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the_dala at 09:30pm on 12/02/2015
the_dala at 09:30pm on 12/02/2015I know I haven't been around - pretty much at all - but I need some tech help, if anyone is good with laptops.
A couple of months ago my laptop adapter died; the cord frayed where it was attached to the box and started throwing off sparks, which was a bit of excitement. I bought a new one from Amazon and went through a whole rigmarole where none of the tips it came with quite fit the port. Eventually I determined that one did fit, it was just that one of the prongs in the port was bent out of place. As long as I kept the whole operation fairly steady so it didn't get jolted out of place.
Until tonight. I moved Artoo from my desk to the coffee table and stupidly did not disconnect the fiddly adapter first. Somehow along the way, the prong became all the way bent in an L shape shape, flat against the bottom and the side of the port. Probably from my efforts to shove the adapter tip back in the exact right spot. Sparks again, in the port this time. I suppose I'm lucky I didn't electrocute myself.
But I don't feel so lucky. I called the Geek Squad as a first resort to get a rough estimate, and they said it would probably be around $300. I thought well, everyone knows they're overpriced, so I turned to Yelp. The local Microcenter was still open; I called them and explained the issue. The guy first said that it would depend on whether it was an independent part or soldered, but it was probably soldered and he'd need to replace somethingorother else as well, and it would be upwards of $300. I said it was five or six years old if made any difference, and he said Sony wasn't even making those parts in the US anymore and it was time to get a new machine.
There is still one local indie repair shop I'm going to call in the morning. But does anyone know anything about the likelihood of this particular problem getting fixed?
Goddammit, I like my old-ass Sony VAIO. It still works fine, aside from this issue. I did not plan on using my larger-than-expected tax refund on a new computer. I did the good thing and split it between my credit card balance and my savings account, so I can stop creeping closer to my credit limit and the bank will stop charging me a maintenance fee because my savings account is below the minimum and I can maybe, just maybe, get out of the cycle of paying all my bills late. I actually felt okay about finances this month, and then this bullshit happens.
(I should add that I'm not entirely computerless; I have my dad's piece of shit Compaq that freezes constantly and can't run more than one program at a time. Yay me.)
A couple of months ago my laptop adapter died; the cord frayed where it was attached to the box and started throwing off sparks, which was a bit of excitement. I bought a new one from Amazon and went through a whole rigmarole where none of the tips it came with quite fit the port. Eventually I determined that one did fit, it was just that one of the prongs in the port was bent out of place. As long as I kept the whole operation fairly steady so it didn't get jolted out of place.
Until tonight. I moved Artoo from my desk to the coffee table and stupidly did not disconnect the fiddly adapter first. Somehow along the way, the prong became all the way bent in an L shape shape, flat against the bottom and the side of the port. Probably from my efforts to shove the adapter tip back in the exact right spot. Sparks again, in the port this time. I suppose I'm lucky I didn't electrocute myself.
But I don't feel so lucky. I called the Geek Squad as a first resort to get a rough estimate, and they said it would probably be around $300. I thought well, everyone knows they're overpriced, so I turned to Yelp. The local Microcenter was still open; I called them and explained the issue. The guy first said that it would depend on whether it was an independent part or soldered, but it was probably soldered and he'd need to replace somethingorother else as well, and it would be upwards of $300. I said it was five or six years old if made any difference, and he said Sony wasn't even making those parts in the US anymore and it was time to get a new machine.
There is still one local indie repair shop I'm going to call in the morning. But does anyone know anything about the likelihood of this particular problem getting fixed?
Goddammit, I like my old-ass Sony VAIO. It still works fine, aside from this issue. I did not plan on using my larger-than-expected tax refund on a new computer. I did the good thing and split it between my credit card balance and my savings account, so I can stop creeping closer to my credit limit and the bank will stop charging me a maintenance fee because my savings account is below the minimum and I can maybe, just maybe, get out of the cycle of paying all my bills late. I actually felt okay about finances this month, and then this bullshit happens.
(I should add that I'm not entirely computerless; I have my dad's piece of shit Compaq that freezes constantly and can't run more than one program at a time. Yay me.)