racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

When I first got my Compaq Presario V2000 I thought it would be invulnerable, like my old Thinkpad. However, a few weeks into use, I realized that laptops with painted finishes like this one were vulnerable to fading, especially in those places with frequent contact with skin. Also, touchpads/trackpads (instead of trackpoints, those rubber nub joysticks that Thinkpads come with) were prone to get oily and sticky at some point, and lose their matte surfaces.

By the time I had sent in the V2000 for repairs under warranty, the paint on the palm rest had darkened in those places I would usually place the heel of my palm on, the touchpad had smooth surfaces in those areas my forefinger frequently moved along, and there was some rusting on the speaker grille in the front.

Good thing the HP approved of the replacement of the entire front bezel, so when I got my unit back, the V2000 looked almost good as new.

However, I knew that the paint would inevitably fade off, so I thought it was time to put in some protection. I scoured the computer shops at the mall for laptop skins, but I could only find the very expensive kind, and the ones available were meant for MacBooks and MacBook Pros (such as the iSkin, et al). Keyboard-only skins for the MacBook retailed for PhP 1,200 (about $20), while palmrest protection for the MacBook and MBP cost PhP 1,500 (about $30). Protection for MacBook and MBP trackpads cost PhP 1,500 too.

I didn’t think these would fit my V2000, and the prices are a bit steep. So I didn’t bother to try them out. The only accessory I thought would fit were the cloth/felt-like pads I can stick onto the palmrest, but they were still priced a bit steep for cloth pads, at PhP 1,500 plus. I know I shouldn’t be scrimping on protection for an expensive gadget, but for those prices I could already buy additional memory.

And I knew of an alternative.

I remember a few years back when I was a mobile phone junkie, I would use Frisket Film to cover my phones’ screens to prevent scratching. Remember when you first took your mobile phone out of the box? Yes, the LCD screen had clear plastic film for scratch protection!

So I thought of buying frisket sheets instead. I headed to National bookstore, got myself a few sheets, and went on to do my project.

Frisket film is meant for use with airbrushing and you can usually find these at the art/engineering sections of supply stores. I believe these retail for PhP50 (about one dollar) per letter-size sheet. The National Bookstore branch I went to didn’t carry frisket, though, so I had to settle for clear acetate. It’s cheaper, but it’s not as good as frisket, since frisket doesn’t leave much sticky residue.

Step by step: how to protect your laptop with frisket film

I only installed the film on areas that had very frequent contact with skin, so these are the palm rest, touchpad and clickers. I would have protected my keyboard, too, but sticking on adhesive film on each key would be very tedious (and stupid, I think). The keyboard is where silicone skins should be used (and keyboard plastic is easier to clean since it’s not painted surface anyway).

What you need. frisket film, of course. If you can’t find this, clear acetate will do, but remember these might leave a sticky residue when removed. You’ll also need scissors, box cutter, or an X-acto knife (this would be best, I think). You’ll also need a pencil and ruler.

Measuring. First thing to do is measure the film against the part you want to cover. You can either hold the film against your laptop, or take measurements using a ruler.

I already covered the palm rest last night, but failed to take pictures. This afternoon, I decided to cover the touchpad, too. And here, I’m comparing the sheet of frisket with the touchpad’s area.

Cutting. Once you’ve measured the film against the actual area you want covered, it’s time to cut. In airbrushing, the artist would usually cut the film with X-acto knife while it’s already adhered to the surface to be covered. I’m not so adept at handling a cutter or X-acto knife, and I wouldn’t want my laptop’s surface to be scratched or cut. So I just cut the film while still on the paper backing.

Then I laid the film onto the touchpad surface to see if it fits.

My touchpad has rounded corners, so I have to trim the corners of the film, a la Web 2.0 style (rounded corners, that is).

Clean the surface. You wouldn’t want any dirt or dust to get stuck between that adhesive and your laptop. So the next step would be to clean the surface with any mild cleaning solution and soft cloth. Be sure to get rid of any oil residue (if your laptop is not new). You might also want to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, and dry them off completely before further handling of frisket.

Taking off the paper backing. Next step would be to take off the paper backing from the film. Be sure to handle the film only on the edges, as the adhesive side easily smudges with fingerprints.

Applying frisket on the surface. Now when you’ve taken the frisket film off its paper backing, you can now apply it onto the surface to be protected (previously cleaned and thoroughly dried). Start with the edges, making sure the film is aligned correctly. Be sure to stick it on from one edge to another. If you feel confident enough with your alignment, you can start with the center. Otherwise, air bubbles might form inside the covered surface.

If you’re covering your touchpad, be sure there are no air bubbles. Touchpads work on the capacitance of your finger (meaning electricity from your body), so it needs to “sense” the electricity from your finger in order to move the cursor. If the frisket is not properly applied, you might get inaccurate readings.

