Since I acquired the iPhone 4s and beheld the wonder of its Retina screen, I made myself a promise that once Apple released an iPad with that same screen technology, I would be there; I would get one.
While the difference may seem minor and possibly even trivial to someone who hasn’t ever used these devices, it’s actually quite an incredible leap in visual display technology. To be able to fit such a large resolution screen —bigger than your standard HD TV set— onto a hand-held device is quite amazing. Pictures and text are sharper and easier to read, colours seem more vivid, and it just seems brighter overall. It’s a great improvement to an already magnificent device.

And of course, on top of that they’ve even increased the power of the CPU (now featuring the A5X with quad-core graphics), the amount of RAM (now 1GB), the wireless speed (4G LTE), and included an improved iSight camera (5MP) which just makes it that more attractive and usable.
Unfortunately, they did not see fit to increase the storage capacity of the devices, which —because of the increased screen resolution— means that they’re likely to fill up quite a lot faster then the previous models.

Of course the only thing missing on the device right now are the jailbreaking tweaks and options I’ve grown used to. But that’s to be expected for new iDevice with an updated OS, and something soon to be remedied if reports are to be believed.  I’m patient; I can wait.

Anyways, check out the photos.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Media Tab

If you’re a regular media-hound like me, this little gem will help access your media file’s embedded information in a jiffy.  It quickly provides access to information including but not limited to bitrates, resolution, metatags, encoding options, languages, etc.  Moreover, all this information is easily accessible from your right-click (or Alt + double-click) Windows File Properties dialog, and easily copied to your clipboard or exported to HTML.

Best of all, it’s free, quick and easy to install, and weighs in at 3.14MB in filesize so you can be set up and ogling your files’ stats in no time.

WizMouse

From the “Why Didn’t They Think of This?” department, this little app has become one of the most crucial and useful tweaks I’ve come across and as such, I make sure to install it on all my systems.

Simply put, it allows you to use your mouse-wheel to scroll through content on active and inactive windows alike, without having to click to activate a window first.  It’s such a logical thing that after using it you’ll wonder how the hell Windows developers missed this, and how you used a computer without it.

This app can be set up to run at start-up and weighs in at under 1MB in filesize.

ThumbView

Windows does an OK job of natively handling image files to provide preview in Windows Explorer, but for people who often deal with images in different formats, it leaves a lot to be desired.  Support for some of the more exotic filetypes is sorely lacking, but this tool seeks to address that.

ThumbView adds native Windows Explorer preview support for over 15 image filetypes, including PCX, PIC, PNG, PSD, TGA, TIFF and many more!  Searching for pics becomes a lot easier when you can visually scan for the image you want, regardless of format.

Also weighing in at the sub-1MB filesize, this tweak will definitely improve your Windows experience.

Image Resizer

Originally spawned as a Windows PowerToy for Windows XP, the Image Resizer tweak adds an entry in your Windows right-click context menu for image files which allows you to quickly resize an image to a specified preset or custom resolution, and save it to the same location.  The resized output file will be in the same format as the original and the filename will be labelled with the option you selected so as not to overwrite the original (unless you specified otherwise).  It’s another one of those tweaks that make you wonder why it wasn’t included to begin with.

The 32bit version checks in at just over the 1MB mark, while the 64bit version barely touches 400KB.

Texter

Last but not least for this selection, Texter is a text substitution tool for the Windows system.  What this means is that it will replace abbreviations with ‘canned text” you define.  For example, you can define a rule that will actively wait for the letters ttys to be typed and Texter will replace it with the longer Talk to you soon.  You can do the same for email addresses, passwords, in fact any text snippet you choose.

It also has options that allow it to correct spelling throughout Windows, play a sound when a correction is made, print a list of rules you’ve defined, and act only upon specific keystroke (Enter, Tab, Space) or simply replace instantly.

It’s a great time-saving app, especially if you find yourself entering the same text repeatedly throughout the day.  This tweak app is also under the 1MB filesize and can also be set to run at start-up.

A brief word of warning for gamers using this tweak:  Enabling the Universal Spell-check option may interfere with certain games, i.e. as you enter keystrokes it may try to correct you.  I’ve found it’s best to either turn off the spell-check option or quit out of Texter altogether.

