You Can't Beat That

Some time back one of Julie's cats jumped up on her laptop and knocked it over. In the process of the tumble to the floor the screen hinges were broken. Actually, it wasn't the tumble to the floor that broke the hinges. What broke the hinges was the contact with the floor after tumbling. Because the screen was not working properly she wasn't sure if the computer still worked so she just put it away and started to use mine. Well that was fine, as long as I wasn't using it.

A few days ago she decided that she was going to see about fixing it. She asked me take her to Goodwill's Computer Works so she could look at what they had. Her idea was to get some cheap parts just to see what she could do. We went down and she looked at used cases, monitors, and various other items. After looking at things and getting ideas we went back home and rested.

No actually we went home to see if the laptop still worked. First we attached an RGB cable to the laptop and then connected it to the TV. This way we bypassed her laptop screen and we would be able to see if the laptop at least still worked. Julie turned on the computer and the display on the TV screen came on. And then went off.

Hmmmm!

She turned it on again and got into the setup screen. Now she tried to get XP to boot. It started to boot and then promptly stopped.

Hmmmm!

Now she turned the computer on a third time and had the computer to boot to it's most recent back up.

SUCCESS!!! The laptop works and has a 42" screen no less. Looks good.

Yesterday Julie started making plans to buy a monitor so she can use her laptop in her room. Enter Scott, her brother. He just happened to have a monitor laying around his house collecting dust. Seriously! He brought it over for her so all she needed were a set of RGB cables. We headed to Computer Works and picked up a set for $2.00 and also picked up some speakers for $4.00.

Not bad. Instead of spending a few hundred on a new laptop Julie got hers up and running for under $10.

You can't beat that with a stick; and if you do...YOU'RE GOING TO FIX IT.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Meet Rory

Meet Rory my new partner in crime. She's not really new, she's two years old. Julie got her two years ago from an animal place in East Texas, but that's another story that I'll let Julie tell sometime.

I know that she looks calm and relaxed in the picture, but she is not always that way. Sometimes she acts like she just got an injection of ultra-caffienated Starbuck's coffee. She darts and runs and jumps and knocks things over. Other times she is sweet and calm and reserved.

She likes to spend the day in the extra room lounging. The only problem is she lounges on of the shelves. In order to get there she has to knock down the Hungry, Hungry Hippos game. Boy is she proud when she gets it down and can stretch out. She also likes to stretch out on the very top shelf. The top shelf where I keep the laptop case. The top shelf where I keep the laptop case in order to keep the cats off of it; except her.

Rory also loves to drink water. The only problem is that she only drinks from the faucet. There are times that she rushes to the bathroom when someone goes in. She will then stand in the sink and look at you until you turn on the water for her. She also has her own ideas on how the bathroom counter should be decorated. If she doesn't want something on the counter she will knock it in the sink. If you try to take it out and return it to the proper place Rory returns and knocks back to the sink.

Now that it's summer and I tend to stay up later I always have a late night companion. Every night around 11:00 PM she'll find her way to my lap. She likes to curl up on my lap as I sit in the recliner watching movies. If I happen to be working on the laptop that's OK; she curls up anyway and I have to work around her.

© 2008 Barry T Horst

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.



Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Take 'er Apart And See What Makes 'er Tick

When I was a little boy the toys I had were simple and relatively inexpensive compared with toys today. When my kids were younger (20 years ago) their toys were relatively inexpensive compared with toys today.

Toys today are like expensive, especially when your toy is a computer and you like to take your toys apart. I did just that not quite a month ago. Refer back my post from February 26. I mentioned briefly my experience with dismantling an external hard drive. Apparently this runs in the family.

My daughter Julie (22 years old) brought something to me last night. "Hey Dad," she said; "Look what I took out of my laptop!" She shows me a wad of dust. Then she tells me that it's all over the inside of her laptop. Then she asks if I have any canned air.

I tell her, "No, I used it all when I took my computer apart last week to get rid of all the dust and hair." Then I tell her, "That stuff is expensive, just blow on it!"

Later, Julie comes in the bedroom and tells her Mother that she put her laptop back together and she had lots of screws leftover. Chris told her that maybe her Dad or brother would like to take it apart and try to find where they go.

"No thanks," she said. "It still works; except the screen!"

It turns out that a couple of nights ago one of her cats knocked the laptop off the night table. The tumble to the floor broke the screen off. Julie had taken it apart to she if she could get the screen to work again. No such luck.

Apple Ipod, look out. Here comes Julie.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.