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Blasted computer!

Roger Tulk

Roger Tulk

Member
Messages
3,018
Location
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
I guess I shouldn't bee too hard on it, as it's been a very good computer for the last five years. Thursday or Friday last week, my computer suddenly stopped functioning. I went to future shop with it, and they diagnosed a hard drive failure. So, they installed a new, larger hard drive and transferred most of my data onto it.. So, I took it home and started loading programs back onto it. As I was loading the printer software, I turned to the printer, but the power cord caught on my knee and started to drag the computer, and my teacup, towards the edge of my desk. I grabbed for the teacup, and for the first time in 30+ years of working with microcomputers, sloshed liquid over the keyboard. It stopped working, not completely at first, but now I can't start it because it asks me to make a choice of starting options, and I can't because the arrow and enter keys, spacebar, the whole lot, don't work. So, I'm letting it continue to dry out, as I don't think it's hit bottom yet, and in a few days I may try an external keyboard, and if that dosen't work, I'll take it back to Future Shop and see what we can do. In the meantime, I'm using my wife's older Dell, that I bought her for Christmas 2011.
 
Upsides and downsides to laptops.

I remember the old IBM keyboards you could just take into the shower with you and then hang them over the rail to dry. The fact that that was something we actually did to get the crud off perhaps says a bit about our workplace hygene in college.
 
Is it a lap top? I have a desktop and I have taken my keyboard apart more than once and washed the circuit board and put the top of the keyboard with keys in it under the faucet a few times to wash some spilled, ah, beverage out. Blowed it dry with a compressor Never had a problem. Guess you can't do that with a laptop.
 
I keep a computer as log as I possible can.

I just replaced my desk computer this year - but the old one is still OK - and it is in my shop. Yes I have a computer in the shop.

My new desktop is an i7 with 16 gigs or RAM - paid near a grand - no keyboard, monitor, speakers. I only replaced it because I needed more power. I do a lot of high power graphics using Solidworks and CNC programming software, video editing.

Most computers today - can be had for $200-$500. I bought Best Buy computers "refurbished" for significantly less than new, but in new condition.

Old computers are really not worth the effort to repair and not of a value to spent repair money on them.

I don't know what you do with a computer. MOST people do email, internet - and not much else. You do NOT need a high power computer fro that. A $200-$300 refurbished computer from Best Buy would be MORE than adequate. That also upgrade you a bit. Currently I am using windows 8.1 (not 8.0) - it is not the bad animal that soo many people say it is and scare you away. Windows 7 is also good.

Keyboards are very inexpensive - Amazon or something.
 
I have 8.1 and see nothing wrong with it. Have to play around some with my curser to get the side bar on the right of the screen to pop out and don't know why, but I don't need it often so I don't worry about it. One thing I did when I had 8.0 was set up icons on my desktop to click to shut the computer down and to restart. I liked it so well I did the same when I upgraded to 8.1. Sorry for varying away from the original topic.
 
With the cost and fact I make a living punching keys, I've started replacing my laptop about every 2 years. For what it cost you for the repairs you can buy a low end laptop that is faster than the one you're fixing. Key is to get where your data is backed up and easily moved from pc to pc and protected from failures. Nothing like losing years worth of work/memories in a split second when the thing doesn't spin up.
 
Never rains but it poiurs

Not only did my computer break down, twice, but someone rammed my truck in the passenger side door (our insurance companies are working it out,) and my phone's battery is about to give up the ghost. That last isn't a truly bad thing, as I was about to replace it when the package expires this month, but things do seem to come in multiples.
 
Roger Tulk said:
things do seem to come in multiples.
Click to expand...

Yep they sure do. About 10 years ago we had a real bad car wreck and so I was fairly busted up for a while and loml was a lot worse (and my truck was completely totalled). Within the next two weeks I had three flat tires (and haven't had a single one since and only a couple before that - and have you ever changed a tire with cracked ribs.. whooo), our one (new puppy) dog got half killed by a coyote (running almost a grand in vet bills) and the TV burned out. I went out to get a new TV for loml who was stuck in the basement (it was a walk in - and was the only place I could wheel her with no stairs at that house) and while standing in the parking lot at the store a bird flew over and pooped on my head. At that point I was glad that the bad luck just run down to mildly insulting.
 
I finally got it all sorted out. Future Shop sold me a keyboard and mouse combo, and knocked $10 off the price because of the trouble I was having (and I'm such a nice old man :D ) It worked in the store, but when I got it home it didn't. So, I looked at the way it was behaving, particularly when using the mouse, and theorized that the old built-in keyboard was sending a CTRL character to the CPU. I took it back into Future Shop, and asked them to detach the old keyboard from the works. They did, and everything is copacetic.
 
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