Hello to Buyer's Remorse

Many moons ago, i talked about the PS3 being money well-spent.  It's taken me almost a year, but i realize now that it is in actuality a "poison pill."

My problem is that the damned machine does its job too well.  It truly does everything, which translates into a huge time-suck away from active productive pursuits (e.g. blogging) into passive consumption of entertainment (e.g. Netlifx, BD, and games).  I blamed my mental constipation (read: lack of interest in blogging) solely on the "great weight" that was my fellowship application, completely ignoring the fact that my creative juices had almost completely dried up from playing God of War, watching back episodes of No Reservations, and enjoying masterpieces like The Human Centipede (First Sequence).  It's not the machine's fault, of course; the predicament is my own doing.

Bah, never again.  Now that i've identified the problem, i can direct my attention to it (or, in this particular circumstance, AWAY from it).

Enema administered, let the diarrhea begin.

Silently it waits, with the single red light staring at me like the unblinking Eye of Sauron.

Goodbye Buyer's Remorse

Despite the good price i got on the PS3, there was still a part of me that regretted the purchase.  Sure, it can play DVDs and Blu-ray, do Netlifx, play games i've been salivating over for years, stream media from my PC, and even browse the Internet, but it still felt like a white elephant.  Where was the "killer app" that would make it indispensable?

Well i'd been checking out the PS3 Move for the better part of the past two weeks, trying to decide if it was just a Wii clone (we already have a Wii, and i didn't want to be redundantly redundant) and slightly repelled by its price tag.  Then we went to Costco and found it for $10 cheaper,so i decided to take the plunge.  After all, with Costco's generous return policy - i could always take it back.  And since it was on the same shelf, also picked up a copy of Start the Party.

It's a decision i haven't regretted since Adrian played with it.

Although the Wii looks and feels as though it might be idiot-proof, there is still a steep learning curve for a three year old who's never played video games before.  Making the connection between gestures (and button-mashing) and what happens on-screen is not a given.  I had high hopes for the Wii as a kid's console back when we bought it (Gianina was pregnant at the time and i had an eye on the future), but i guess "kid" is a relative term.  Or maybe i'm just too impatient.

Whichever the case, the Move + Start the Party combo takes care of that.  The Eye camera takes real-time video and "replaces" the motion controller with the hand-held implement appropriate to the particular game you are playing.  The feedback is immediate and the learning curve is almost non-existent.  The games are super-simple too. 

Adrian has taken a liking to "Bug Bash," and given the game's simplicity married with its frantic pace, it's not hard to figure out why. 



The Move hardware also shows promise for me.  I like the Table Tennis game in Sports Champions, and the Gladiator game isn't bad either.  My sore right deltoid testifies to how much i liked playing it.  Looks like this one's a keeper.

nvlddmkm (aka My Gateway Misadventure)

Late last year, i managed to get an excellent deal on a budget gaming laptop, the Gateway 7805U FX Edition.  Unfortunately, despite the "bang-for-buck," i ended up with more than i bargained for... constant crashes (aka "hanging") when doing basic tasks, but mostly when running flash video.

While i do consider myself slightly more computer-literate than the average joe, i am not completely comfortable tinkering around with my computer's innards (especially on a laptop).  I can update drivers and firmware with the best of them - but when it comes down to actually decoding and reprogramming code, i am useless.  So i looked up how to contact Gateway technical support and relayed my issues.  After some back-and-forth over email, and using a diagnostic tool called GWSCAN provided by the company, it was determined that my hard drive was defective, so i sent my computer in (at my expense) to have the offending part replaced.

Three weeks later, i got my new laptop back.  Eagerly, with visions of endless nights of pleasure (playing Crysis, natch) dancing in my head, i ripped the box open and looked at the piece of paper taped to the lid.

"Repair Comments: Reloaded OS."

Wait, what?

After two months of dealing with unpredictable crashes, a week of exchanging emails with technical support in India (never the same person twice, btw) ending with being told the HDD needed to be repaired, and three weeks of being computer-less, i get the laptop back... with a new copy of the presently-being-phased-out Windows Vista?! 

(I had been running Windows 7 Home Premium using the Upgrade Disc that Gateway sent me.  The crashes had been occurring even prior to the upgrade, and i was hoping Windows 7 would fix the issue.)

Furious but ever polite to the powers-that-be (as has been ingrained into me by years of living, studying, and working in the Philippines), i contacted technical support again and clarified that the promised repairs had not been done.  Slightly apologetic, the technical support person requested that i send the unit back (now at Gateway's expense) and have the repairs done properly.  I complied.

Another three weeks pass.  They ship it back, i open the box excitedly, and read the piece of paper with slowly mounting dismay and frustration.

"Repair Comments: HDD tested OK, Gwscan giving false failure.  Reloaded Windows Vista software."

W... T... F...?!?

AFTER YOU A-HOLES GIVE ME THE RUNAROUND FOR WEEKS AND TELL ME MY HARD DRIVE WAS THE EFFING REASON MY EFFING LAPTOP IS EFFING CRASHING ALL THE TIME USING YOUR OWN EFFING DIAGNOSTIC PROGRAM YOU TELL ME THAT THERE IS NOTHING WRONG AND THAT MY TROUBLES WILL ALL MAGICALLY GO AWAY WHEN I USE AN OBSOLETE OPERATING SYSTEM?!?!?!?  WHAT'S UP WITH THAT SH*T?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

After lots of hyperventilating and angry fist shaking i came to the conclusion that thousands before me have come to already: that technical support for computers is mostly useless and designed to give end-users the runaround until the warranty runs out.  

Unable to get Gateway to help me, and unable to help myself, i did the next best thing... and Googled my problem.

Well - it turns out that crashing is a known issue with the 7805U and the problem has been pinpointed by the community-at-large to be the graphics card.  It's referred to as the nvlddmkm error and presumably is caused by the card running too hot.  I soon found a quick and easy fix - disable the Aero effects in Windows 7 which should (in my understanding) offload the graphics card a bit.  I did just that and BAM - like magic, the laptop worked like it was supposed to.

Except it didn't.  The crashes became less frequent, but didn't go away completely.  Random crashes would still happen a few times a week, and only when a flash video was playing.  In a world where Hulu is rapidly becoming a viable way to consume media, this was completely unacceptable.  I updated the flash player and even disabled graphics acceleration, to no avail. 

After even more research, i stumbled on this page, which described many of the symptoms i was experiencing.  After suffering through eleven months of spotty computer performance, i finally decided to take the plunge and flash (overwrite) my graphics card BIOS (basic input/output system) like the poster recommended.

Now?  Bliss.  I have the Aero eye-candy on again, am running Hulu and Boxee with nary a hiccup, and can play Starcraft 2 with all the settings on high (no Crysis yet, but i am going to install within the next week or so).  Ahhh.  I only wonder why i didn't do it before.  Fear of bricking my laptop?  For all the trouble it was giving me, i could have just about thrown it away anyway. 

These are the sort of issues that make me want to ditch PCs for good.  A favorable price:power ratio is cold comfort when you're staring at a screen that's frozen on Youtube or a BSOD (blue screen of death).  I tried Ubuntu once and really never had any issues - except that i had a a semi-difficult time finding drivers for my stuff AND (deal-breaker here) i couldn't get on battle.net.  Being the cheapskate that i am, i probably won't give up on PCs, just on Gateway.  And i'm seriously considering getting a Mac for my next computer (i did in fact get Gianina a Mac for school, but really that's hers and not mine).  They have Steam now. 

The moral of the story: don't buy from Gateway.  Ever.