As I sit here eating gummy bears and procrastinating all the house cleaning that must be done I figured I might as well update my journal.
Big news: I now have 2 friends, at this rate I'll have no more room for friends in about a zillion years. Hopefully someone smarter then me will invent a pill or something that lets me live that long. Maybe something to do with stem cells?
But, just in case that doesn't happen I think other smart people should start figuring out how to back up my brain on a computer. It just seems like a good idea to have a backup plan.
Yesterday was fun. My wonderful supercheap compaq Presario 2100 notebook had been having issues with the AC plug. Well, on Monday it had finally given up and I could not get AC power into my computer. Basically this meant the computer was a goner, unless it got fixed, since battery power lasts just long enough to miss the end of most movies on a DVD (Excellent engineering, compaq will NOT be backing up MY brain, thank you). In any case, I tried to open up the computer to see what was wrong, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. So then yesterday I went to compUSA and asked the guy at the repair counter about fixing it. So he says that it happens all the time and I should get a new computer since they would have to replace the logic board.
(oh crap, I just ran out of gummy bears, now I wish I hadn't thrown away the green ones)
So I say how much does it cost to replace that? And he goes and checks and says $1100!! I only paid like $500 for this thing new, after rebate, so obviously that wasn't an option. Not to mention I don't have that kind of cash lying around. So since it's not like there's really anything wrong with the computer except the little plug for the power, I figure I can fix it. So after asking the guy at the counter how to take the damn thing apart I go and get a fancy computer toolkit ($60)with a soldering iron and head on home. At home I took the thing apart, aparently the problem the 1st time was that you have to pry the speaker cover and keyboard off to get to more screws that hold the thing together. (still not impressed with compaq engineers) So when I go it open I see there's this little black plastic thing for the plug and it's cracked open and the metal conector is snapped. You'd think they'd realize that notebook power cords get yanked a bit since the damn things are portable and they would make the socket sturdy, but alas they used a cheap little piece of plastic and stuck the thing right on a $1100 logic board (the guy at the computer store said he's seen a lot of the compaqs break like that). So then I ran around my apartment looking for superglue and trying to decide if my jewelery solder was good enough for use in a computer. Somehow all of my superglue had dried up so I ran over to Radio Shack and got superglue and solder for electronics ($5). I then went home, glued the thing back together, soldered the connection back on, put it back together (although I still have an extra screw....) and now it works again. So using the logic that my wife applies to sales at the mall I saved over $1000. Yay me!
Big news: I now have 2 friends, at this rate I'll have no more room for friends in about a zillion years. Hopefully someone smarter then me will invent a pill or something that lets me live that long. Maybe something to do with stem cells?
But, just in case that doesn't happen I think other smart people should start figuring out how to back up my brain on a computer. It just seems like a good idea to have a backup plan.
Yesterday was fun. My wonderful supercheap compaq Presario 2100 notebook had been having issues with the AC plug. Well, on Monday it had finally given up and I could not get AC power into my computer. Basically this meant the computer was a goner, unless it got fixed, since battery power lasts just long enough to miss the end of most movies on a DVD (Excellent engineering, compaq will NOT be backing up MY brain, thank you). In any case, I tried to open up the computer to see what was wrong, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. So then yesterday I went to compUSA and asked the guy at the repair counter about fixing it. So he says that it happens all the time and I should get a new computer since they would have to replace the logic board.
(oh crap, I just ran out of gummy bears, now I wish I hadn't thrown away the green ones)
So I say how much does it cost to replace that? And he goes and checks and says $1100!! I only paid like $500 for this thing new, after rebate, so obviously that wasn't an option. Not to mention I don't have that kind of cash lying around. So since it's not like there's really anything wrong with the computer except the little plug for the power, I figure I can fix it. So after asking the guy at the counter how to take the damn thing apart I go and get a fancy computer toolkit ($60)with a soldering iron and head on home. At home I took the thing apart, aparently the problem the 1st time was that you have to pry the speaker cover and keyboard off to get to more screws that hold the thing together. (still not impressed with compaq engineers) So when I go it open I see there's this little black plastic thing for the plug and it's cracked open and the metal conector is snapped. You'd think they'd realize that notebook power cords get yanked a bit since the damn things are portable and they would make the socket sturdy, but alas they used a cheap little piece of plastic and stuck the thing right on a $1100 logic board (the guy at the computer store said he's seen a lot of the compaqs break like that). So then I ran around my apartment looking for superglue and trying to decide if my jewelery solder was good enough for use in a computer. Somehow all of my superglue had dried up so I ran over to Radio Shack and got superglue and solder for electronics ($5). I then went home, glued the thing back together, soldered the connection back on, put it back together (although I still have an extra screw....) and now it works again. So using the logic that my wife applies to sales at the mall I saved over $1000. Yay me!
trevallion:
I could've told you Compaqs suck. That was the very first PC I owned. NEVER AGAIN. 