My computer was having problems a few weeks ago. It would suddenly without any apparent reason restart on its own, or crash to a BSOD. At first it wasn't frequent... Maybe once a day. Then it progressively got worse. Twice a day. Several times a day. Several times an hour. Until it wouldn't stay on even for a few minutes. Sometimes it would be sporadic. It would be okay for a while, but when I start doing something, like signing on to Windows Live Messenger, it would crash.

It drove me absolutely crazy. I tried troubleshooting the issue, and it got to where I had pretty much all the hardware stripped, except for the power supply, motherboard, processor and one harddisk, and it would still crash. Swapped harddisk. Still crashed. Grrr.

I finally noticed a leaking capacitor, which had rusted over, beside the processor slot.

Was this the source of the problem? It could be. It could've also been something else entirely, but I had already given up troubleshooting at this point. I had noticed a couple other capacitors buldging too. Even if it wasn't the motherboard (I really think it was) that was causing issues now, it would be soon. Especially since the northbridge chip's heat sink had fallen out almost a year ago (where JR cursed me to get a new system - haha!). So I decreed my motherboard dead, and started my research for a new system. Like, finally. The motherboard lasted me about 6 years, if I'm not wrong. :)

During this period of time when I was researching, I had no computer to use... My laptop which had a dead graphics card had been sold away, and now my desktop's motherboard had died. I resorted to using my younger brother's PDA as well as using the library's computers. And my exam results were released during this period of time. I had gone to Woodlands Library to print out my results to show my parents. And here are my results.

A- for Software Engineering, B+ for Human-Computer Interface, A for Multimedia Systems and A+ for Advanced Multimedia Systems. I was relieved that I passed my HCI exams 'cause I was seriously worried about it! Worried like I had never worried before during my degree course. My results are okay, I suppose... My CGPA jumped 0.04 point from 4.49 last semester to 4.53. :D Can't get a grade A CGPA, but I'll try to maintain my A-.

In other somewhat related news, a classmate of mine noticed that she had been overcharged by SIM University for almost all her modules thus far, including for the upcoming semester! I had mass-SMS-ed several people regarding the upcoming semester's fees and listed "Bye bye S$2439.60. :`(" in my message. One of my classmates realised that she had paid more than that and started asking me questions about the fees.

For this upcoming semester's fees, she had been overcharged about S$300! We noticed that she was charged the amount for laboratory classes (S$642 per 5 credit unit module), while I had been charged for the amount for non-lab (S$570 per 5 credit unit module) classes. And err, since the classes actually are going to be laboratory-based, I am hoping I wouldn't have to pay more after she complained about this to UniSIM! Haha!

So either she had always been overcharged by UniSIM or that I have always been undercharged. We compared our past couple semesters' fees and saw that most of her fees were always more for some reason. And apparently another classmate of ours paid the same amount I did for the upcoming semester, so I was not exactly sure what was going on... Me and the other classmate were from the same intake, while she enrolled a semester later. That shouldn't be the reason why she'd been paying more though, since we have been, and will be, going through the same classes. Weird!

She's uber pissed off regarding this issue, and hell, I would be too if I were in her situation. She went down to UniSIM after work yesterday and asked about it. Apparently the school fees had been "adjusted" before she enrolled and her intake onwards would have to pay slightly higher fees! So, it really is because of different enrollment intakes! We will be going through the exact same classes in the upcoming semester, and she would've paid more even though we'll be doing exactly the same things.

Way to go, UniSIM! -.-

Addendum : According to JR, NUS uses the same system as well, where the school "will lock (your) fees when (you) enroll", where you pay the amount of school fees that were listed in your batch, and any increment in the course fees won't affect you. He said that the school "have to raise the fee somehow, and if they put a blanket increase, the existing student would cry out loud", so they implement this by-batch-increment system.

Is it fair? That's debatable, I think. But both payment methods would have their pros and cons, and I am not fuming about this current method since I'm paying lesser. Haha! It's only natural, right? =P

What do you think about this fees increment practice?