Friday, March 7, 2008

Want to Join the "Will It Last?" Laptop Pool?

My laptop crashed four times today.

It's a Compaq Presario M2000 series. Runs XP. The hard drive was completely replaced last year because... well, the guys said, "It's crashed so many times that your hard drive is completely worn out. Oh, and it's full of viruses."

I invested in some better anti-virus software (the university gives us all some free stuff, but clearly free wasn't doing the job), and haven't had a problem with viruses since.

However, my computer is crashing again. Repeatedly and annoyingly. Not to mention that since the beginning of the year, there's been some kinda problem with the monitor in which all of the parts of the screen that are supposed to be white show up pink, and all the parts that are supposed to be black show up green.

I've been telling myself "it only has to last for eight more weeks" (eight being the number of weeks until graduation), and have started backing up assiduously. In truth, it probably has to last for a little longer than eight weeks, since I probably won't be able to replace it until I get some money, and I won't be able to get some money until I get a job, etc. etc. etc.

But lord-a-mercy this is annoying. It took me twenty minutes this morning to print a paper for class.

If I have some time during my DC tour, I'm going to hit up an Apple Store. (And I've got to figure out if this "make a reservation for a Personal Shopping Assistant" deal is free.) Obviously I'm not going to buy anything; I've got $271.21 in my bank account and it's got to last through April. But I... want to fantasize about buying something.* Actually, I want to begin to look at my options. There must be an Apple employee ready and willing to talk about reasonably-priced laptops for the newly graduated.

'Cause it's going to be a Mac this time, people. Seriously.



* I also want to play with the iPhones. Did you know that in those Apple stores, they just let you... play with all the stuff, for as long as you want? ^__^

6 comments:

Cynthia Haller said...

Hi I'm a new reader of your blog and love it.

I live in India as an expat and found out about your blog through a regular reader of mine.

Reading your laptop post brought memories (bittersweet ones at that) of my Compaq Presario Desktop, Barely a year after I purchased it the hard drive would crash all the time, and I spend way too much money having that damed thing fixed, rebooteed, re-installed, and even dragged some of my computer geeks into the mess which resulted in countless sleepless nights trying to salvage a hard drive that would anyway crash again 2-3 weeks later, 2 years after I first bought it, the desktop was as useful as an oversized paper weight and I was forced to purchase a new one, this time I went buying a custom built one salvaging as many components from the compaq, which I can safely say was a bad move, because the DVD drive failed me 6 months later, the Compaq monitor died mysteriously 1 week after I got the new desktop, and the floppy disk never functionned with the result I had to remove it, dump it and yet spill more money on it. I think the only thing that survived from the compaq until I left for India was the mouse, and the speakers (though tey were giving signs of premature ageing)
So much that now I stay away from Compaq, and when I purchased a laptop this was the first brand I dismissed dispte the vendor trying to brag about it's advantages (low cost, big screen, low weight). I eventually settled on a Sony Vaio which has a big screen, very low weight but costed a lot, but it hasn't failed me yet in the nealry 3 years I had it.

Good luck with your laptop, but take my advice, do not spend too much money fixing a compaq, once they start breaking, it seems you spend too much effort fixing one part and when you succeed it comes with a brand new problem. A money syphons wouldn't work better in my opinion

ctrlalteredmind said...

Once you go Mac, you can't...

If you're buying a Mac, here are two places to look first -> Apple's Refurbished Mac section - now that newer models have been dropped unto the populace, previous gen laptops appear on there for as much as 33% less (I got my MBP there). Highly reliable. The second place to look is Amazon - they usually rebates for laptops, and with the no-tax option work out to much lower than the student discount Apple provides.

ctrlalteredmind said...

have*

Anonymous said...

Come over to the bright side, honey. Macs are the best.

I have a pretty blue salwar too :-)

Anonymous said...

Good day !.
You re, I guess , perhaps very interested to know how one can reach 2000 per day of income .
There is no initial capital needed You may commense earning with as small sum of money as 20-100 dollars.

AimTrust is what you thought of all the time
The firm incorporates an offshore structure with advanced asset management technologies in production and delivery of pipes for oil and gas.

It is based in Panama with affiliates around the world.
Do you want to become a happy investor?
That`s your choice That`s what you really need!

I feel good, I started to get income with the help of this company,
and I invite you to do the same. It`s all about how to choose a correct partner who uses your funds in a right way - that`s it!.
I make 2G daily, and my first investment was 500 dollars only!
It`s easy to start , just click this link http://amoqylixow.bigheadhosting.net/lokypy.html
and go! Let`s take our chance together to become rich

Anonymous said...

Hi!
You may probably be very interested to know how one can manage to receive high yields on investments.
There is no need to invest much at first.
You may begin earning with a sum that usually is spent
for daily food, that's 20-100 dollars.
I have been participating in one company's work for several years,
and I'll be glad to share my secrets at my blog.

Please visit my pages and send me private message to get the info.

P.S. I make 1000-2000 per daily now.

http://theinvestblog.com [url=http://theinvestblog.com]Online Investment Blog[/url]