Windows Snipping Tool

An honourable mention goes out to this one because although it’s not exactly a downloadable tweak but in fact included for use on Tablet-PCs and stylus-enabled computers, this often-overlooked native tool found in the Windows 7 operating system may just become one of your most used Windows 7 feature.

The Snipping Tool allows you to quickly capture screenshots of the entire screen, a window, or a particular region with your mouse.  It’s quick and easy to use and the resulting image is immediately inserted into an editor for editing and/or annotation.

Although I’ve mentioned other similar tools in the past, the beauty of this tool is that it’s available right now on your Windows 7 system; simply bring up your Start menu, begin typing the word Snipping and it should show up in your applications panel.  For quicker access, after the previous step be sure to right-click the shortcut and add a keyboard shortcut combination from the Properties dialog (I suggest WinKey+S).

If you know of any other great tweaks or apps let me know in the comments.  I’ll be sure to check them out and include them in future posts in this series.

But since the introduction of their touch mobile products (iPods, iPhones, iPads —or collectively, iDevices), my mind has been somewhat transformed.

The Beginning

Just about two years ago now, I purchased my first iDevice:  the iPhone.  It was a great experience.  From purchasing to unboxing, to making my first call, it was incredibly impressive and fun.  The packaging was pure class, the construction of the device itself was solid, the look of it was shiny and sleek, and the interface was stylish and beautiful… perfectly designed for hands —my hands.

On top of that was the new adventure of  the App Store.  The world of apps and games has brought new and wonderful experiences at every turn and even now I’m impressed everyday by the kinds of ideas people come up with.  It’s quite incredible and I’ve probably spent more money on apps than I care to find out.

My Reasoning

Now, I hear myself saying this and I cringe inwardly thinking, “OMG, I’m one of THEM!! ”  One of the brainwashed minions; a mindless automaton who has been subconsciously programmed into the Cult of Mac.  But upon further thought I find that I’ve somehow grown to be ok with that, not because I am one of them —I’m not, by any stretch of the imagination— but because on some level, to some degree, I think they think like me.  Let me explain.

I truthfully and wholeheartedly admit that I’m a huge fan of technology —and anyone who knows me will testify to this.  But more accurately, I consider myself a smart follower of great technology.  You see, when I come across a potentially great device —such as the iPhone— I research it and carefully consider whether it’s worth getting.  I immerse myself in information about the device; news articles, blogs, user & magazine reviews, company marketing, you name it, I’m there.  I’m just not one of those people who has to have every new hyped up contraption on the market and my interest isn’t just centred around Apple products.

In the case of the iPhone, I didn’t jump into the purchase until the 3Gs model was available; and this was primarily because of the negative press I was coming across regarding the annoyances in the software and functionality of the previous generations.  While it was groundbreaking and innovative technology, it just hadn’t really matured enough for me to jump into it with any amount of confidence.  However, by the time the 3Gs was available, the major bugs and issues had either been already, or were well on the way to being sorted out.  Today with the iPhone 4, you have an almost completely stable device with a vast software ecosystem,  incredibly solid construction, and a multitude of uses —not simply a phone.  And overall I’ve been extremely pleased the purchase.

I took the same approach with the iPad.  When it was first announced, I thought it looked great but the features it offered just weren’t appealing enough; it was simply a larger version of an iPod Touch, so I decided to wait and see what the future held.  In addition there were simply no apps that made full use of the platform so overall adopting the device in the beginning would’ve been a waste of time and money.

Enter the iPad 2

Although its featureset isn’t exactly groundbreaking in some areas, it does reap the benefit of Apple’s more powerful A5 chip, as well as a boost in memory which speeds the experience dramatically from its predecessor.  The slimmer form of this device while keeping comparable battery life was also a positive, as well as the addition of the gyroscope for gaming & other applications.
Unfortunately, according to reports it’s not without a few flaws.  Basically, the included cameras aren’t great; it can’t charge from a standard PC USB port while activated; and personally, after having tasted the freedom of the jailbreak world , vanilla iOS just bugs me.

