So I decide to call up Dell, to see if I can purchase a graphics card from them. Turns out that even though it's out of warranty, because I haven't called them before they'll offer to either have the laptop picked up tomorrow by courier for repair, which will take 10 days or so, or send an engineer out tomorrow with a replacement motherboard and graphics card.. but that would require me to buy an extended warranty, minimum cost £110 for 1 year.

I did enquire into upgrades, but there's a 2-3 month waiting list for the upgraded part - nVidia 8200GTX instead of 7900GTX, and it would cost £325, so I decided against that.

I've opted to have it picked up at no cost tomorrow for repair back at the factory.

So I'm slightly flabbergasted, in a good way. I think it's because it's an XPS model - a top of the range one that they made a lot of fuss about being reliable and having good support etc. There was even a premium support line number to call on Dell's site.

So now I feel a little stupid for my wasted trip to Oxford today, but happy that it's going to get fixed :)

Current Mood: flabbergasted

Today I took my broken Dell XPS M1710 laptop to UK Laptops on the other side of Oxford to get it fixed. I drove there in the wintery conditions but I had no problems. Unfortunately though, I was one of the 5% whose laptop they can't fix. I suspect because it's not a dry joints problem, it's actually a memory chip which is on the way out.

So that was a waste of a day and a tank of fuel.

So I'm going to try and underclock the graphics card, see if that makes any difference. Perhaps there are some diagnostic tools for nVidia graphics cards that check memory and even allow the driver to mark some as 'bad'.. fingers crossed!

If not, I'll reuse my fast 320GB HDD from that laptop, and perhaps the 2x1GB sticks will be wanted by kissycat1000 and ev1ldonut for their Advent 4211s?

Current Mood: disappointed

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Cliff Richards - Some people

I doubt many of you know, but recently I discovered my Dell XPS M1710 that I bought a little over 3 years ago developed a fault with the graphics card which is causing graphical glitches and worst, crashes when you try to do anything sufficiently demanding. It's interesting that it's a little over 3 years, as this was the length of the 'standard' warranty Dell wanted me to fork out for, which I decided against. I'm quite pleased I didn't now..

However, I discovered a place in Oxfordshire that say they can fix the laptop for me, which is good. I don't fancy all the hassle with posting, waiting, etc. Today they're a bit short-staffed due to snow, so tomorrow (weather permitting) will be a road trip to them to get it fixed. I think I shall do my "Christmas shopping" while I wait.

With any luck, £99 later plus fuel costs I will have a fixed laptop again :) This will make me and sessifet25 happy :)

Other road trips in the near future are to my Mum's for Christmas day and Boxing day (2.5 hours), then up to see sessifet25 which turns out to be close to a 4 hour drive from my Mum's :S

Yesterday - awesome midwinter's feast with kissycat1000 and family, but felt grim in the evening.
Today - films and bumming around with jinx_lbc :)

Current Mood: good

RIP Brittany Murphy 1977-2009.

I fell pretty badly yesterday, because of the snow. It's really deep, and I couldn't see that the ground was uneven, so I misstepped. I was just outside my dad's place though, so I could get inside imediatly and get better. I'm ok now.
I got two early Christmas presents. The Addams Family Volume 1, with a lot of episodes of the TV-show, and a giftcard to SF, a Swedish movie theatre chain. I also bought the first Cul de sac collection for myself. :) I finished it in one day though. :(

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: The Addams Family

I've just been to see Avatar in 3D. This won't be a spoiler, don't worry. It's just - they've nailed 3D. And Avatar was a particularly epic story with state of the art CGI. It's getting close to the sort of things you might see in your dreams. Well, that's just my opinion.

Recent 3D films like Beowulf or Toy Story 3D made your eyes ache a bit - the 3D in Avatar was more subtle for the most part. The CGI was top-notch. Things moved as you'd expect, including all materials.

Cinema is safe. Home reproduction was getting to the point that it wasn't necessarily worth going to the cinema much any more; you could just wait for the DVD or Blu-Ray. With 3D, there's a good reason to see films in the cinema again - at least, in my opinion.

And Avatar - what an epic film. A good story, well told. Go and see it.

Current Mood: enthralled

No more SAAB. :(

Current Mood: blah

..I notice this news article. I think it's bloody dangerous to pursue a defense on the basis of "Asperger's disorder":

On Tuesday, attorneys for Albert Gonzalez filed a report from a forensic psychologist that questioned the criminal hacker's "capacity to knowingly evaluate the wrongfulness of his actions and consciously behave lawfully and avoid crime," according to federal prosecutors. The report went on to state that his "behavior was consistent with description of the Asperger's disorder."

Given today's society (okay, this may be slightly different in the states, but still), this could very likely lead to government seeing people with autism/aspergers as being a threat to law and order if their "capacity to knowingly evaluate the wrongfulness of [their] actions and consciously behave lawfully and avoid crime" is impaired.

And what do you think will happen then? Aspie/autists being sectioned or imprisoned 'for the greater good'?

This is dangerous ground.

Current Mood: aggravated

Only 372 days left to next Christmas.

Current Mood: bored