Digital*Impulse

The Windows (2000/XP/Vista/7) interface is well established and pretty much usable, for the most part.  It offers a good platform upon which to accomplish tasks quickly and easily without too much time wasted, but that isn’t to say that it can’t be improved upon.  There are certain areas that, for some reason or another, leave the user wanting more.
Thankfully, there are individuals and companies out there that are clever and willing enough to extend the functionality of the Windows interface to make things even better for the rest of us.

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.  Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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So yesterday when I got home I found Pily had picked up my parcel from the post office (and didn’t think it necessary to tell me about it before I went to pick it up myself [thanks Pily ]).  It was my chair!!

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.

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So the Dell technician came around today to take a look at my lappy. He took it apart, poked and prodded here and there and then called me over.

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.

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So the other day a dude I work with, Sam, told me I should up the refresh rate on the 2nd monitor I have set up at work which I connect my Dell Inspiron 9400 17” laptop to. So, being the curious geeky always-wanting-better performance customizer that I am, I happily obliged. And all seemed well…

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.

Read the rest of this entry »