Post-warranty Problems – Compaq Presario v3000

Nearly 2 months after my 1 year warranty on my laptop got over I realised that the first component of my Laptop stopped working, that was my wifi, i managed to get around that problem by buying a usb wifi dongle. Now, one month later my display stopped working – no meassage ..nothing. All the lights on the laptop get turned on, but the display won’t show anything. Surprisingly both times, with my wifi as well as with my display, it used to work on-and-off before finally saying bye-bye.

I first noticed that my display was getting problems on Sunday, where the display wouldn’t show anything after a reboot. Switching off and booting didn’t help either. What did help however was waiting for 2 hours before trying to switch on my laptop..which worked (maybe those were the signs that are used to indicate that the laptop is getting older). The next day it was working with no problems at all. And yesterday it stopped working all together.

It makes me wonder whether the laptop companies have built in a chip which checks whether additional warranty has been purchased or not, and then systematically takes apart the system from the inside. The only way to test that would be to purchase 2 identical laptops – and extend the warranty on only one of them. I know it sounds insane, but I am depressed and life doesn’t seem fair. Y doesn’t this kind of stuff happen to my Office laptop instead (which is older and which I can get replaced)?

So, currently I am searching the sites for nice laptop configurations and seeing by how much it will set me back. Advice to all laptop users, get ur extended warranty!!

Free calling from ur cell phone – truphone

Do you have a cell phone with symbian OS (hopefully Nokia)? Does it have Wifi? Would you like to make calls abroad at low prices? If the answers to the above are Yes..yes and yes.. then its time to install Truphone on your mobile, its a VOIP software which lets you make calls at low prices.. to many countries even for free (until feb 29th). The software works like a charm and you can make calls immediatly as you normally do…if the numbers are in the US and UK then you do not need to provide the international code, else that little piece of info is required.

All is not rosy here also.. the software tries to take over your phone. It refuses to shut up and lie low (until I found out the option “Disable truphone”), that would not be a problem if it did not always try to switch On the Wifi which is a major battery strain. Another catch is that the software also works over 3G, so you have to be careful that the call does not accidentally takes place over the 3G connection.

The software works on Nokia N-series and the E series, already tested on those, probably it also works on other mobiles having a Symbian OS and Wifi (or 3G).

Meet the next episode

Thats the caption for the Nokia N81 8GB and my latest gadget. Those who know me were already shocked that I switched to Nokia after suggesting Sony Ericsson to anyone who wants was/is buying a new cell phone. The reason I bought it is because the N81 is definitely more of a gadget than a cell phone. It took care of my plans of buying the Creative Zen (which wud have set me back by another 200 Euros) , and I did not feel like springing another 300Euros  to get a N95 instead (who needs a 5MP cam and a GPS anyway when you don’t even have a car).

The negatives of the phone first, its heavy – the first thing anyone will notice when they hold it, its even heavier than the N95 which has got more features. Its camera sucks beyond bad – its 2MP without autofocus but with flash, don’t even think bout using it in the night – currently searching for a software so that I can put the flash to good use by acting as a torch. Its MP3 application cannot be closed – bad if you want to free up memory space. The keypad is weird – some keys are very responsive others are not. 

Now on to the good, its got 8GB storage space, so I got plenty of songs on it as well as videos. Its got a 3.5mm audio jack, so you can use any head phone you want to use with this phone. It looks cool – its black n sexy (catches a lot of fingerprints though). It has Wifi- which connects quite well, so free browsing if your laptop is not around and if you are willing to leech of someone else’s network, the browser is also quite good, I’ve installed Opera Mini in addition to the default browser and both are good. Being a smartphone it has plenty of options for adding details to contacts, too bad that the thumbnail which gets displayed during a call is tiny- One of the reasons I like SE, the other being that a Bday entry in contacts gets automatically updated in the calendar.

Being a smartphone it has the other advantage that there are more software options available for download such a EMplayer for watching youtube, and divx player for watching movies (if people can watch on a iPod they can do it on this one as well – not yet tried it though). The Video recording on this device is better than its camera capablities. Playing videos is of mixed opinions, the pre-installed videos played and looked great. When I tried playing the videos which were provided on the Nokia cd, they keep on getting stuck. Videos downloaded off the net played fine.

Its a sad thing that the Symbian phones do not allow you to install wallpapers fullscreen, neither do you get animated wallpapers (again something which is better in SE). Despite all the negatives.. I like the phone…plenty of Themes available for download and softwares as well.

Currently am in the process of trying to install the German Language  Pack so that I can use the T9 dictionary for SMS.