lifemagic

The recycle virus is the only virus that ever really screwed with me, mainly because it renames folders recycler.exe or something, making folders look like programs, which you (i) naturally delete, but it had all my work in.

The way I dealt with it was using my Linux netbook, simply plugged it in and deleted anything I didn't recognise from the command line.

Another time I was in Bangkok and I went to a cybercafe called Terravision, horrible place but they have really good installed virus software. I just let it do it's thing and it cleared it up for me.

Another option is if you look at the portable apps, there's an anti virus included there with supposedly up to date definitions, though I had less luck with that myself.

The main thing is, try and get any important individual documents in the cloud if you haven't already done so, google docs, picasa etc.

Hang on a second, ... what's a powerjack? I assumed it was the same as the 'lead/adaptor' that broke on mine, but looking at pictures on Amazon, is it something different?

Doesn't matter if it is, the advice I gave you still stands. 1 - get official replacement price. 2 - Ask procorner. 3 - Search and haggle amoungst Panthip wolves.

Also, for an idea of the price, just go to Amazon.co.uk, put the model number and powerjack, they're almost certainly for sale. In Thailand, a genuine part should be about the same and a fake a bit less, though good luck in knowing the difference.

I can give you the following advice after breaking the Asus cord for my eeepc, and now have a working replacement.

One, write down the serial number of the main equipment the cord is for plus the cord itself if it has one, model no etc. Then go to Fortune Tower, the official Asus place is in the basement. Take a number from the counter when you walk in, then wait for ages. The woman speaks English and is OK (not brilliant). She will enter the model number in the computer. It will spit out the exact name of the part you need. If there's a genuine replacement in BK, they can have it sent over and you pick it up later, if not, they will tell you how long it will take from Taiwan. The main thing is, you'll get some idea then of the price of a genuine replacement. This is what I did and the price I was quoted was about the same as it would have cost UK. (about twelve quid).

Next, go up to the third floor and look for a repairing place called PRO CORNER. On the window, it says 'English spoken' or something. The guy looked at my broken cord and quoted 300 if he can fix it. I left it for an hour, when I went back, there was a new cord but he said it was shorted and couldn't get it to work, and so no charge. But it was nice of him as I had no computer to test it and he could have just lied. So, he seems honest enough and worth a go perhaps.

If this doesn't work, then there is a battery and cord replacement specialist. It's right up this isolated alley in fortune (on the opposite side from IT city but I can't remember , can't remember the floor or whatever, but they did have the (uncommon) lead and battery I was looking for. It would basically be a matter of walking round with the cord and asking every place you see selling batteries. It wasn't a little stall, it was a proper shop.

I ended up buying a replacement in Panthip. The guy swears it's genuine but I think it's fake. I paid 500, a couple of quid less than the original would have been and so far I'm OK. I got it from here: www.lp-storeonline.com, he had all sorts of leads and batteries. I think he's a bit dodgy though. Like, on the receipt, he put the wrong model on (noticed afterwards, now couldn't take it back). It was actually the official asus repairer who put me onto him, but she warned it's all fake stuff. I went there twice and the quoted prices were different each time. The price of a battery dropped by about 400, so haggle like hell if you go there. Also, try it out (obviously) first (he's got adapters on the counter), then go to the very top floor and buy a power-breaker thing. I got one for just over two quid but if the power surges, it physically pushes the plug in two pieces to break the connection (happened twice already).

There's another place in Panthip specialising in leads and batteries: http://www.cyberbatt.com/notebook-th/. The woman I spoke to there had good English, the prices were as cheap as they got in Panthip and they're listed on the website, which is nice. It's called cyber batt but they had quite a few leads in the back.

Good luck.

OK, went to big C. They opened one up for me. It's an 800mah. They said they don't sell batteries, but directed me to JMart, who said 299 for a spare. Not too bad really.

Yesterday, I was assuming talk time would consume about the same power as mp3, though not sure if that's actually the case.