Computer Troubles
Sep. 18th, 2006 03:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_songsmithSo Wednesday night (or Thursday morning, depending on how technical you want to be), out of the blue, my laptop screen started doing a little jumping thing, shifting about 1/4" to the left or the top and then back to place very quickly. It was at totally random intervals, so infrequent and subtle that at first I thought it was a lag glitch in the graphical online game I was playing at the time. After I quit the game, it happened again, and I realized it was the computer itself.
A little worried now, I popped on Google and started to do a little research. Just about then, I noticed the bottom right corner of the screen looked like a little piece of dust or something was sticking up from the frame. When I went to brush it away, the corner of the frame was really hot, and I realized that the dark bit was actually the screen reacting to the heat. The bottom left corner was also abnormally warm, but not as bad.
Really worried now, I shut down the computer and left it overnight, while I cleaned my room in a frenzy of nervous energy. About 12 hours later when I turned the computer back on, it seemed fine all through start-up, and then as my desktop icons started appearing, there were hair-thin white horizonal lines beginning about halfway down the screen, and continuing downwards more thickly. The last inch of the screen was slowly growing, stretching down beyond the frame, and then suddenly jumping back up to normal. I shut it down again, making plans to take it in to be looked at.
Later that night, the parental units decided to play with it. They fired it up, and couldn't get the display to do anything wonky at all. However, the lower corners were still getting very hot. Rather than let Dad take it apart... (*shudder*) ... I took it in to CompUSA on Friday night. Meanwhile, I borrowed one of the multiple other computers in the house and went back to searching tech forums for similar problems. At CompUSA, when we turned it on to do a quick look, the display behaved itself perfectly, but the heat was still an issue.
About 2:00 today (Monday) they called me with a diagnosis. According to them, I need a new LCD and inverter board. Uhm... No. When I questioned them on the LCD, the guy said (yes, direct quote), "Well, the reason I say we need to get a new LCD is, when we see this kind of thing, half the time you replace the inverter and that doesn't fix it, so it's a 50-50 shot." Riiiight. So, basically, you want to sell me a $500 repair I probably don't actually need? I told them to replace the inverter board, and we'd wait on the LCD.
I should mention that in every similar problem I've read about (display-wise at least, I haven't had any luck on the heat issue), the problem was tracked to either the inverter board, video cable, or both. And if it were the LCD, why would it work perfectly most of the time? Hmm? I personally suspect a loose connection on the video cable. Have to remember to bug them about checking that the next time we talk. Also the video card, fan, and heatsink.
So I gave them my CC# for the part order on the inverter board. 'bout 20 minutes later, I get a call back; they can't get their computer to accept the manual entry of the CC#. Inspires such confidence, doesn't it? I had to go in to physically swipe the card to pay for this part. It's supposed to come in "in a couple of days" and I "should have it back by the end of the week" or "early next week at the latest." Assuming, of course, that this actually fixes the problem.
I Want My Laptop Back, Goddamnit! :( :(
A little worried now, I popped on Google and started to do a little research. Just about then, I noticed the bottom right corner of the screen looked like a little piece of dust or something was sticking up from the frame. When I went to brush it away, the corner of the frame was really hot, and I realized that the dark bit was actually the screen reacting to the heat. The bottom left corner was also abnormally warm, but not as bad.
Really worried now, I shut down the computer and left it overnight, while I cleaned my room in a frenzy of nervous energy. About 12 hours later when I turned the computer back on, it seemed fine all through start-up, and then as my desktop icons started appearing, there were hair-thin white horizonal lines beginning about halfway down the screen, and continuing downwards more thickly. The last inch of the screen was slowly growing, stretching down beyond the frame, and then suddenly jumping back up to normal. I shut it down again, making plans to take it in to be looked at.
Later that night, the parental units decided to play with it. They fired it up, and couldn't get the display to do anything wonky at all. However, the lower corners were still getting very hot. Rather than let Dad take it apart... (*shudder*) ... I took it in to CompUSA on Friday night. Meanwhile, I borrowed one of the multiple other computers in the house and went back to searching tech forums for similar problems. At CompUSA, when we turned it on to do a quick look, the display behaved itself perfectly, but the heat was still an issue.
About 2:00 today (Monday) they called me with a diagnosis. According to them, I need a new LCD and inverter board. Uhm... No. When I questioned them on the LCD, the guy said (yes, direct quote), "Well, the reason I say we need to get a new LCD is, when we see this kind of thing, half the time you replace the inverter and that doesn't fix it, so it's a 50-50 shot." Riiiight. So, basically, you want to sell me a $500 repair I probably don't actually need? I told them to replace the inverter board, and we'd wait on the LCD.
I should mention that in every similar problem I've read about (display-wise at least, I haven't had any luck on the heat issue), the problem was tracked to either the inverter board, video cable, or both. And if it were the LCD, why would it work perfectly most of the time? Hmm? I personally suspect a loose connection on the video cable. Have to remember to bug them about checking that the next time we talk. Also the video card, fan, and heatsink.
So I gave them my CC# for the part order on the inverter board. 'bout 20 minutes later, I get a call back; they can't get their computer to accept the manual entry of the CC#. Inspires such confidence, doesn't it? I had to go in to physically swipe the card to pay for this part. It's supposed to come in "in a couple of days" and I "should have it back by the end of the week" or "early next week at the latest." Assuming, of course, that this actually fixes the problem.
I Want My Laptop Back, Goddamnit! :( :(
