![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Aug. 4th, 2008 09:23 pmSo, these days, my main computer is a notebook that I got from work. The other day, after work, while juggling kids and moving from one room to the next, the screen bashed into a doorframe and broke a hinge. It's been annoying, because the other hinge isn't strong enough to hold up the screen, so I'll be busy typing away (work or play) and the screen just crashes backward (or forward, smashing my fingers).
I just paid $30 for a new hinge, and it's not a little 1/2" screw-on job, but some huge 14" piece of metal that threads up through the screen and down into the bowels of my notebook.
3000 screws later, little sticky pieces of "Your warranty is voided!" tape, and an explosion of notebook parts, and I actually replaced the hinge and everything works just fine. There are two screws left over, but one of them I stripped, so I didn't want to try to put it back (and there are 2000 others holding things in place, so who cares) and one other screw screws into a piece of plastic that broke off a long time ago on a biz trip (and yet still held in place by luck and friction), so I'm considering this a win.
Years ago, I put together dozens of computers from parts, because it was always 1) the cheapest way, and 2) the only way to get what you wanted, instead of what some other company assumed you wanted. Since the advent of the laptop/notebook computers, it's nearly impossible to swap parts out due to 1) proprietary parts due to market squatting. 2) tiny parts that, due to miniaturization require precision equipment to disassemble. 3) tiny parts that my 40-year-old (and, soon to be, as of later this month, 41-year-old) eyes are having a hard time focusing on from a foot away.
But! I did it! And now my notebook is healthy and only battered in the well-worn sense, and I'm not slamming a screen on my fingers at random moments!
I just paid $30 for a new hinge, and it's not a little 1/2" screw-on job, but some huge 14" piece of metal that threads up through the screen and down into the bowels of my notebook.
3000 screws later, little sticky pieces of "Your warranty is voided!" tape, and an explosion of notebook parts, and I actually replaced the hinge and everything works just fine. There are two screws left over, but one of them I stripped, so I didn't want to try to put it back (and there are 2000 others holding things in place, so who cares) and one other screw screws into a piece of plastic that broke off a long time ago on a biz trip (and yet still held in place by luck and friction), so I'm considering this a win.
Years ago, I put together dozens of computers from parts, because it was always 1) the cheapest way, and 2) the only way to get what you wanted, instead of what some other company assumed you wanted. Since the advent of the laptop/notebook computers, it's nearly impossible to swap parts out due to 1) proprietary parts due to market squatting. 2) tiny parts that, due to miniaturization require precision equipment to disassemble. 3) tiny parts that my 40-year-old (and, soon to be, as of later this month, 41-year-old) eyes are having a hard time focusing on from a foot away.
But! I did it! And now my notebook is healthy and only battered in the well-worn sense, and I'm not slamming a screen on my fingers at random moments!
