why is it that when I earn money (and that's saying a lot considering I do not have a regular job) something has to happen or something has to break and in turn, make me spend said money?

I knew my HP TX1000z laptop was going to die but I didn't expect it to die so quickly. it started about a year ago when my wireless Internet stopped working. after extended research I found out that a good number of the laptops under the same model were manufactured with a faulty Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). the GPU would run too hot for the motherboard to handle. first on it's way out was the wireless. check.

I sent my laptop in for warranty (which was about to expire) and they fixed it after about a month. got laptop back and it worked again for a good half a year. the wireless cut out again. it was no longer under warranty, so I went out to buy an external wireless card for my expresscard slot. the GPU did it's damage again and burned the components for the expresscard. so I've had to use a USB wireless dongle since then.

upon further research, I've found that after the wireless stops working, the next to go is the display. and that finally happened the other day. I was converting a movie to be able to play on my iPhone, which is very graphics intensive, so my GPU was running pretty hot. everything starts to error and my computer shuts off. I turn it back on to find that the GPU itself had burned and no longer works, leaving me with a laptop that has literally no screen.

while still able to access my laptop remotely from my desktop via VNC, I was able to back everything up onto my external hard drive. I was also able to disable the GPU remotely. so now my screen works again, but it can only run at 800x600 resolution with the GPU disabled. everything seems bogged down. and I can't really do any designing work on it. having a visual again, it makes backup up of files a lot easier.

what makes me mad is that HP will not accept fault for shipping out units with faulty GPUs. they say that the amount of people with this problem isn't large enough compared to the units sold to count for a recall. so pretty much, once the warranty is up on these units, they simply don't care because they already got their money. google the words "tx1000" and "gpu" and "faulty" and you'll get pages upon pages of this exact problem that HP will not fess up for. while their products have most likely proved since then, I will never buy HP again because of their horrible customer support and the unprofessional decisions they have made regarding this issue. i will not support a company who won't take fault for such a failure of their own product. that is not acceptable.

research has taught me that after the GPU dies, people have experienced a failure to even boot up the laptop. no thanks, im not about to lose everything.

I've since then started looking for a new laptop. my budget was about 800 dollars since I have no job, and the laptop would have to be pretty strong in graphics so I can continue designing graphics for JayVee and if I might possibly pursue it in the near future. I can safely say I've grown out of the whole sub/ultra-compact sized laptops as well as novelty features like the touch screen that I didn't really use too much. with the help of mr Chadwick, he found me a laptop that seems to be compatible with my needs and requirements. a Lenovo IdeaPad Y550. custom built with an Intel Core2Duo P8700 Processing Unit and a dedicated nVidia GeForce 240m GPU. the total came out to under 800 dollars, and just under 900 after tax and shipping. the machine will be severely lacking in RAM, but that is easily upgraded along the way. I shall have it in hand within a few weeks so I'll have an update and review then. let's hope for no more problems.

Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com

it seems that i forgot to blog about father's day. it went surprisingly well. after not seeing my dad in what seems like forever, i met up at my sister's place in chino hills. we headed out to best buy to look at netbooks and got him an hp mini 1030. then went to target to find him a card. fail on that. the card section was literally tore up. the only ones left were the not-so-funny-but-trying-to-be-funny ones, butt ugly ones, and ones in spanish. so we figured writing a small note on the wrapping paper for the mini would be good enough. and well enough, he loved the present.

headed out to RA Sushi at the chino hills shoppes. the happy hour there is awesome. half off appetizers and $5 large beer + sake. we only spent about $50 for all the food we got, and we were pretty incredibly full. all buzzed, we headed back to my sister's where we decided to walk a trail that leads up to a tall hill in chino hills overseeing chino hills, diamond bar, and pomona. it was quite nice (and) cold up there. headed back, played with our laptops, and finally headed our separate ways. day well spent.

---

anyways, why does it seem like the annual passholders for disneyland have died down with the disneyland visiting? i'm not gonna want to get a pass if the annual pass craze dies after a month like it seems..

verizon's premium fiber optic service. blazing fast internet speeds and crisp hdtv. i am finally a subscriber.

time warner cable (we'll refer to that as TWC or incredibly slow and unreliable piece of crap service.. but let's pick TWC cuz it's shorter) was getting on my last nerve. i was getting annoyed, especially within the last few months, at their unreliability. they were getting time-of-day dependent. where my internet would only be fast from the hours of 1am-3pm. between 3pm-8pm, it would start to show some slowdown.. then from 8pm-midnight, it would just come to a frustrating crawl. our tv picture would at times jumble up into a bunch of colorful squares.. which i guess isn't a bad thing if you enjoy watching mosaics all day. but those are problems no more!

the verizon fios van pulled up a couple days ago and the installation took about 3.5 hours. the network terminal was installed outside next to our electrical switches, and we now have a modem/router in one so i have a linksys wireless g router up for grabs sale. hooked up the set top box to the hd input of our tv after the guy left. so now we have super clear tv. and we signed up for the 20mb/5mb fios internet. downloading movies in minutes is quite awesome. and uploading as fast as i downloaded on cable on a good day is just as awesome.

but someone out there decided "this is too much good stuff for byron.." and decided that the day i get fios installed, the wireless on my laptop should break... AGAIN. f'ing sh!t. this is what happened less than a year ago when i had to send in my laptop for warranty repair, and it took over a month to fix. but now there's nothing i can do to fix it since it's out of warranty. f'ing sh!t, indeed. some quick research ensues.. and i have my eyes set on the Belkin N Wireless ExpressCard Adapter. i'm not down for a USB adapter because it would just leave a huge gaping protrusion out of my laptop. so i pack up the Targus HeatDefense Pad i bought with Alex a few days ago, since that didn't work up to par with my expectations, and head over to Best Buy in Glendora again. i returned it for a full refund (to my gift card) with no questions asked other than "is something wrong with it?" find my Belkin Adapter for $60 bucks, but only $15 after the gift cards. head back home, install drivers, plug in the card, and it's working awesomely in under 2 minutes of opening the box. but it's just frustrating that i actually need an external wireless adapter when the one from HP should work.. especially after having it sent in for warranty already. i guess it's not too bad considering i still have wireless on my laptop.. and a recent speed test gave me results that were faster than my last test with the built-in wireless card.. but it's footprint outside my laptop is still a bit larger than i'd want.. i'll just have to deal.


belkin n wireless ExpressCard adapter
a bit protruding - more than i'd want.. but still smaller than a USB adapter..
and i woke up sick today.. the day before our ultimate brawl hell week starts.. not a good combination!