've been hounded by electronic and digital woes these past few days. Hence, the long period of no posts in this blog when I'm supposed to be doing the August Break this month! I really hate it when my gadgets break down on me long before their expected shelf life expires.
The power adapter of my nearly one-year old Asus Eee PC netbook - which I have been using as my main computer for portability reasons - fried itself to death last weekend. (I looked it up online and it seems that overheated power adapters is a common complaint among Asus Eee PC users). Because of this, I was on panic mode the entire week since I was in charge of organizing a forum on Thursday and all the files I needed were saved in that netbook.
Before the battery juice ran out, I quickly copied everything to my office-issue Samsung external hard drive so I can continue working on them in my Dad's old laptop. But when I tried to access the files in his laptop, I couldn't open them because they were in Open Office (.odt) format (my Asus netbook doesn't have MS office in it). Open Office can open Microsoft files but it doesn't work the other way around. (On second thought, of course it doesn't! Silly me.)
I couldn't possibly open each .odt file and convert them to .doc format on the netbook. There are too many and my netbook's battery was near empty. Plus it would take a couple of days for the computer shop to tinker with my fried adapter to find out if it's repairable (turned out it isn't). Although the shop had a universal power adapter, they won't give a warranty for it because of risk issues and I'd really rather not add to my problems by ruining my laptop because the universal adapter blew up.
I wanted to pull out my hair in frustration and fling my Asus Eee netbook across the room.
I ended up encoding most of the files in my father's old laptop and cramming just like I did in college. It doesn't help that I had to almost single-handedly do all the dirty work in organizing that forum. This is the part of my job that I truly dislike- organizing events and being the secretariat to an association. I honestly find very little pleasure in sending out invitation letters, making phone calls to confirm speakers' and participants' attendance, making arrangements for the venue and food/catering, preparing programs and certificates, that sort of stuff. Event organizing isn't my thing. There's too much unnecessary stress involved. I'd really rather cover an event, not arrange it. But my line of work calls for doing both.
That's not all. This weekend, my Globe modem at home bugged down. During a rare, particularly long weekend. When word from the central office is that we're expected to file the usual reports/quotas through the two-day holiday. When I was so looking forward to catching up with my blogging and pinning eye candies at Pinterest. And keeping tabs with a friend in New York City during the height of Hurricane Irene. And downloading songs for my iPod.
My internet provider's repair technician came over today and replaced my ailing modem with a more compact Prolink unit. The net connection was up and running again. But about 30 minutes after he left, the connection slowed down until it stopped entirely. I went over to reset the new modem and found the surface so hot! Really, really hot. Poker hot. I quickly turned it off and unplugged the adapter, which was equally hot to touch.
I sent a text message to the technician complaining about the heated modem and he said it's okay, that I shouldn't worry about it overheating and to make sure that the unit is not pressed to the wall so it will be well-ventilated. But dang it, I'm already paranoid from my Asus netbook's overheated power adaptor. Anything that hot plugged into a power source is surely a risk for electrical fires!
Besides, I think that's the cause for my intermittent net connections. I'm not entirely sure, but I've noticed that the connection drops when the modem gets very hot. Then I unplug it, wait a few minutes until the adapter and the modem are cool to touch and plug it back in, my net connection returns. If Globe won't do something about this (like replace my new modem with another unit that won't get this hot when in use) I'll convince my Dad to have the broadband cut off and wait until our cable provider starts offering internet connection to its subscribers.
Like the title says, it's been a series of unfortunate events for me. I'm too drained right now to look for the silver lining, if there is even one.
Time to end this long rant. The modem is getting quite hot already.
The power adapter of my nearly one-year old Asus Eee PC netbook - which I have been using as my main computer for portability reasons - fried itself to death last weekend. (I looked it up online and it seems that overheated power adapters is a common complaint among Asus Eee PC users). Because of this, I was on panic mode the entire week since I was in charge of organizing a forum on Thursday and all the files I needed were saved in that netbook.
Before the battery juice ran out, I quickly copied everything to my office-issue Samsung external hard drive so I can continue working on them in my Dad's old laptop. But when I tried to access the files in his laptop, I couldn't open them because they were in Open Office (.odt) format (my Asus netbook doesn't have MS office in it). Open Office can open Microsoft files but it doesn't work the other way around. (On second thought, of course it doesn't! Silly me.)
I couldn't possibly open each .odt file and convert them to .doc format on the netbook. There are too many and my netbook's battery was near empty. Plus it would take a couple of days for the computer shop to tinker with my fried adapter to find out if it's repairable (turned out it isn't). Although the shop had a universal power adapter, they won't give a warranty for it because of risk issues and I'd really rather not add to my problems by ruining my laptop because the universal adapter blew up.
I wanted to pull out my hair in frustration and fling my Asus Eee netbook across the room.
I ended up encoding most of the files in my father's old laptop and cramming just like I did in college. It doesn't help that I had to almost single-handedly do all the dirty work in organizing that forum. This is the part of my job that I truly dislike- organizing events and being the secretariat to an association. I honestly find very little pleasure in sending out invitation letters, making phone calls to confirm speakers' and participants' attendance, making arrangements for the venue and food/catering, preparing programs and certificates, that sort of stuff. Event organizing isn't my thing. There's too much unnecessary stress involved. I'd really rather cover an event, not arrange it. But my line of work calls for doing both.
That's not all. This weekend, my Globe modem at home bugged down. During a rare, particularly long weekend. When word from the central office is that we're expected to file the usual reports/quotas through the two-day holiday. When I was so looking forward to catching up with my blogging and pinning eye candies at Pinterest. And keeping tabs with a friend in New York City during the height of Hurricane Irene. And downloading songs for my iPod.
My internet provider's repair technician came over today and replaced my ailing modem with a more compact Prolink unit. The net connection was up and running again. But about 30 minutes after he left, the connection slowed down until it stopped entirely. I went over to reset the new modem and found the surface so hot! Really, really hot. Poker hot. I quickly turned it off and unplugged the adapter, which was equally hot to touch.
I sent a text message to the technician complaining about the heated modem and he said it's okay, that I shouldn't worry about it overheating and to make sure that the unit is not pressed to the wall so it will be well-ventilated. But dang it, I'm already paranoid from my Asus netbook's overheated power adaptor. Anything that hot plugged into a power source is surely a risk for electrical fires!
Besides, I think that's the cause for my intermittent net connections. I'm not entirely sure, but I've noticed that the connection drops when the modem gets very hot. Then I unplug it, wait a few minutes until the adapter and the modem are cool to touch and plug it back in, my net connection returns. If Globe won't do something about this (like replace my new modem with another unit that won't get this hot when in use) I'll convince my Dad to have the broadband cut off and wait until our cable provider starts offering internet connection to its subscribers.
Like the title says, it's been a series of unfortunate events for me. I'm too drained right now to look for the silver lining, if there is even one.
Time to end this long rant. The modem is getting quite hot already.
Hi Chelle, sometimes those "series of unfortunate events" are really nuggets of fortunes... they tell you to slow down, take a deeeeper breath, and yes, cool down and change your ISP...
ReplyDeleteSo, how did the event go? :p
ReplyDeleteI had to reach out to feel my modem before writing this. LOL Okay, warm to touch but not burning yet. Good enough. :) Hope all is well for you soon dear.
Hi Anonymous! I know we know each other but I'm still trying to guess which of my friends you are lol. Definitely will change my ISP soon =)
ReplyDeletePom, the event was exhausting. This was the day before my birthday! I heaved a big sigh of relief once the forum ended. Will post more about my birthday, although I didn't have a party! =)