Computer Troubles

I like to write blogs reviewing things I've seen and talking about stuff going on in the world that I think you guys would be interested in, but every so often I have to talk about things going on with myself, so you'll understand where I'm coming from (actually, I've been doing this a lot recently). Today I wanted to take some time out from your regularly schedule broadcast and talk about my computer troubles.

Lately, computers and I have been having a strained relationship.

My awesome parents bought me a netbook a year and a half ago. A netbook, in case you don't know, is really just a small notebook, which in turn is just the popular, 'modern' term for a small laptop. My netbook was large enough to use comfortably, but small enough to be cooed at and referred to as a 'baby laptop' by all my classmates, who found it just as cute as I did. I worked on it a lot, and even named it 'Alex' (Which isn't saying much - I name almost all of my electronic devices).

Some time after this last Christmas, however, it stopped working properly. Nothing was wrong in the software; instead, the bit of hardware that the power cord plugged into, inside the netbook, came loose. It got harder to connect the cord to charge the netbook, and eventually the hardware fell so far inside the netbook that it was impossible to charge, an soon the battery ran out of juice.

A laptop power jack, which was
what had fallen out of place

I consider myself to be pretty good with electronics, however, so I busted out my dad's mini-screwdrivers and opened my little computer up. I found the little hardware piece that had fallen out of place, duct taped it back where it needed to be, and closed the computer back up again. Though I could now plug it in, something I did made it impossible for me to turn it on.

My little netbook has been sitting on my dresser since then, waiting for something to be done with it. I've looked it over, and can't figure out what I accidentally did to disable it, and what I'd need to do to fix it. Luckily I don't have any important files on there, but I really miss having my own little netbook.

When all that happened, I officially re-adopted my dad's old laptop. He was given a new laptop a while back, but since this old one still worked, I began to use it daily.

My family is pretty tech-savvy, and I'm very familiar with computers and machines, so when something's wrong with them, it rarely phases me (well, outside of the immediate "Arg!-Why-can't-you-behave-and-do-what-I-want-you-to!?" knee-jerk reaction"). When dad's old laptop got plagued with malware, I knew just what to do to clean them out, and when it had a more severe virus attack, I was able to reboot the laptop perfectly and get it running like normal.

When I got back from my family vacation, however, I was faced with a couple unexpected problems.

First of all, both the family desktop and my dad's old laptop (which I'd been using) suddenly lost connection with our wireless router (IE, we couldn't get online). No one is sure yet why this happened, as the two other laptops in the house were still able to connect normally. I tried all sorts of tricks to try to fix the connection, but finally resorted to using my dad's new laptop whenever I wanted to access the internet (which is often) before I finally managed to get at least the old laptop online.

The other problem was with the old laptop's power cord. After being folded up in luggage for two weeks, the plastic had broken, and there was a bit of exposed wire. It wasn't enough to really worry me, and I was able to get onto the computer easily and charge it, but after a while the crack started to grow.

On Sunday, I plugged the power cord into the outlet, and while shifting it to plug into the laptop, I saw a spark. You don't have to be a mechanic to know that's dangerous. I quickly unplugged the cord and moved it off the carpet, but with no way to plug it in now, I couldn't turn the laptop on (the battery is old and worn, and only holds a 30mins charge, which I'd happened to have run out already).

I managed to find a replacement power cord online for less that $20, and my awesome parents ordered it, but it wasn't expected to come for another week and a half, during which time I'd be using my dad's laptop (which I still feel kinda awkward about doing, since apparently every computer I've touched so far is falling apart).

As I was writing this blog, however, the doorbell rang, and there was a package on our porch. I'm still getting over the awe of how ridiculously fast this power cord got here, a week earlier than expected. It fits perfectly, and I have no more worries for this old laptop (for the moment, at least)!

I'm pretty proud of myself for managing to keep this old thing trucking long after most people would consider it obsolete (I just checked - apparently this thing was manufactured in 2002!) I may not know how to program, and I may not keep up with my blog as well as I should, but least there are some things I can do!