Just to be sure, have you tried unplugging it, waiting 30 seconds, and plugging it back in?

Ya, that was one of the first things I tried… I was hoping it would reset and start going again to no avail.

I’ve got it apart now, but this weekend if I have time to mess with it I’m going to plug everything back in and try it again. Maybe it just needs a little vacation lol!

Maybe it just needs a little vacation lol!

So, I water damaged a laptop years ago, and while i didn’t kill it, the repair shop said it was likely some corrosion would eventually cause problems and it could break in the future without notice, and also my monitor had a damaged area in the bottom corner about the size of a credit card. You could see things there, but the color was really distorted.

I need a solid and reliable laptop for work so I got another one, but I still used the broken one for various things.

Well, to my surprise, like 5 years later (after repeated low but yearly use), I turn it on to test some software on the older operating system, and the fucking monitor is perfect, no longer distorted.

Clearly it just needed a vacation!

I work in IT and deal with people spilling shit on their laptops all the time. This is precisely why I tell them that im not saying their shit is broken, Im saying they cant depend on it. Right now it might seem fine. Once whatever drop of liquid manages to corrode whatever random trace enough to break the connection, it wont. That day could be tomorrow, that day could be 10 years from now, or even never!

But the important takeaway from the conversation isnt that the laptop is broken, the key takeaway is when it stops working right, IM NOT PUTTING TIME INTO FIXING IT. Replace it, or dont…but dont call me on that day because the answer then is going to be the same as now…replace it. If you dont want to replace, goto 10. Thank you, have a nice day.

That being said, I’ll use those things for noncritical shit all day long. I dont care if it shits the bed…I just grab another piece of shit off the shelf and make that the new bed shifter. But my plex server taking a dump is not the same as your CAD workstation taking a dump mid project, obviously.

I like taking mine on vacations where I dont need a reliable machine and if it does finally break, or gets stolen, im less fussed about it.

Man, my vacation would be fucking ruined if my laptop conked out on me.

What do you need your laptop for that you couldn’t manage on your phone if you had to?

Ironically enough, I write smartphone apps on my vacations. Maybe you can do that shit practically on smartphones now, but I’ve never seen it.

Oh, well that’s actual work. If I wanted to do actual work on a vacation, I’d be upset if my laptop died as well, and I wouldn’t take the risky one. I also do smartphone apps!

I’d be upset if my laptop died as well

It’s funny, I do iOS and my old macbook has a swollen battery but is still going OK. I’m stuck on an ancient version of Xcode and I’ve actually already bought a replacement macbook, but I’m too lazy to set it up.