The Construct

Being that my lappie is already two and a half years old, it’s really high time to consider retiring it. But goodness what a workhorse this ASUS A8Jr is. Left on for 16 hours a day for those two and a half years and the only hitch I ever encountered was the hinge issue (a physical issue) which ASUS covered under warranty. And because of that I’ve developed a brand loyalty to ASUS.

I’ve actually been meaning to replace it last year but I had to re-channel some of my budget for other reasons that I gave up on purchasing a laptop after that.

I was meaning to get the ASUS F81-Se (all because of the beefy ATI HD 4570 video) card but even when Risha tried to buy one last year, she ended up with the K40IN thanks to limited stocks. The ASUS sit still lists the F81-Se as part of their product line, but alas, can’t seem to find one locally.

Because of that experience, I’ve been constantly looking at the product offerings to check if ASUS is coming out with a new model.

If I were to buy one now, I’d probably buy the same one but I’m trying to hold out just in case ASUS decides to come out with one that has better specs. The K50AB – a larger 15″ screen and the coveted ATI HD 4570 video card – looks promising but it seems that it isn’t offered locally as well.

On to more personal concerns here. I’m really, really suffering from a bad case of GAS. Or maybe not. Perhaps “investing” on work-related technology would be a worthwhile move. Then again, I already have the functional tools to do my work so investing on new tech is quite unnecessary.

My ASUS A8Jr’s finally fixed but not after waiting six months for the parts. To top it off, it’s only a couple of weeks before the warranty lapses. I always hate it when any piece of electronics I own ages past its coverage. I hate knowing I legally won’t have anyone on whom to place the blame if it breaks down.

So I went out (with Rish) yesterday to scout out some possible prospects. Narrowed them down to two – the Lenovo Y430 and the ASUS F81Se.

(more…)

Finally, after three months, my laptop is fixed and fully functional. It was around February when I noticed that my laptop’s hinges were shot. The ASUS service center was happy to assist me then but I had to wait for parts. So they just got my details and ordered the parts for me from Taiwan. My laptop is still under warranty so all I had to do was wait for the parts and for them to replace them.

The whole process should have just taken 1 month but ASUS Taiwan was uber slow in shipping parts here. And since mine was a factory defect common to all A8 models, there were a bunch of us waiting for the same damn parts. I can’t blame the service center since they’ve been awfully nice in calling me up to update me on the status of the shipment.

Last week, they called me up to inform me that the parts have arrived. Unfortunately, their Megamall space was under renovation and I had to wait for this week before I could drop by. I didn’t want to go to their Shaw office or their Makati service center since both are practically out of the way.

(more…)

This week is has been uber bad for me and technology. So PayPal finally gave me back what spare change there is in my PayPal account. But a few more things got screwed up, affecting my efficiency as a tech worker. Two more booboos for the week – 1) my Google Account got disabled and 2) my lappie’s screen hinges are shot.

Not even a week has passed, then it was my Google account that got blocked. Yup. It’s the one where I keep some crucial messages and is linked to some other important online accounts. I don’t know what happened but for some reason I end up getting that “Sorry, your account has been disabled” message. I tried what was written in the help center to no avail. Even after 24 hours of waiting as stated.

(more…)

Just to clarify. Little Sidekick’s not a body part, you fiend. It’s the nickname I have for my notebook. I really can’t think of a catchy-ass name for it so I just called it that. It is my little sidekick anyway.

But yes, I thought I just did some damage to it when I saw a spike in the CPU temperature readout. I was getting pretty bored lately and one way I try to get away from things is to immerse myself in a computer game. My laptop can handle most modern games anyway so I tried to give it a spin. 3D apps, games in particular, does put a lot of stress on your CPU. I knew it was going to heat up but I just got alarmed at the 70 degree Celsius readout. Pretty high compared to the temperature readouts I usually get from my desktop.

I wrote a lengthy piece about it over at LifeSpy.

(Im)morals of the story:

• Have your room air-conditioned
• Avoid using laptop sleeve cases, they can be heat traps
• Try customer support, you might chance upon a few nice and knowledgeable people
• Try not to mix business (blogging laptop) with pleasure (games)