Computer Repairs

It has been a minute since I last posted, but I am BACK. I am still tobacco free and tomorrow it will be 26 days. I am really excited about that. Some days are better than others, but I still do not find it necessary to smoke about it.

What have I been up to since I last posted? Glad you asked. Among other things I have been watching baseball, reading Nicholson Baker, waiting for the new episodes of Lost, and catching the odd movie here and there. I have been unable to use my laptop to listen to music lately and I really miss that. Over the 3 + years I have had the laptop I have used it as a laptop which to me means I can put it on top of my lap; It seems that might not be the best thing for laptops because I have caused the power cord jack thing to become damaged to the point that it will no longer hold the power cord.

Well great I said to myself. I paid big bucks to get the warranty thing when I bought the laptop. It is about time I get to use it. Not so fast. I bought the 3 year warranty for some insane amount of money that if properly invested would pay for two laptops today. Maybe I am exaggerating there. Anyway a 3 year warranty, no matter how much you pay for it, does not work on a 3+ year old laptop.

From researching my predicament I discover that the power jack for this model is not soldered onto the motherboard and can be purchased new for around 30 bones. Lucky break I think. The only repair places I could find involved me paying closer to $150 to mail the laptop off with the promise of a speedy return. I was not thrilled with the idea of shipping it anywhere so I elected to perform the surgery myself. I had cracked the case on the thing before to clean the fan so I thought I could do this as well.

Meanwhile I was using a nettop computer which I got because my old desktops are far too old to not make me scream at them when I am trying to get stuff done. The nettop is super cool and super cheap. $199 bucks for a computer that will output 1080p, run Boxee, Hulu desktop, and Windows Media Center is awesome but the computer is not as portable as my laptop. The nettop came in handy to order the part to fix my laptop and to view the instructions on how to perform the surgery. But I am spoiled by the mobility a laptop allows.

The operation went mostly okay. The dining room has the best lighting in the house so that is where I chose to do the dissection, but my nettop with the instructions for taking the thing apart is in my office. The instructions were not in a printer friendly format and I did not feel like making them printer friendly or killing 3 trees printing them out so I just went back and forth between the rooms. After getting the thing into about 127 pieces, I was finally able to take off the old power jack and put on the new one. I put every last little piece carefully back together, turned it on and discovered the touch pad and the keyboard did not work. So I take it apart again, find my mistake, fix my mistake, and put it back together. Hallelujah. We have success. Apparently.

Later that day when trying to listen to some music, I discover that the laptop speakers do not work. They do not work even a little bit. Total silence no matter what I try. After some soul searching introspection I realize that I must not have reconnected the speakers the second time I took the thing apart. Damnit, damnit to hell. I do not want to take the thing apart for speakers if everything else is working perfectly and everything else is working perfectly. I have some cheap USB powered speakers on the way. The next time the computer is heating up and needs to be cleaned, I will reconnect the internal speakers. For now it is in stealth mode.

I really wanted to be able to boast of my prowess with computers and tools and fixing computers with tools and determination, but my mute computer mocks me every day. I realize this is an epic post and the story is not over yet. The laptop's internal speakers will work once more. If you are still reading, thanks for sticking with it to this point and don't ask me to work on your computer. I will mess it up. Until next time take care.