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To sum up my day: I went to see furry animals and was smitten.

If you ever visit Perth, be sure to drop by Caversham Wildlife Park to see some great shows and adorable fur balls. It's a private park with organized operations and awesome guides.








I would name this one, Huxtable. But her name's Susie.

Now that I have no laptop, I instead find that there seems to be a lot less time to study my reading materials for two of my online units. It's feels like a weird situation to be in because everyone is always saying how they've gotten back so much time without a computer. I feel so inefficient without my laptop.

But I'll tell you what else I'm thinking about. A trip to Des Moines during Summer, or better yet, just in time for Fall. So many things I want to do, so little money to do it with. If I can travel to the US for less than what it usually costs, I'll be sure to document that momentous occasion.

I've been returned my laptop. It's brain dead. The power goes on, but no one's there. Feels a little bit like a zombie.
I thought I'd document this for anyone with similar problems to read, hopefully you'll solve it with the least amount of hassle. Use your browser's search function to check if I covered a specific problem.

The length does not even begin to illustrate how much time was spent trying to fix the computer by myself.


Symptoms:
The main issue here is that Windows won't boot normally but can boot in safe mode.
If you can do this, it's probably a good idea to save any files you want to keep. You never know when it may fail.

Vertical lines appearing on screen. An indication of hardware failure.

The computer puts on a "lightshow". After a while, the screen changes to the black line blue background image above.

System restore from desktop (safe mode) and System Repair failed to fix the problem.

Because computer can't boot normally, auto restarts from system restore and diagnoses fails.

Diagnoses all pass or yield no distinguishable root causes.
There are all sorts of things you can do yourself, assuming you are not a complete tech idiot. You can do a Hard Disk Self Test (F12 for HPs), Memory Diagnostics (F12 in certain models, but you can also run it from System Repair), CHKDSK (run from System Repair or cmd), etc.



Here are the instructions for an HDD self test, taken from my communication with HP Techs:

Step 1. Perform a Hard Disk self test and Memory Self test in BIOS.
• Power on the system and keep tapping the F10 button when the HP Logo screen comes at startup.
• It will redirect to BIOS setup.
• click on Diagnostic Tab and select the HDD self Test.
• Once the hard Disk test is completed perform a Memory Self Test(optional in some unit).

Always perform a thorough test. It should take approximately 60-90 minutes. If the test fails then get back to us with error code. No need to perform the 2nd Step.

Step 2. If the test pass, boot the unit is safe mode, and Click on Start> Search> type 'msconfig' ( without quotation mark). Under General Tab > Start up Selection> select 'Selective Startup'. Remove the Tick Mark from 'Load Startup items', click on Okay and restart the unit. Then check if the issue persist.

However, if the issue still persist, you need to fix the issue from Service Center.

After all that, I decided to reformat, which sort of made things worse. Probably because I discovered more problems. I was pretty much going to throw myself out a window, at this point.
Reformatting kept failing and pressing F8 only gave me "Bootmgr is missing". So I did some digging.


With the recovery manager failing when I reformatted my computer (with a recovery disc, not the HP_RECOVERY partition), my own research suggested a pre-existing fault in the HP Recovery Drive. Basically, when you create a recovery disc, you burn that fault onto the disc.



There are two parts to the reformatting process - reformatting and reinstalling. This fault appeared as "Error 1002" in the second part. What it meant for me was, my computer successfully reformatted, but failed to "reinstall original content". I still couldn't load Windows in normal mode. But when I load in safe mode (F8), the recovery manager runs, and it fails again when reinstalling original content, then tries to restart itself, and obviously, fails AGAIN. It's a perpetual cycle.


Possible solutions:

A suggested solution is to order an HP Recovery Disc from HP.
That's if you're from the US and Canada. If you're from Malaysia or Australia, good luck, you're on your own. For other countries, check the link.
Alternately, you could scout around for an HP recovery disc from online stores. However, they go for about USD $100 and above.

Alternately alternately, if you know someone who uses the same laptop model, try burning a recovery disc from their computer and use it on yours. It MAY work. If you need to burn another recovery disc (each computer is limited to one only), you have to rename the hpcd.sys. Read this for more info.

As a last resort, if your mobo is a-OK, but recovery discs don't work for you, buy a new OS, assuming your computer's not as screwed up as mine. But you should really send it to a service technician before buying a new OS.

After a whole weekend of trying to fix this myself, I gave up and sent this to the professionals.


Professional Diagnosis:
Mr IT Dude explained, the video card was detached from the heatsink (due to extreme heat I think I heard?). The heat generated could've damaged the chip.
True enough, when the problem occured, it was sweltering.

Solution:
He suggested that I change the motherboard (mobo). He also said that they've received a few of the same models with similar problems, that there's a known fault with HP Pavilion DV6000 motherboards.

So now, I'm sourcing for a replacement mobo. It's a hit or miss with this one because I could buy a lemon (from eBay), or a part that is from the faulty batch or fails for some other reason. But the Gods must really hate me for that to happen.

Or, I could just get a new laptop. But I'm unwilling to put in too much time and effort in looking for one. I have insanely long reading materials this semester.

*beep beep booooop*

After 3 years, my super-heavy-but-awesome laptop is finally failing.

It could be one of a couple of things - a windows update that screwed it up, a sudden hardware failure or, extreme heat from a couple of days ago that melted its insides.

What does it mean when you can load windows in safe mode but not in normal mode?

You have to be amazed by its timing though. I'm starting classes next week and my warranty just ended. How am I going to survive that long? I'm not really sure but I'll take it one day at a time.

But if I do need a new laptop, I'm thinking, something light but it has to be a semi-entertainment laptop. (Who am I kidding? It's either, or. Not both.)

Photo by viZZZual.com

While blog hopping, I came across this interesting post on cucumbers, originally highlighted in The New York Times.
They're more useful than I thought.


1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.


2. Feeling tired in the afternoon? Put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.


3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.


4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.


5. Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!!


6. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!!


7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation.

8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don't have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.


9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!


10. Stressed out and don't have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams.


11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don't have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.


12. Looking for a 'green' way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but is won't leave streaks and won't harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean.


13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!

Try this Miniclip game, Fragger.

Blow up icemen.
Makes a good stress relieving tool, and distraction from work.

What do you do when employers are looking for well-rounded individuals who excel not only in the classroom, but outside as well?

My extra-curricular activities are mostly indoors, specifically, computer related, for goodness' sake. To make things worse, everyone here wants to hire management, engineering, finance, business, etc. students. Nobody wants a communications student *big fat sad face*. (I did however find some graduate programs open to all degrees, but they want Australian PR or citizens. I'm neither.)

What do I do now?

I must try harder. Or go to Singapore. *chuckle chuckle* OR switch industries!