Scratch

Here you will find older scratches, musings and other detritus that once were located on the front pages, but have now faded.

Filed away here to collect dust and cobwwwebs in perpetuity, links may break, facts may change and data may corrupt.

On occasion I may come down here to tidy, but for the most, I prefer to leave the past where it lies.

 

Laptop RIP (3)

So having dismantled my laptop and sat around waiting for the static to discharge, I pieced the laptop back together again (with only one spare screw, yay!) pressed the "On" button and waited in anticipation. In reality I knew it was never going to start, but hey, hope springs eternal.

Well it does till you talk to a Customer Service helpline.

When I spoke to HP Technical Support again, they sounded perplexed that the discharge hadn't worked and solved the problem. The situation only got worse when I pointed out that it might have worked, but the static might not have been the problem. Once we'd managed to overcome that hurdle (bless work placements), we arranged for the nice people at DHL to collect the laptop sans power leads, peripherals or anything else that can be lost. The last thing I was advised to do was backup my hdd as HP wouldn't accept any liability for the data, which strangely enough was the only thing I care about. I wouldn't be that worried about the whole situation had I remembered to back up the laptop, or perform the work via a citrix server. The joys of hindsight...

Off to the shops I went to find a 2.5" to 3.5" hdd adapter, and having located one proceeded to dismantle my under the desk desktop. Having attached the drive I stepped back and powered up the machine. Needless to say, I was happy it came on, and happier that it could see the laptop drive, and even happier that the data was all still there. I quickly securely archived all the data/MP3s/movies/software/etc that work frowns upon you keeping, then a quick drag and drop later and it was copying away to its little Pentium 4's content. Off I went to grab a congratulatory coffee, and upon my return seeing it hit 100%, I sat back down. It was at about this point I kicked the drive, which was still hanging out of the machine via the power and ata cables, sending it scuttering across the carpet before being yanked back by the power cord. Oh well, I should ask HP to look at that. A quick power down and the drive was back in its proper bay, and my desktop was back up, in one piece, and working. (I also managed to use my spare laptop screw in my desktop somehow. Yay again!). Having handed it over to the DHL man, when he arrived filling out the obligatory twenty forms in triplicate, using ones own blood, in Swahili whilst reciting the complete works of Shakespeare backwards and all that is left to do is sit and count the 4 business days till I get it, or a replacement back.

If I do get it back, they better not have played Evil Genius before I have, and they damn well better not have tweaked my Unreal controls. Grrrr.

30 Nov 2004 12:30 | (0) comments | Work

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