Broken Computer
If when opening your laptop you hear a popping noise, and it’s not opening as easily as it usually does, I’m sorry. Sunday night at about 10 I sat down to check my email before going to bed. As I lifted up the monitor the case started popping open, and I couldn’t lift it all the way up. That’s odd, I thought. I set about taking the cover off to figure out what was wrong. After getting the cover off I could see that the hinge had snapped on one side.
After the initial frustration I realized how lucky I am to have a tablet PC. Once I got the damaged portion out I was able to flip the screen and use it as a tablet. The monitor won’t move, but at least I can still use it. How aweful it would have been if I had a regular laptop and couldn’t use it at all. Being about 95% finished with the second draft of my Masters Thesis, it would have been very difficult to get that done.
I’m grateful that I’m not afraid to tear things apart and try to fix them. At about 11:30 Sunday night Laurie looked over to see what I was up to and said I was weird. Most people wouldn’t tear their computer apart.
On Monday morning after finding a parts supplier and ordering a new hinge assembly I was looking around to see how much it would have cost me to get it fixed. The parts dealer/authorized repair facility for Toshiba would have charged me $290 in labor. That, the shipping, and the part would have come close to $500 dollars. I could buy a new computer for little more than half that.
While I may be “weird”, and not “most people,” being weird saved me $400, and the inside part of the screen that was so dusty and dirty is now clean. Perhaps the best part is I don’t have to be without a computer while it’s getting fixed.
When the hinge gets here I’ll take pictures, computer guts are pretty neat.
Comments
One Response to “Broken Computer”
Leave a Reply
Fixing things on my own has saved me a ton of money over the years and alot of time waiting for someone else to come and fix it. And I think its fun to know how to fix something that other people spend alot of money to have someone else fix. I guess if you are weird, it must run in the family!