Nevertheless, it seemed like a great device and the time was right, and given my positive experience with the iPhone and generally positive reports for the first generation iPad, I decided I would purchase the iPad 2.  The declining rate of the US dollar also made for a definite deciding factor, but since it wasn’t yet available here in Oz at the time I made the decision I decided to order it from the US along with a bunch of peripherals for it.

Five or so weeks later, it finally arrived , and considering the short amount of time I’ve owned this device —which I’ve dubbed the Intrepid , I can already sum up my experience with one word: AMAZING.

Not Just Another Big Boy’s Toy

While it was certainly certainly never meant to be a complete replacement for a proper computing platform, the portability, versatility and convenience of the iPad makes it a phenomenally useful tool to have around.  It’s incredibly easy to take with you wherever you go and the convenience of the App Store means you have access to a veritable plethora of apps to satisfy almost every need imaginable.

Moreover, its media capabilities mean I don’t have to miss out on any of my favourite shows, music, movies, or videos.  In fact, you’ll often find my iPad sitting in the kitchen playing one of my favourite shows while I cook dinner or wash dishes.  It’s pretty awesome.  And when I’m sitting around bored I’ll launch a game, or read through my RSS feeds, check Twitter and Facebook, or do some drawing or writing on it, read a book, make some music, browse the web, or any of a multitude of other things for which the App Store has apps.  There’s not a lot you can’t do on it.

It’s also very solid.  You can feel it when you pick it up; no rattles or squeaks, no loose bits, the buttons are crisp and flush against the casing, the screen and body are free of imperfections, the materials feel durable but look incredibly shiny and sleek.  While it’s not something you’d take with you to a construction site without additional protection, it doesn’t seem like it’s something that’s going to give up the ghost easily.  I’m sure it’d scratch without too much effort but the damage would be superficial, the insides would still be intact and there’d be no loss of functionality.
In fact, its sleek and shiny design encourages you to take more care with it than you would otherwise.

The peripherals I also purchased are no less meticulously constructed.  The Dock, Wireless Keyboard, Smart Cover and even the VGA and USB Adapters are equally as precisely constructed as the devices themselves.  In fact one of the things that always strikes me as amazing whenever I receive something from Apple is how sharp, crisp or smooth some of the corners and surfaces are on these products.  None of the after-market peripherals I’ve bought elsewhere ever feel as well-designed and built as these.  They just… feel solid & weighty.

In Closing

Say what you will about Apple, its short-spoken founder, its exuberant followers, its secretive nature, and overly restrictive policies, but their approach to technology is just top-notch.  Of course I can’t speak for all of their products, but as far as the iPod Touch, iPhone 3Gs and iPad 2 are concerned, I’m thoroughly impressed and won over, and frankly, I’m not sure that a device from any other company would win me over as thoroughly (and that’s not to say I’d be unwilling to try any others; I’m just so extremely pleased with these to want to…  ).

And I respect that.  I’m obliged to acknowledge that the company has done its work and done it well; from design, to construction, to user interface experience, it has all been thought out and painstakingly arranged to create great mobile products.  In addition, though I’ve never been to one personally, I hear that Apple Stores are pretty awesome.

Of course, none of this is to say there’s no room for improvement, but simply that flaws are almost always easily overlooked.  I say almost because some things I just can’t abide, but for that, there’s always the jailbreak solution.   That, however, is a post for another day.

Be sure to let me know if you have an iDevice and what your thoughts are in general about the device itself and Apple’s overall approach to technology.

This post was (mostly) edited and uploaded with the help of BlogPress from my iPad 2.

ObjectDock 2 or RocketDock

For a great solution to snappy and efficient application launchpad, check out either of these applications. Both function in similar fashion, by giving you access to a Mac-like dock anywhere on your screen (usually at the bottom) from which you can launch and access your favourite and current applications, and can potentially completely replace the Windows taskbar without the loss of function or productivity.

Although both applications boast similar features and configurability, as a long-term ObjectDesktop subscriber I’m partial to ObjectDock 2 (Plus) simply because I find it a breeze to set up and use, and support from Stardock is great. But my limited experience leads me to believe that RocketDock is just as good, especially considering you get the full-featured app for free.
Put simply, if I wasn’t using OD2+, I’d be using RocketDock.