In fact, if you’re covering your touchpad, be sure to test first if it can still sense movements when something comes between the surface and your skin. You can try using any thin surface such as a piece of paper, or even the plastic packaging of your frisket film.

If you’re applying it on a larger area, you can get rid of air bubbles by gently rubbing the edge of a plastic card (such as a credit card) from one edge to another, or from the center to the edges.

Here’s a pic of my year-old V2000 before the front bezel was replaced (again, for free, by HP!).

Here below is the V2000 with a new bezel, and covered with clear acetate. The left part of my palm rest still with a few air bubbles. I don’t mind right now, though. I’ll just change the film when it gets too grimy already.

If you found this tip helpful, be sure to leave a comment below. You can also pitch in with other tips for keeping your gadgets like new.

During a what-was-i-thinking moment a couple of weeks ago, I was considering selling my trusty Compaq Presario V2617, possibly to finance an upgrade. I posted on TPC I had a lot of offers for the price (I got dozens of inquiries per day), but I ended up deciding not to sell instead.

And it was a good thing. Just the week after, I noticed my laptop was overheating. First, I got a creaking sound when the fan turned, and then I noticed the fan had not been turning at all. The CPU’s thermal protection then shut off the power whenever the processor got too hot.

And then I realized that the warranty was expiring July 3rd. So the day before, I rushed to MSI-ECS (official distributor and service center of HP) in nearby Libis to have the laptop services. My main complaint was the defective fan, but I told the technicians that they can feel free to replace whatever part needed replacing. I told them I noticed the LCD was a bit loose and was already dim. I also asked if they could replace the palm rest because the paint was faded, and the right speaker grill had some rust.

I had a pleasant surprise when I picked up the laptop yesterday. I was told the LCD and front bezel were replaced. I didn’t realize I would have a significant improvement over my laptop’s original state.

HP Compaq really made me happy this time.

My laptop looked almost new because of the new front bezel. Well, that’s except for the keyboard (which is in need of some good cleaning) and the the area near the hinges. So now the palm rest is pristine, and the touchpad and the clickers are also very smooth (no oil marks nor faded parts). Basically it’s like first using the laptop straight off the box.

But an even more pleasant surprise is the LCD. Not only was it twice as bright as my old one (at least to my perception), the entire lid had been replaced (probably easier than having to disassemble everything). And with this new lid came—guess what—WiFi antennae! I discovered this when I opened up the memory and mini PCI slots to check if maybe—just maybe—they upgraded the lid to the one with antennae. And they did!

The original V2617TS did not come with wireless antennas at the back, so that severely limited one’s wireless connectivity options to external/plug-in devices like Cardbus and USB.

Now that I had antennae, all I needed was a mini PCI card. I tried the one I stuck into my dad’s Neo (generic) laptop, just to see whether the BIOS now accepted it (apparently, the technicians upgraded or at least reinstalled the BIOS since the startup screen looked different). Nope. I was still getting the 104 “Unsupported wireless device” errors, so the computer wouldn’t boot. I could theoretically hack either the BIOS or the card’s firmware so that the BIOS would think the device was in its whitelist, but I was afraid of bricking my laptop.

So I scoured the online forums for mini PCI cards, and I came across a fellow TPCer I had dealt with several times over the past couple of years already. He does carry a wide array of spare mini PCI cards pulled out from old/defective laptops, and I thought there might be a chance he had a compatible one. HP/Compaq laptops have very strict whitelists (due to FCC restritions). I read this being an Intel, it would only accept Intel wireless chips made for HP particularly (AMD based ones use Broadcom chips made for HP specifically).

Over at Hottoyzph, After trying on a couple of mini PCI cards (all with 104 errors), we chanced upon one Intel Pro 2200BG that worked. The moment the computer went past the POST screen and booted up, I felt excited. Now I had internal WiFi. The added cost was minimal for an internal WiFi card.

So a year and a week after buying my Compaq Presario V2617TS, I got myself a mostly-new V2617 with several upgrades (I actually purchased a DVD-RW drive before, for backing up files and photos). It’s better than good as new .

I chanced upon this at a window display in SM Megamall Cyberzone last weekend. It’s the upgrade to my own low-end V2000 (which I bought for about PhP31,000 a year ago). the V3120TU runs on a Celeron-M 420 (1.6 GHz), 256MB DDR-2 533, 60GB hard drive and has a 14-inch brightview widescreen.

It’s not astoundingly fast, but what interests me is how a Compaq V3000 form factor can get this cheap. At PhP 29,900, that’s about US$ 660, which makes it priced on par with low-end branded units in the US.

I would recommend a RAM upgrade immediately, which would cost about PhP 1,500 (for a 512MB DDR2 stick). Reasonable enough. Oh, and models priced this low don’t have an OS pre-installed, so you would either have to: (a) shell out PhP 5,000 for an official copy of Windows XP or Vista Home edition; (b) install a flavor of Linux (I recommend Ubuntu); (c) go the Jack Sparrow way (meaning piracy—either bootlegged copies of XP, Vista or even OSX86!).

