Monday, September 26, 2016

Secondary computer is driving me fucking nuts

And not some nice kind of nut like a pistachio either.

The internet problem seems to have resolved itself, which is great, but it's got another problem.  One it's had for much longer but seems to be getting worse.  It just up and dies.

I know what the reason is, sort of.  It's somehow related to the power jack.  Putting the cord in or taking the cord out is extremely risky.  So much so that the safest procedure is to only do it when absolutely necessary, and try to do that when the computer is completely powered down.

So, generally, the safest thing is to leave it plugged in all the time because then you never need to worry about putting in or taking out the cord.

Until now.  It's doing it without any apparent cause and doing it a lot.  Presumably some small motion of the plug in the jack is setting off the death switch function, but the motion must be really small because, as I said, there's no apparent cause.

After it destroyed all joy and light in the universe several times in rapid succession I gave up and unplugged it thus hopefully giving me a measure of salvation until the battery runs down at which point I'll either have to shut down in a hurry, preform esoteric rituals, and pray to the gods of "Fuck you, you puny electronics using human" plug it in, turn it back on and then . . . what?  If it can't be relied upon when plugged in then maybe I shouldn't turn it back on.  Maybe I should leave it plugged in until it charges completely, presumably relegating myself to a corner to cry during this process, and then unplug it, turn it on, and use it until the power runs down again.

And this is part of why secondary computer is emergency back up computer.  This is part of why Stealing Commas dies without a working primary computer.  I can't do this on secondary.  It's not so much about secondary being incapable, it's the stress and frustration involved in using secondary for any length of time.  Great as a stopgap, not so good as an ongoing thing.

But I can't even console myself with the fact that Primary is coming back anymore because it's not coming.  It's gone.  Finished.  Kaput.

And I haven't figured out what to do to replace it.  I ran the numbers.  Even I if wanted to buy the cheapest one that will work with my existing hardware, I don't have the money.  The refund the warranty gave me (which is store credit, by the way, and thus can only be used there) isn't enough, adding the credit I have on the store card for that store still isn't enough.

Like I said somewhere else $500-$1202 dollars.  $500 for the cheapest compatible, and a new warranty, $1202 for a decent replacement.

I don't have that.

I need to figure out the best way forward, when all ways forward are bad.  No matter what I do I'm going to be left deeper in crushing debt.

Fuck.

I'm going to curl up in a ball now.

1 comment:

  1. Hey. I have a spare laptop that could go free to a good home. Unlikely to work with whatever brand specific peripherals you've been mentioning you had for your primary, but it might be a better solution than "a netbook... from before netbooks existed" with multiple hardware issues. If you're at all interested, drop me an e-mail: ptrhuston@gmail.com
    Sorry if this is not helpful.

    ReplyDelete