well, what had happened was...

[fufaraw]

These are familiar, useful little beasties. We have them around the house in several sizes, and use them for closing the chips bag to minding electric cords, and more.

When I dropped the laptop on a corner and broke the hinge of the lid/screen, OH leapt into action with the binder clips and duct tape.



He re-established and stabilized the connection between keyboard and screen, even pulled the corner of the frame tight enough it didn't do that little boiling effect in the very corner. Of course, this all required that the lid not move.

You see where this is going, right? Yep, night before last, I pushed down the lid to close it--felt and heard the hinge go and stopped before it was completely closed, but the damage was done. Time to laptop shop. Which is entirely a mixed blessing, because while the computer itself is still good--blazingly fast and tons of storage--in spite of multiple settings tweaks, the touchpad remains Secret Rocket J. Squirrel. I've gotten extremely tired of it randomly highlighting a paragraph or two and deleting it--surprise! Or kicking up the font size a notch or two, you know, whimsically, when it wants to. I'm sure it's actually pilot error and I'm hitting some secret button accidentally, but I haven't been able to find the freaking button and I'm really frelling tired of the cursor squirreling around on its own. So I won't be sad to see the back of that feature.

But because the computer is fairly new and still good, OH plans to hook it up to a monitor and mouse and just use it as a desktop. So I don't feel too guilty about breaking my shiny new-ish thing.

Comments

[tabaqui]

Oh, man. The same thing happened to my daughter's laptop! The damn lid came loose, and we tried to get them to fix it and they were all 'it's an issue these have. but we won't fix it.'

Fucking asshats.

But yay for a working lappie and yay for using a not-perfect one in a different way. Sounds like what i'd do. Wireless mouse, wireless keyboard, all good. (I hate laptop keyboards and the touch pad - so fucking awkward!)

[fufaraw]

I swear, this touchpad is demented. I've checked all the settings, numerous times, and haven't found anything that keeps it from highlighting and deleting stuff--whole paragraphs! Multiple paragraphs. You know that deathless prose can't ever be reconstructed as well as it was the first time!

[tabaqui]

Heee! So true. I hate touchpads of all kinds, they just suck. I'd be *furious* at one doing that to me.

[amypond45.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I have such sympathy for you! My daughter put my laptop on the floor and later stepped on it, breaking the connection between the screen and the computer. I had all my work on that thing dating back to 1992 and still haven't had the heart to take it someplace to try to get it fixed. Can you send OH over when he's free? ;-)

[fufaraw]

Ooh, do the thing where you hook it up to a monitor, and maybe you can dl your docs to a flash drive or SD card and put them on your current machine--or on a backup hard drive, whatever.

I know I'm a Luddite, but I don't store anything in the amorphous "cloud". Mine. Here, in my file drawers. Under the bed. Where I can sift through them with my metaphorical phingers. But if you're comfortable with the cloud storage, you could even move the stuff off your laptop there.

I'd send OH, but he probably wouldn't go. Sorry!

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

That Toshiba remind me of my beloved niece's, who had a drawbridge kind of thing rigged up with a chain and some tape and...we finally managed to browbeat her into letting us buy her another. Working with her in the room was a long, distracting litany of "la-la-la-OH Shit! la-la-la--oh CRAP...darn it...woops...crap--"

[fufaraw]

This was ugly, as you can see, and it took some special handling picking it up and putting it down, and taking it anywhere was right out, but it worked fine--actually, it still does. He used *more duct tape and clips* and it's holding together for now, even though the screen is tilted. I look like the RCA dog while I'm typing.

But it's only a matter of time till I'm tired and go to shut it down and close the lid again. Plus, the precariousness isn't comforting. So, new laptop, and hopefully a full clone transfer.

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

Jesus, that is an epic amount of broken for one laptop. Bless your OH though, he's a diamond. Least now you get to get yourself a shiny new one!

[meus_venator]

I honestly believe they want these things to be disposable. They keep making them cheaper and cheaper. And it's such a nuisance to move data, not everybody wants their life in 'the cloud' and the cloud costs money. Good thing OH is such a handy guy, kept you going for a while until the january sales kick in : )