Picasa

This is definitely the single, most useful photo management tool that every man, woman, child, and their computer literate dogs, cats, or robotic guinea-pigs should own. It is also by far the easiest tool you will probably ever use to manage your photo libraries, and make quick alterations to your photos.

Xoomer

As a graphic designer, this is probably one of the simplest but most useful tools I’ve ever encountered online.
When working on-screen, you often need pixel perfect accuracy to view or target specific areas, or select specific colours; this tool helps by magnifying the surroundings of your windows pointer in order to give you greater control. The application not only allows you to specify the level of magnification from 0.5 to 30x, but also pause the display by the use of the spacebar, and also copy colour codes directly from the application by using the CTRL+C shortcut.

Mozilla Firefox or Chrome

Now I could literally (and may yet ) spend entire articles extolling the virtues of both these magnificent browsers, their benefits, and virtues, but I won’t right now. I will simply settle for saying that these are probably the best, most extensible, and user friendly web browsers available on the market today.
Their ability to allow plug-ins, extensions, skins and scripts make these browsers probably the most configurable web applications I’ve ever had the pleasure to use. Use either browser with complete confidence that you’ll get a speedy and easy-to-use experience, with the ability to further personalise your experience, and keep an eye out for future articles on both of these.

ThumbView

As someone who deals with all kinds of images day in and day out as part of my job, I find it’s imperative to be able to quickly identify the image files I’m after in order to get jobs done quickly. This Windows tweak helps by allowing you to preview a large number of image filetypes not normally viewable, directly from Windows Explorer. Thumbnails and tooltips are enabled for up to 19 different image types, from PNG, to TGA, to DDS, and more. Definitely a keeper!

Launchy

Although some people might try to tell you otherwise, I’m a great fan of productivity and efficiency. I dislike doing things or getting to places by going the long way around and where possible, always look for those little-known shortcuts that yield the best results. This application addresses just that need for the Windows interface.

Windows has come a long way from it’s humble beginnings and its navigation has gotten a lot easier, but it can still be improved a great deal. Launchy aims to make this as quick a process as humanly possible. The simple act of applying a shortcut key combination followed by typing the first few letters of the application or task you want to begin is all it takes.
It sounds more complicated than it is, but believe me, it’s the most efficient and productive way to navigate Windows.

Let me know what you think of this article’s selection. What do you think of them, even if you’ve used them in the past? Also, let me know if there are there any lesser known Windows apps you can’t live without that I should know about.

Below are just a few of the applications I simply would hate to do without…  in fact, I wonder how I lived without them in the first place. 

WizMouse

WizMouse empowers your mouse cursor with the functionality it should always have had —It gives you the ability to use your scroll wheel on unfocused, or background windows, so you don’t have to click on a window to be able to scroll through its contents.

MaxTo

MaxTo allows  you to split your screen into different regions so that windows are constrained to appear in these regions only.  It enables you to use your screen-space as efficiently as possible and, dare i say, improves productivity by letting you have all the apps you need open and on-screen at once.

The application was originally freeware, but is now available for purchase on their site.  If you can live with an earlier version, you can download it here.  Just disable the “Check for updates” option.

Taskbar Shuffle

Taskbar Shuffle is a small utility that allows you organise your application taskbar buttons in any order that you like.  You can drag and drop buttons and rearrange them to your heart’s content.  It’s not exactly an essential, but if you like your windows and buttons displayed in a certain order, or are a little OCD about those things, it’s definitely the app to have.

FastStone Capture or PrtScr

FastStone Capture is another app that is great, but is unfortunately now made available as shareware.  However, having said that, I dare say it’s worth buying if you really have a need for it.  It is simply one of the best and most fully featured screen capture applications I’ve ever had the pleasure to use.

It allows you to capture images of windows, objects, rectangular or polygonal regions, or the entire screen and output them to your graphics editor, the clipboard, directly save to a file, email, printer, Word, PowerPoint, or the web via FTP!!
It also gives you the option of captioning, watermarking, and include or leave out the mouse cursor.  On top of that, it comes with a screen magnifier, a screen colour picker, and ruler.  (Funnily enough, I couldn’t capture a screenshot of it’s own menu as shown above.  I had to use the next app.)