One big drawback though, as with the low-end V2000, this doesn’t have internal WiFi card. And don’t count on being able to install an internal mini PCI wireless card either! Compaq’s low-end Presarios don’t have internal WiFi antennae and it is most likely that the BIOS won’t accept the card by default (without hacks, that means).

This model doesn’t have Cardbus support, so your only option is to use a USB WiFi stick (or go wired!).

This could be great for offices/companies on the cheap that want to supply desktop replacements/substitutes for their staff.

Is it just me or are my gadgets deciding to overheat at the same time?

The car

Last week, I noticed my car’s temperature meter getting higher than usual. It usually maxes out at 90 degrees Centigrade when idle, but that time it was reaching up to 100 and even 110. My observation was that when the car was running, the temperature lowers, and when the car is idling (say at intersections or during heavy traffic), the needle goes up.

I checked the auxiliary fan and my guess proved to be correct. It wasn’t working. That meant the radiator gets a cooling-down effect from the onrush of air while the car runs, but there was no fan to help regulate the temperature while stationary.

The last straw was when we went for a checkup at our family doctor’s (a 1.5 hour travel from Quezon City to Manila) in moderate to heavy traffic. I had to keep an eye on the needle just to make sure it doesn’t readline (which is really, really bad for the engine as the pistons tend to bend when overheated).

So I had the fan’s motor replaced that afternoon. Cost me an arm and a leg. Okay, not really an arm and a leg, but an unexpected expense nonetheless. At any rate, what can one expect from a 10-year old car? But still, it’s a Toyota (and with a 4A-FE engine at that, which should be reliable as heck), so I expected it to be less of a hassle to maintain than other brand vehicles would be.

The laptop

The Compaq Presario V2000 laptop I bought last year had been exhibiting signs of wear externally. Its outer finish is a bit faded, particularly on the palm rest. Blame it on acidic sweat (and also sub-par paint/finishing on Compaq’s part). It still ran like a charm, though—that was until last week. I noticed that a “thermal throttling” warning had been popping up constantly, throttling down my CPU clock speed so it won’t overheat. I had a throttling utility installed after all (since being a Celeron-M it doesn’t throttle by itself via SpeedStep).

These days laptop fans aren’t on constantly, and they just turn on when increased CPU load causes the microprocessor to heat up. But I noticed a while back that my fan had not been running smoothly than usual, and that there were clunks whenever it was turning.

I realized my fan had stopped running altogether when the CPU thermal warning was constantly popping up after about 10 minutes into the laptop’s use. I turned off the throttling utility and the laptop would automatically turn off without notice—this I believe is the internal protection mechanism that the CPU uses so it doesn’t burn up when things get too hot.

I thought of opening up the machine myself to check, but I decided against it because I knew I still had a few weeks warranty left. but then I checked the receipt and realized I bought the laptop last July 3, 2006. Holey moley! That meant I had only up to July 3rd (that’s Tuesday this week) to have the laptop serviced before warranty lapsed.

I called the shop I bought it from (Complink in Megamall), but they said they still had to schedule pick-up, and lead time might be two to three weeks. I wasn’t not going to wait a month before getting my laptop back. I’m okay with parting with it for that duration (since I have the PowerBook to work/play on), but I was thinking all that transporting, storage and handlin might do harm to the computer. And they were quite vague on the handling of warranty—they said that the distributor might consider the date of pick up as the reckoning date, so in case they picked up my laptop after Tuesday it would have already been past warranty coverage.

Good thing the folks over at MSI-ECS (an authorized service center and dealer of HP/Compaq and other brands like Acer, Lenovo, etc., which Complink referred to me) were accommodating enough to say if I dropped by Monday they can give the diagnosis within a day’s time, and even fix the computer by that time if they had parts.

So I brought the Presario this noontime, and I was told I could most likely get it back within the week. I did ask for some cosmetic fixes, and they said they would have to seek HP’s authorization on that one, just to make sure it can still be considered under warranty’s coverage. I might have to wait a bit longer (which is okay with me).

So moral of the story: when buying gadgets and devices with steep price tags, be sure you have warranty. For all I know, it could be the Presario’s motherboard or CPU that was problematic, and not just the fan. That would cost a ton.

As for the car, well, it’s a car. Every car owner should be prepared to shell a few bucks for emergency maintenance. But I think I had better talk about this and other driving/auto maintenance tips over at Study Driving.

Here’s an article I wrote for bLaptops: The perfect laptop: a beginner’s guide to buying a notebook computer. I think new laptop buyers would appreciate these tips.

Choosing a laptop is not simple, with the multitude of choices of brand, model, size, features, and even colors. A laptop is as personal as a computer can get. It’s not just a piece of hardware sitting on your home or office desk. A laptop tends to be part of your daily life. It’s like your wallet, watch or mobile phone. Your laptop should be characteristic of who you are–an extension of your personality.

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