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Laptop Drama

June 5th, 2009 | Posted in Personal

Broken HP
(Pic Credits: Niklas)

Something weird has happened to my HP laptop, out of the blue the screen flickered, got some pixel noise and then it froze. I tried restarting, into Windows Vista, the pixel noise is everywhere and it freezes before even showing the login screen. I booted into Windows 7 and the same exact thing happened. Somehow though Safe Mode works, and occassionaly the noise would be gone from the boot menu and I can login to Windows before the screen randomly freaks out and it freezes. It feels like a hardware error because of the randomness of it and the fact that it affects both of my operating systems.

I’m happy this thing didn’t happen last week during my exam period, I don’t know what would’ve done. Luckily I’m taking this week off and just not doing anything, but I need to start working on my dissertation soon.

Heard from Diablo that the same thing happened to his HP machine and his only solution was to replace the motherboard of his computer. I emailed HP and their instructions indicate that I need to ‘service’ my system because the problem seem to effect everything even the BIOS menu.

I am going to email HP again to see how the “service” process takes place and how much it will cost me to replace a part such as the motherboard. I can’t believe this happened just two months after the warranty expired. Well, at least it didn’t happen exactly the day after it expired.

I think fixing this is going to take a while, and I’m not sure I can trust it with my work now that I have to start writing my dissertation. I thought I’ll just buy a new computer. I thought I’ll go for a Macbook this time, I have some Windows applications which I paid for, but I can install Windows 7 on the Mac as well, so I guess I can still have Windows as my primary OS and try the Mac OS X from there.

I just ordered the aluminum Macbook online, got a student discount for it as well, but they expect to have it delivered in ten days or so. I might send my HP laptop for service once I get that one so that I don’t remain stuck without a computer during the transition.

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  • Update for YNO, I updated my BIOS to the latest version and that didn't help.
  • YNO, will check that out.

    MMK, I haven't become a Mac whore yet, I'm planning to have Windows as my primary system until I replace all my software eventually. :P The Windows 7 RC1 will actually remain functional until June next year, that's a whole year from now.

    FK, that's a good idea. Maybe I will do that for my future laptops.

    Muwaiyah, I used to have an Acer laptop and I swear to God it was one of the best I ever had. Never had a single problem with it, but I just decided to replace it cause it was too big for me to carry around and I wanted to buy something new.

    But about free movies, I spent two years of my life learning intellectual property and copyright, I have strong moral objections against pirated movies.. but thanks anyway! :P

  • Heheheh. well, I am not an expert but i advice you next time to buy only Acer then it is for sure will have a problem before the warranty expires. This way you can be sure that you are not going to pay any thing for it, and it will happen again and again with Acer. :)
    looking forward to see you, especially if you want to copy some movies for free.
  • With HP, esp. HP Oman, I really suggest not to go without the warranty. My laptop is ~ 2.5 years old but I still get my warranty renewed (by paying 40 rials annually). To-date it has helped me since I've gotten the LCD replaced twice and the mobo once. All as a result of sudden deaths.

    Whilst with HP, stay within the warranty.

    -Fark Knight
  • I am sorry to hear about your laptop man. as they say in egypt, 'il ba'iyah fi 7ayatak'

    And the macbook is fantastic. I have it and OS X fulfills all my needs. I guess when it comes to specialist software, u do need windows so u can just install windows 7 but be aware that windows 7 will stop working in August (i.e. in less than two months).
  • On the HP web site there are updates for the BIOS - I had problems with my HP and loaded the lasted BIOS and they were solved.
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