If that doesn’t fill your screen capturing needs, perhaps the simpler, yet flashier PrtScr will.

This nifty and beautiful little app allows you to draw on the screen before you capture windows, mouse-drawn regions or the entire screen to the output of your choice.  The beauty of this app isn’t in the number of features that it provides, but how it looks when it does it.  It is simply one of the best looking capture apps I’ve seen.

Vista/XP Virtual Desktop Manager

\The Vista/XP Virtual Desktop Manager —or VVDM for short— allows you to have as many virtual desktops as you require (or as your system can safely handle ) and sports a nice quick and effective visual interface from which to swap from one to the other.
VVDM’s features include an on-screen preview/manager interface with full drag & drop, keyboard hotkeys that allow you to swap from one desktop to another quickly and easily, multiple monitor support, per-desktop wallpaper backgrounds, .  On Vista, the interface displays live preview thumbnails of the desktops.

I have some others in mind and have already begun composing a Part II to this post but in the meantime, try these out and let me know what you think.  I’m sure you’ll find them just as useful as I do.

Enjoy. 

Apologies for the premature post notification. I still find myself accidentally pressing the Publish button before I’m actually meant to.

Also, as an anecdotal note, I had initially thought to call this post by a different name, but during my research I discovered an application named after the made-up word I had chosen —Twitterrific!— here I was trying to come up with the silliest name I could fathom, only to find it’s taken.  Go figure.

So in order to avoid confusion I’m going with this new one. 

So I’ve been using Twitter for quite a while now.  It’s short message format is easy to follow, keep up with, and use on a daily basis.  I’ve found it to be not only convenient and fun, but useful and on occasion even very informative.

For those who’ve been living under a rock  in ignorance of the popular trends in modern communication, Twitter is:

…a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Overall, it does the job quite well, and as I said before it’s so simple to use that even a child could own and manage an account.

But apart from being a good place for keeping in touch with other people who don’t subscribe to using instant messengers, Twitter is also a good repository for your random thoughts and ideas, useful online finds, and your perhaps sporadic but precious pearls of wisdom. 

Also, you may find it useful to know that a twit is the term used to refer to the owner of a twitter account, and tweet is the term used to refer to a short message posted on Twitter.  With that in mind, read on.

Smart Twittering

If you’re about to get into the Twitter world, you’re going to want to get the best out of the service from the very beginning.  The same is true for a user who has been using it since its inception; you want to make your experience as seamless and efficient as possible.
To that end, and for your convenience, here is a list of tools I think you may find most useful:

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is a multi-platform desktop Twitter client.  This means you can post, view and manage your tweets directly from your desktop without having to visit the Twitter website.  You can also view tweets posted by friends and those people you’ve chosen to follow all from the one single application.
This application is built on Adobe’s AIR framework and will require you to install the framework before installing the application, but the TweetDeck installer should take care of everything.

Twhirl

If you don’t like TweetDeck or would prefer another, more compact flavour of desktop Twitter client, then try this little beauty.  This client, also built on AIR, has all the features of TweetDeck, but ups the ante by offering multiple account support, but that’s not where it ends.  Its featureset is rich and packed with quick time-saving functions, all accessible from the small, yet very usable interface.  And for those who are picky about looks, it also boasts the ability to change the colour scheme of the interface. A full list of features is available at a glance from its homepage.
This application is also built on AIR and will run on most, if not all platforms.

TweetBurner

Once you get the hang of tweeting and sharing links, you may want to start tracking the kind of response those links get from your followers.  With TweetBurner you can view statistics on each and every link you share, from how many clicks, to which is most popular.  It’s a useful tool if you share a lot of links and are interested in statistics.
At the time of writing this site is experiencing some technical difficulties which prohibit the viewing of personal pages and tracking newly added links, but hopefully this will be rectified soon.

TweetStats

Once you’ve been twittering for a while, you may want some graphical statistical information about your posting habits.  TweetStats offers this in various categories displayed in neat, easy to understand graphs.  In addition to displaying your own stats, it also allows you to see what other topics are currently popular in the twittersphere.
Not much more need be said on this.

