After a month being a technician...

It's been about a month after I started working as a technician at a local computer store. I must say I've learned quite a lot of stuff through the experience, and it's just likely that I'm about to discover more. So far, here's my observation:

1. CoolerMaster GX 550W is a problematic PSU.
More than three were sent for warranties last month, under six months of use. I heard that the whole GX series isn't recommended actually. Good thing I bought a second-hand CoolerMaster Real Power Pro 750W instead of a GX 550W. Good buy too; it's bloody cheap.

2. Power supply testers are very rare.
The only place I saw it was in the store I worked, but then again it's sold out. It is priced at RM39. Simple and handy to have it.

3. Compressed air cans are not sold in computer stores.
Instead you can find it at a hardware store. Compressed air is commonly used to clean up electronics, especially computers, by blowing away dust in hard-to-reach areas.

4. Dell has no service center.
They got an on-site service instead. You're supposed to call Dell first so they can check your stuff at your home/office. More information here: http://supportapj.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/ap/shared/support/dellcare/en/byphone?c=my&cs=mydhs1&l=en&s=dhs

5. External hard disks tops the warranties list.
Not exactly a surprise. Almost everyday goes with someone having issues with the external hard disk. Often it was bad sectors and mechanical failures. As for data recovery, utilities such as Testdisk (included with Parted Magic) are often used.

6. K-World media players were also problematic.
Sure, they have a three-year warranty, but it doesn't really reflect the build quality. It's cheap, but has poor documentation, and many have been sent for warranties. I'd recommend ASUS O! Play series instead.

7. I hate printers.
Yes, I just discovered my (mild) hatred for printers. They are such a pain to set up, especially dot-matrix printers and all-in-one printers. Then I have to repackage it, which is also a pain.

Sorrow Days, and Extra Storage

Lately it's been a little sorrow for me, since my Chinese grandfather just passed away last Friday. To be honest, I don't know him much, since he was Chinese and lives in Johore, while I live high up in Kedah. Still, it does leave some impact to me. If you're wondering, yes, I share a blood relation with him. He was very old, but yet very kind. Although our cultures and religion might be different, a family is still a family.

Moving on, I've just arrived in KL yesterday, and went straight to Low Yat. I managed to collect enough money to buy myself a new hard disk: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB. Gone now the days where I have to delete something just to get something else in. At least for now. The already cheap drive just got cheaper; mine is priced at RM320, giving an easy 32 cents per GB. A fresh new hard drive waiting to be filled. Yay. Bigger drives generally mean faster drives; each section of data is smaller on the disk, which results in lesser movements required by the read/write head.



On the side note, whenever you buy an extra internal hard disk, plug it in and directly turn on the PC, you won't find the hard disk in Windows even if it shows up in the BIOS. This is because a fresh hard disk has no partitions. So you will have to create at least one partition for your hard disk, using a Windows Setup CD/DVD (just stop at making partitions, you don't need to install Windows). If you don't have one, you can grab a DOS bootdisk instead. If you're going to use DOS, use the command FDISK to create a partition. A menu should appear and it shouldn't be too hard to understand the interface. Formatting the drive in DOS or Windows Setup isn't necessary, the drive will appear in Windows after that. You can then format the drive in Windows, and your new hard disk is good to go.