Thursday, September 21, 2006

Scalpel....forceps...duct tape...

Last weekend my minion Lindsey learned the painful lesson that laptop computers do not like to drink mead. She quickly drained said laptop and let it dry and suprise of suprises, it worked long enough to pull most of her files off it before the screen went blank.

She came over to the house tonight, and having nothing to loose, she let me take it apart to see if I could possibly make things worse.

Thanks to the internets I discovered a step by step guide to disassembling a Toshiba A15. Of course, this guide did not take into account stickiness and its detrimental side effects. I cleaned all the surfaces I could. Just as in High School biology I pointed out the various guts, indicating their function and condition and how they were most likely being damaged by my large, paw-like hands. There was a bit of bother when we removed the keyboard and the cable connecting it to the computer simply popped off without the piece of plastic that should have come with it. But really, she's in art school. What use does she have for a keyboard anyway? We live in a point and click world. Words just get in the way.

When I was done I re-assembled the device with only one mystery screw left over and a slight gap in one of the corners where I am sure ants will be moving in over the next few weeks to enjoy the sweet goodness we couldn't reach. We could not test my efforts as the entire system needs to completely dry out again for a day or two. Lindsey has kindly released me from any liability if my actions somehow let the magic smoke escape from her computer. I personally blame evil laptop pixies, but that just me.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I first saw the words: Steve, Laptop, Repair... I was scared.

Sounds like lynsey wants a new lappy and her freudian slip (or oops, I spilled mead on it). Her Lappy was a tired girl, time to get a new one. If I does work (at all), it will be surprising.

Monkey

Anonymous said...

I'm not so sure this was deliberate. Unlike you, not all of us are stuck on the upgrade treadmill, that modern Syphian path. Being an Art Student, I expect that this lap top will need to work,and continue to work until such time as she gets a grant or something.

Anonymous said...

Mead Rules!!!!


Sir Constantine

Anonymous said...

Well looks like I won't have to try to fix it now /hurray. Hope is works for you Lee, if not I can try a few tricks for HD recovery.

Chris.

Anonymous said...

uh, i think he's dead jim.

lindsey

Anonymous said...

I'm only half joking when I say this, but....
Maybe it would have been easier to leave said notebook on an anthill and let the buggers eat out all the sticky goo first, thus making dissassembly of the bits-and-pieces more painless for ya.

Of course if it wuz a windows box then there's already enuff bugs in the system that any antz that don't escape won't be noticed.

--brendan!

Anonymous said...

Forget about the laptop, how is the mead doing? Was much lost? Was it a really good mead?

I once had a desktop computer go under in a flood of river water. I completely disassembled it, and used a toothbrush (not mine) and windex on every part. After it dried, I assembled it, and it actually worked long enough to pass it along.

grim

Steve said...

After re-assembly the laptop seemed to boot, but the screen seems dead. It may be usable with a monitor. I'll have to check.