It's Happening Again

My new notebook is having the Excel issue again. I cannot save it in its latest version, except 1997-2003 version! Need to ask IT support for help again. 

NEW New Notebook & Monitor

In all my years of working at NIE, this is the first time in 13 years that I am getting a brand NEW notebook! I am extremely thrilled! I have always been getting refurbished notebooks (four times over the course of 13 years) and frankly, I am getting tired about the slow speed of those notebooks.

New Friends

New friends. :) 
My current Asus is 5 years old and it is getting slower. The fan is not working too well either. 

Replacement

I bought a replacement notebook for my current ASUS which I have been using since March 2011. The current ASUS heats up very quickly when I am using it. I think the fan is probably gone after 5 years of use.   

At LONG Last

I finally got my new notebook in 2015! 
My current notebook was issued to me back in 2009 after the previous one crashed. But somewhere in 2011, the hard disk crashed and I had to buy a new hard disk to replace it as there was no replacement notebook. There was one or two occasions which I could change to a "new" notebook but I didn't because the "new" notebook was basically an upgraded old notebook (bought in 2010 or 2011). I am really happy that I hold out until now. Otherwise, I would not have gotten a brand new notebook! :)

New Hp Probook, Hp monitor, mouse and keyboard! :)

Replace?

My personal notebook, Asus, suddenly shut down today. Thinking that I had depleted the battery without realising, I plugged in the power charger. My notebook gave a warning message for its battery pack. The message asked for me to consider replacing the battery as it was not charging up at all. 
This notebook has been with me since 2011 and it is still working fine. Wonder if I should just replace the battery pack and use it for another 2-3 years? 
PS. My office notebook has been with me since 2009 and I am still using it! :)

Click Click Click

Today, I noticed a clicking noise coming from my office Fujitsu notebook. It has been with me for 6 years now since 2009. I hope the clicking noise is not a symptom of something serious to come. Spooked by the clicking noise, I started backing up all my data. A colleague thought it may be the fan making the clicking noise as it came from the left side of the notebook. I really hope so. 
Any "new" replacement notebook from my workplace are recycled notebooks from projects that have been closed and they are likely to be at least 3-5 years old too. :( Not any newer or better. Sigh.

Same Old Same Old

I was too lazy to check out the other brands of internet security for my notebook. Went back to Norton. Nothing spectacular but it works fine for me. :)

Internet Explorer 10

Updated 10:04pm 
I spoke too soon. IE is still wonky. :( 
 
Last night, I was prompted to install new updates which I did. However, this morning when I tried to load up my Internet Explorer, an error message appeared saying that the IE is not working. Tried restarting the notebook several times but still with the same result "IE not working". It was really strange as my IE was working fine last night. Finally it dawned on me that it might have something to do with the new updates I installed last night. I looked under Installed Updates and discovered my IE has been updated to the latest version, Internet Explorer 10. I went online via Firefox and found out that there are others who had problems with IE 10 on their Windows 7 too. The only way was to uninstall IE 10 and it will revert back to the previous version, IE 9. That's what I did. 
Now my IE is working fine, never mind if it is the older version of IE 9. 

Windows 8

During lunch break, my colleagues and I dropped into Challenger, an IT store to look at the latest operating system on PCs, notebooks, etc.: Windows 8. 
Haha, it looks like my Nokia Lumia 800. :P I love Windows 8 already lol. I love the tiles, the colours, the interface lol. I am thinking if I should get a new netbook... :P

Trojan Horse

I was trying to look at some files from my thumbdrive. As the PC I was using in school prompted me to run a virus scan on my thumbdrive, I thought why not. I was darn surprised when the anti-virus programme alerted me to a threat! :O It was a Trojan-gamethief.win32.magania. Horror of horrors, I have a Trojan horse on my thumbdrive!! :( The threat has now been eliminated by the anti-virus programme so my thumbdrive is now clean. However I am now worried about my personal notebook and netbook as well as my office notebook as I have used my thumbdrive on those machines. Although I have scanned my thumbdrive previously, none of the anti-virus programmes pick up this trojan horse. Hopefully it meant the thumbdrive only got infected recently, very, very recently. :( Sigh. I have absolutely no idea how my thumbdrive got infected.

Wait a minute, on second thought, what if it is one of my machines that is infected and it has in turn affected my thumbdrive?! Argh.

New Stuff

I have been informed that my notebook is FINALLY here. :) I am most happy. I have been accumulating and storing a lot of work stuff on my personal notebook especially during the week leading up the conference and the duration of the conference. I much prefer to have those data stored on my work notebook.

I have also been informed that I am finally getting my name tag after working at the centre for 5 years! I was declined a name tag in 2004 because HR said I was part-time. But the truth is I am working full time but (50% load earlier) 75% load. I still get the same annual leave benefits, medical benefits, insurance benefits as the other full time staff but pro-rated. Finally, I can now be one of the staff after so long... Sigh.

The Aftermath

I have been trying to do office work using my personal notebook. It is a struggle for me because my personal notebook uses Microsoft Office 2007 which I am NOT very familiar with. :( I also have to create a separate folder for my office work. I am already missing my old notebook. :(

I have no idea when my new notebook will be coming in. Sigh. Guess I might as well use the time now to get familiar with Microsoft Office 2007 as new notebooks nowadays mostly have it installed on them.

Crashed AGAIN!

My office notebook has crashed again!!! I was just complaining about my notebook making strange noises again to a few colleagues last week. Sigh.

It crashed once early last November and this afternoon, it went kaput. I was quite upset about it crashing on me. But thank goodness, I happened to back up all my data in the notebook in the morning. PHEW. At least I still have all my important data intact. NOW I can only use my personal notebook while waiting for my new notebook to arrive. The order was put in in late March but now I am still waiting for it... :( Where is it??!!!

