline already has a red laptop. So what else is there? I don't want a blue one, white is not me, black is too generic so that leaves imho yellow. Yellow?

On the exams front, i have one more paper to go. Considered ok but i still need to study for it, especially mathematical induction and recursive relations, still don't get it. For the others i just need to do more practice and refresh my memory.

I don't know what happened this sem, there was no will, no direction, i felt really out of sync and it makes me sad that i could do as well as i hoped. But there is still hope, because i put my trust on the rock that never fails, because my steps are ordered by him, because he can turn disaster to blessings and i wonder what i did to deserve it all. Yet i feel he's teaching me to learn to work harder than i have been.

These few weeks without my computer have been quite good in a way, i've been deprived of the things i do on a regular basis; go online, read tech news, check facebook, see what's on flickr and stuff and i miss all that, and they're not in theirself bad things but now that routine has been broken i tend to think more about whats really important. Instead of staying up late watching anime on veoh, i could sleep early so that i can wake up early and prepare for the day. See sometimes deprivation is not such a bad thing. It gives you something to aim for to look forward to like now i'm deprived of getting a mac, so it gives me something to look forward to. I told myself one day for sure but for now Delia will do.

~shalom~

Its going to be a dell

The nurse taking care of my lappie, {i decided to call him Ben, you know for benq?} called me yesterday and said the problem could be in the motherboard. And that it could take a long time to fix. So i have to live with the possibility that ben might never be back. So i have to make a decision on what new lappie to get. And its going to be a dell. Yeah dell.

What? No macbook?
Unfortunately no, i have my reasons. But why a dell? Well their customer service is among the best and their hardware is not too bad also.

Why not a macbook?
Macs are great, its a superb combination of sweet hardware and the best operating system in the world but at the moment, as a student i cannot justify the cost of owning one. I just configured a 14" dell for less than 3k. I know it runs on the dreaded windows vista but thats a sacrifice i can make, and if i want linux i have so many options to run it.

I guess another reason why i opted out of the mac is my unhelpable obsession for the darn things. Like i said they're nice but i feel there's more than just getting it. I feel somehow owning a mac gives you something of a cool status of sorts, like there's this kind of maybe possibly, i don't know pride in it. I feel like i need to curb in me the desire to always get what i want, and be content with what I have. So it more of a personal deprivation more than anything else. I love macs, i used robert's macbook for one night and thats all it took me to get used to it and it was lovely. But i think i will only get it when i start working or if i win a lottery or something.

~shalom~