Uh sorry, I know this one's a bit weird. But that's what the thread's for, right?
I've long enjoyed using equipment that's falling apart. I don't know exactly why, but I have suspicions. There was a rusty push-mower, a bed with slats too short which kept collapsing, a desktop where I had to use a penny on a jumper to reset it. More recently, I've been using my older laptop more and more as it breaks in more ways.
One of the battery clips is missing so it keeps dislodging, which synergizes well with the "new" power adapter which began failing after only three months this time. The plastic edging which holds the screen in place is about a third gone, which is causing the rest to gradually snap off under the stress. The screen is slightly "popped out" and the left side sits lower.
The end key broke off a while ago, but pressing the rubber nub worked fine. Now that's gone too, so I have to press reaaally hard into the depression to register a press.
It crashes randomly, but usually stays up about 2-3 days before going on a crash frenzy. Recently these crashes have started corrupting Firefox's icons, such that the program and HTML files show up unassigned. Re-running the Firefox installer clears that up. (I'm pretty sure this is an issue of bad RAM that got cooked in the heat. I've been meaning to pull one of the sticks to test... For like half a year now?)
Bringing things to a head is the fan grinding. That same overheat situation made it start running loud, but about a month ago it started actually grinding. Right around Christmas actually. It's amazingly intermittent. Usually it ticks rather softly, almost regularly. That's easy enough to ignore. But when stressed, or sometimes randomly for no reason, it'll start grinding spastically and loudly. It doesn't clear itself up, and it's woken me up a few times now.
Bizarrely, striking it in just the right spot has about a 1/4 chance of making it subside for a few hours. It takes a *hard* strike, too - though I eventually found out that knuckles don't help. Which is good, they were getting really sore. This "percussive maintenance" does make it bluescreen occasionally.
But unsurprisingly, it's only getting worse over time. It's seriously distracting now. I should really take it to a shop I guess, or open it up myself (I have the know-how), or at least start using my fresh laptop from work. But it's somehow comforting to stick with something so frustrating, actually painful to use.
... Yeaaah, I really need to get this fixed.
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Topic: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O (Read 14978707 times)