I NEED A NEW NOTEBOOK!

Notebook's Back :)

I have got my personal notebook back from the service centre yesterday. I waited almost an hour just for the collection.

The engineer told me that one of the RAMs in my notebook was faulty. I have two 2GB RAMs in the notebook, one that came with the notebook and the other one was a free gift (an up-grade) when I bought the notebook at the IT Fair in June. However, the engineer didn't say which one was the faulty one. The replacement of the RAM was free as my notebook is still under warranty until 2011. The additional warranty of 2 years was a free gift too. Hopefully I don't have to use it in the future...

It's nice to have my notebook back. :) I hope it will stay healthy.

Betrayal II

Some friends were concerned and asked if I was alright when they read about my post on Betrayal on 1 December 2008. Thanks, Friends for your concern.

It was a betrayal but not from a person. It was from my new personal notebook. But it doesn't mean the betrayal was any less painful. My new notebook conked out on me after 3 months of usage. Yes, only after 3 months! Being a new notebook, I didn't think to back up my data any more frequent than once a month. And it conked out on me just a day before I was due to back up my data... I could have lost a whole month's worth of data. I had a good friend who helped me to check and my hdd is fine, (THANK GOODNESS!) so it could be the motherboard that is problematic. Anyway, I sent it to the service centre on Tuesday 2 December. It sure didn't invite confidence when the centre was full of people and the wait to see an engineer was 2 to 3 hours minimum! Sigh.

I think what made it hurt so much was because I have always defended this particular brand to my friends, especially my guy friends who couldn't fathom why I was using the brand at all, and my new notebook's untimely demise just seemed to prove their point about the brand. But when my guy friends knew about my notebook, they have been quite nice to me. Other than the "I told you so" look and the shake of their heads they gave me, they didn't rub it in. Thanks, guys. Really appreciated it. :)

I will be collecting my notebook next Tuesday. I will know exactly what was the problem with my notebook. Will keep you guys informed.

Notebook Problem Again

Sigh. My notebook is problematic again. This time, it was my email system. Somehow, a file has been corrupted when the email system was being reinstalled into my notebook after it crashed. I didn't discover the problem until today. Thank goodness, the IT department was able to resolve the problem. :)

I had the latest SPSS version 17 installed into my notebook as I was having lots of problem taking out the commuter license for SPSS 16. However, to my horror, when I wanted to look at an earlier SPSS version of data output, I couldn't open it with SPSS 17. DARN! What is going to happen to my PhD statistical analysis??!! Thank goodness, the IT department was able to resolve the problem too, sort of. Well for the newer version of SPSS data output files with the extension .spv, I will have to use SPSS 17 to open. For the older versions of SPSS data output files with the extension . spo, I will have to use SmartViewer 15 to open. Sigh. Very troublesome but that's the best solution so far.

Since its crash, although revived, my notebook has been acting very strange. I have been diligently backing up my data twice a week, just in case. Lol.

Notebook Revived!

I got my notebook back today. Yeah! :) My friends at IT department managed to save my data and transferred them into a new hard disk. :) It was my hard disk that crashed. I was very lucky too as they only had one last hard disk available. Otherwise I would have to wait while they order in new hard disks. :)

I also have SPSS 17, the latest version installed and I managed to take out the commuter license for that. I am really glad as I can now do stats at home too. I have had so much trouble taking out the commuter license with SPSS 16. Now, no more problem. :)

Hopefully, my notebook can work for another year at least. It has been with me since end 2004. We both want to go for long service award hahaha. :P

Crashed!

Crashed 1
Today is my first day back at work. After two weeks away, I am ready to start work again. But guess what? My notebook crashed! AHHHHHHH! On my first day of work?!! And I didn't had time to back up my data (two month's worth of work) before I went away to Hong Kong and Korea!! Sigh. There is nothing I could do except to send my notebook to the ER (IT department). Hopefully, they can help to retrieve my data.

Crashed 2
I am suffering from jet lag severely lol. I am sleeping and I am awake at the wrong times of the day. Maybe after a few more days, I would be ok. But right now, I am crashing badly too, not unlike my notebook, hahaha. :P

My New Notebook and New Hard Disk

I have been looking around for a new notebook. Since the PC show is on and today is a non working day for me, I thought I would just go have a look. There might be some good deals around. :) While there are many brands around, somehow I found myself gravitating towards booths that have Acer notebooks, lol. I have been using my current Acer Travelmate since early 2005 with no problems all these years (only recently there is a problem). So, personally I think Acer is pretty good although some of my friends don't fancy Acer, lol. Since I am used to Acer and am happy with it, then I might as well stick with Acer, right? Lol. :P

After going through a few booths with Acer notebooks, I finally got my Acer Aspire 4920G for $1598 at one particular booth with some pretty good free gifts. I got my RAM upgraded to 4GB, an extended 2 years' local warranty, a MS Office Home & Student Edition, an Anti-virus package, a Cooler Master cooler fan, an optical mouse and a Garskin for my new notebook. Not bad, huh?! :) :) :) Yes, I am all smiles! :P

Since I am already at the PC show, might as well get a new hard disk. I bought a WD My Passport Essential 250GB portable hard disk for under $130. I wanted a red one but it was out of stock. So I went for a blue one. Now I can transfer all my photos into this new hard disk as my old hard disk (of only 40GB) is fast running out of space. :)

Hmmm, what should I get next? How about my PDA phone?? Asked about SE Xperia but it won't be out until late 2008 or early 2009. Guess I have to look at other alternatives then, lol. Maybe a Samsung SGH-i780 or a HTC Touch Diamond. Lol. Yeah, I think I am on a shopping spree now. Haha. :P