Laptop woes

[thepeopleseason]

Last night, after writing a drabble for sunday100, the hinge that holds the screen on my laptop finally gave way. It's been deteriorating for a while, and after spewing a few sharp bits of dark grey, distressed plastic, it came apart.

Now of course, it didn't come apart in any way that's convenient to fix. No, the plastic which is pretty much essential to the hinge is gone. Granted, after it failed, I just ripped more of the plastic off, to see if I could get at some of the metal innards, but the screws that comprise the tightenable part of the hinges are apparently stripped, as well...

So the laptop looks like one of the following diagrams:

1. = when closed,
2. |_ when precariously balanced, or
3. __ when open. Gee.

I went to OfficeMax today to pick up some bookends to see if I can't just prop the screen up. If this fails, I'm hoping there's some way of completely removing the screen and propping that up on some platform. Otherwise, I might want a new LCD monitor or one of those fancy web-pad computers.

But that's only after I win first place at the poker tournament next month... :)

Comments

[katemonkey.livejournal.com]

A trick I learned when I broke my hinges:

Get a cardboard box. that your laptop fits into.

Insert laptop.

Open laptop.

Tilt laptop back slightly.

Enjoy.

[thepeopleseason.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm hoping the bookends will do the trick--I've got my laptop on a rolling cart which I keep next to the bed (because I'm a Big! Honking! Dateless! Geek!), and I need to find a solution which the cart can accomodate. If the bookends don't work, I'll try the box.

And what is up with laptop hinges breaking?? Damn things...

[xopherg.livejournal.com]

isn't that laptop like 100 years old?

[thepeopleseason.livejournal.com]

It's about 5-6 years old. I'd expect a laptop hinge to last longer than that... maybe 8-10 years, especially since I didn't really open and close the damn thing all that much--it was my main 'desktop' machine for a while.

[xopherg.livejournal.com]

see? not enough exercise.

[thepeopleseason.livejournal.com]

Well, shit. If it's like that, pretty soon my gut will crack and explode in to tiny shards of yellow skin and gristle.