#46 - PC Idiot

07.05.2010

Wow, finally got my new laptop. After like what, 3 weeks? That’s a long waiting period for me. From this round of buying from PC Fair on 10/04/2010, I learnt a few lessons:

a) Not to buy from the booth if they don’t have stock. Most likely, there will be other booths able to offer the same model.

b) Don’t rush when buying a laptop. Always try to survey no matter how packed the PC fair is. Unless if you are sure of which model you want to buy. So never go there if you are in a rush.

c) Try to bring someone who knows about PC if you are looking into the latest gadget or spec, especially when you are PC idiot like me. But I don’t really need the latest spec. anyway. I only need the most basic functions.

Anyway, managed to get my laptop on Thursday after I went to the Dell shop in Sunway Carnival for the second time. They forgot to install Windows 7 Starter for me for the first round. I really hate this Fosa Marketing, the company which sold me the laptop. Not having good impression on them at all. So today only managed to spare some time to have a look at my Compaq Presario CQ42-102TU notebook. The first thing I anticipated was network key problem as my sister wasn’t sure of the key herself (I wasn’t there during installation of modem and router, and it happened that the key she gave me was correct. Read further to know). Got few opinions from friends (Kiru, Kelvin, Mat, Jon Sern and Melbeline). Thank you so much!

Today I learnt something new…

First there is this software (Wireless Key View 1.11, publisher: nirsoft.net) which can help you to retrieve network key for your wireless network connection (if you have forgotten it). Very useful indeed. And then only I know that the key can be in Hex or Ascii form. Since our key is WEP encrypted, it is in Hex form. And actually the password my sister gave me was correct. Just that it was in Ascii form, so when I keyed in, it was not accepted. Imagine, the Hex key actually consisted of 26 characters (don’t know why mine so long. How to remember wor). Nevertheless, I copied it down for fear of future recurrence *touch wood*. Kiru taught me a lot tonight and I am so grateful to have her that time. Plus Kelvin too of course. And lucky I still have my old laptop and LAN connection. So I was actually using 2 laptops with LAN and wireless network connection respectively.

After kao tim network key issue, it was time to download all those softwares which I will need. Shoot! Then only I realised I forgot to purchase Microsoft Office. Haiz… there seemed to be many obstacles to using this laptop. My fault really. To me, I only need the basic programs, such as pdf reader and creator, microsoft office, antivirus and flash player. Kelvin recommended PDF Creator and Foxit Reader instead of the usual NitroPdf and Adobe Reader we have always heard of. In fact, he even taught me to use openoffice.org in place of Microsoft Office if I am of urgent need, before I managed to purchase Microsoft Office software. Btw, now they already have the 2010 version? it’s always good to discuss with friends about softwares, so that we can know of the alternative softwares to be used when the existing ones crashed or is unsatisfactory.

So, here I am. Already 1am but still in front of laptop, as I want to kao tim all these software downloads when I actually need to be at Chong’s house by 7am and I got to go to Penang by 11.30am for Chee Pin is coming up all the way from S’pore. And at night we are celebrating Mother’s Day for grandma, then regather with my friends before retiring to Sri Sayang apartment in Batu Feringgi for our so-called ‘banglo stay’. Gonna be another long day

 

Nevertheless, I felt grateful for the assistance offered and happy to know that as PC idiot as I am, with the help of some Good Samaritans, I managed to solve the problem. Too bad, it happened after Domo reset her modem once more. I will share with her on the network key retrieval software.

Comment:

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