Mr. Tweet

Mr. Tweet helps you easily build meaningful relationships by looking through your network and tweets. He will regularly:

1. Suggest good people and followers you are missing out on
2. Recommend you to enthusiastic users relevant to you
3. Regularly update useful stats of your Twitter usage

I thought of making my own description for this one but I really couldn’t have put it better. 

TwittyTunes

For those of us who use Firefox on a regular basis, this may come in very handy.  TwittyTunes is a Firefox plugin that allows you to quickly share a message about what you’re currently doing from a number of preset messages —from what website you’re currently browsing, to what song you’re listening to
If you want this plugin to be able to post your periodic musical tastes you’ll need to install the FoxyTunes plugin also.  Don’t let that put you off though, FoxyTunes allows you to control your music player (almost all available players) directly from your browser and it’s quite configurable.  It also finds lyrics, covers, videos, artist bios, plust a range of other useful info. A pretty great combo really.

TweetShrink

If you ever find your tweet being just that little bit longer than the 140 character limit imposed by Twitter, head over to TweetShrink, paste it in there and watch it work its magic.  It will replace certain words with numbers (i.e. to = 2), among other word- shortening gymnastics and shave off those extra precious characters.
While it’s not perfect in its execution, it does sometimes help and worth having in your Twitter toolkit.

Twitzer

An alternative to having to shrink your messages to make them fit into Twitter’s restrictive 140 character system is to totally blow that out of the water by using Twitzer.  This Firefox plugin will allow you to messages to Twitter as long as you need them to be.  It does this by using the ShortText.com service to host the entire body of text you input, and feeds Twitter the first 140 characters but keeps a link between what’s on ShortText and what’s on Twitter, allow you to De-Twitzer to view the longer text.  But I’m really just making it sounds more complicated than it really is.
Suffice it to say it’s a great tool if you find you want more space to write what you need.

This is only a small sample of the veritable bevy of other tools out there you may find useful. I’ve chosen only to list those I’ve found to be some of the best.

Further Tips

While the benefits you derive from using it hinge largely upon the types of people you follow, there’s no reason why a user who has yet to find decent twits to follow can’t benefit from it for themselves. It all comes down to how you use it.
Here’s a few useful tips:

Do

• Make a habit of posting your most useful random thoughts and online findings.  You never know when someone else might find them useful.
• Keep in mind that you may have an audience, no matter how small it may be. Keep them interested.
• Make use of URL shortening services when posting links, and give a short description of it in the tweet.
• Check out your followers’ pages and follow them if you’re really interested in what they have to say.

Don’t

• Post too many nonsensical or silly posts. They may be seen useless or spam by your followers and may lead them to stop following you.
• Post links that may contain inappropriate or questionable content; or if you must, mark it as NSFW for those who tweet from work during their lunch breaks.
• Follow every single twit you come across hoping they’ll follow you back.  It’s not really a popularity contest and having thousands of tweets to catch up on doesn’t really help you keep things efficient.

If you have any other useful tips, tricks or suggestions, feel free to list them below.

[thanks Pily ]

I had bought it last Saturday on DealsDirect.com.au and had arrived at the post by Monday. 
How’s that for fast delivery?

I’d been hunting for a chair like this for months and whenever I went into local retail stores, all the chairs of this type started at the ridiculously ludicrous price of $600+, with one specimen waaaaaay less featured than this one going for $799 at Domayne!!!!  I was like, WTF! 
So when I saw this one on DealsDirect going for $220, I just had to snap it up.  Actually, I’d been waiting for them to restock this item for a couple of months, and had settled on this one until they got the other one on again.  Coincidentally, I sold the other chair to my sister since their chair has totally and utterly had it.

So anyways, I got home and got the (huge!) box from the car and proceeded to try to put it together before I had to go out again for dinner.

A few minutes into the assembly, I remembered I should’ve got some unboxing pics but since it was too late for that, I got a couple of pics of the assembly and then the finished product.  I’ve yet to get in-action shots.

Assembly was quite easy, but of course I had to flub it to begin with.  XD  I got ahead of myself and didn’t bother to RTFM, coz like, who does that right?  Surely a geek doesn’t need to read no frakkin manual! 
Well, thankfully, I realized my mistake before I got too far into the assembly and managed to backtrack and correct my mistake fairly easily.

So here’s a couple of pics during assembly.

And some of the fully assembled beauty that is my new chair. 

It’s soooo comfortable and nice.  Its functions include a height-adjustable gas lift, height and angle-adjustable head and armrests, adjustable lumbar support, and apparently a “weight adjuster for different body types” which I’ve yet to work out.  :hmm:  Oh, and the best feature is it leans back and is ideal for watching movies and shows on my lappy. 

So let me know what you think. 

As it turns out, it seems like it really had nothing to do with the video card. He showed me the CPU’s exhaust/heatsink which had a thick layer of dust which was preventing the entry/escape of hot air. I was amazed at how much dust it collected. It fully looked like a bit of fur coating or something.

Anyways, after he showed me, he said that though that’s was the most likely cause of the overheating problem, he would still replace the parts since he had them here anyways. I was like, “Yeah sure, go ahead!” I mean why not, right?

I actually wish I’d brought my camera to work so I could’ve taken some happy snaps of my lappy all spread out over the desk, and the dust-burger on the heatsink, but alas, I left my camera at home since I’m waiting for the case I purchased to arrive.

So anyways, he went about his task of installing the new components and putting everything back together again, then once it was all solid again went on to test it by turning it on and running it for about 15-20 minutes. He then made me sign the receipt and went on about his day.

All in all I think it went fairly well. I’ve yet to encounter any CPU slowdowns like the type I encountered earlier, and the keyboard is still a little bit hotter than I’d like it, but it doesn’t seem to be causing any major problems.

There’s a lot to be said about Dell tech support for their professionalism and prompt resolution of the problem. About 10 minutes after the tech left, I received a call from the Dell helpdesk asking if all had gone satisfactorily. I replied that I was still making sure that everything was a-ok and the lady politely stated that if all was ok she would be closing the support ticket but that I could call again if anything else happened. That’s great service.
It should be stated that if I hadn’t had a current warranty on this baby, my wallet would be in a whole world of hurt right now.

For all the negative press and horror stories I’ve read about Dell, I’ve never had a bad support experience with them and because of that I always recommend to anyone considering purchasing any kind of equipment from them to pay a little extra and get an extended warranty. It’s definitely well worth it.

Good on you Dell. Another satisfied customer.

A few days later things started going south. After a few hours of normal use, the CPU use jumped up to 100% and didn’t show any signs of subsiding.

I fiddled around as best I could on a system running at top speed (which ironically slows it down to a crawl), killing processes and frantically trying to ascertain what could possibly be causing such slowdown but alas, I could find no reason or rhyme.
Looking through the Task Manager I could find no process using anywhere near 100% of the CPU so I figured it must have been something else. I even downloaded Process Explorer from Microsoft TechNet, which provides detailed information on processes and other information, but could still find no culprit!

After several days of this kind of behaviour from my computer and hours spent on troubleshooting, I remembered that I upped the refresh rate on the monitor and figured that could be a possible cause.
Turning down the refresh rate helped, but the PC continued to experience slowdowns. I got the bright idea to turn off the dual monitor support and that stopped the CPU drain completely. So I’m left to conclude that the video card on my little beast is dying.

Luckily, a quick review of my Dell warranty plan revealed that I still have over 6 months warranty left! So I emailed them today telling them about my problem. Hopefully, they’ll come around and get it fixed this week so I can do some actual work.

UPDATE: So I called Dell Tech Support today since they hadn’t gotten back to me yet and explained the problem in more detail to the thickly-accented, presumably Indian lady at the other end of a very crackly and degraded line.
After several long alternating periods of explaining and waiting on hold she returned with the news that a technician would be contacting me to arrange an appropriate time to install a new CPU fan on the lappy.

While I found it a little strange at the time that a CPU fan could be to blame, on hindsight it makes some sense but I really hope that’s actually it. She said to make sure the problem was fixed before I let the technician leave, so I’m going to have to try it out for a while with some CPU intensive tasks. I’ll have to see what I can come up with.