Shift into reverse

[hrj]

Tonight's chores were pretty much just a reverse of last nights: move the couches, bookshelf, and drafting table back into the now stripped living room; wheel the computer cart back out of the spare room and retrieve the tv. Who knows when I'll be ready to call the flooring people back again. I signed up with a "contractor referrel" service which spat out one lonely match for my job and then indicated that he wasn't available at the moment. Next I try the neighborhood e-mail list, although I'm sort of aiming for someone who specializes in rot repair. By the way, here's the empty living room (last night):



And here's the spare bedroom at the moment:



The laptop, it turns out, is not entirely fixed. It was behaving fine while I was reinstalling software and whatnot, but then this morning when I was using it for e-mail ('cause the desktop was shoved away) it did the "gray screen of death" thing ("you must reboot your computer"). Hmm. More testing. Passes all the hardware tests with flying colors. No problems when simply reading e-mail, only when I'm typing a reply. Possibly a write-to-disk issue? But I haven't saved it yet -- does it do auto-draft-saves? No problems when playing a solitaire game. Try a test Word document. Crashes when I type in the name to save. Hmm. Try another program. Saves a test document no problem. Try Word again -- saves no problem. Back to e-mail: no problems while composing a dummy e-mail. Then I suddenly notice a correlation. It crashes when I rest weight on my left palm on the case to type. Re-boot. Press a finger on the left-front part of the case. Crash. Yup, the problem is a purely mechanical response to compression of the computer case in a particular region. (So it doesn't happen when I'm just reading or plaing games, which only involves the right hand.) Guess it's back to the shop.

Comments

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the extra RAM is located under the keyboard and this effect happens when the area in front of the keyboard is pressed -- no problem just pressing on the keys. Or is there some more arcane connection?

[xrian.livejournal.com]

Just like all those summer home movies where -- if you run them backwards -- the kids come up out of the water feet first and leap backwards onto the swimming raft...or the water-skier tows the boat stern-first through the water...

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Wow. Computer problems -- that's pretty poor design on their part. Nifty ... at least you found the problem. Hope they can find a good solution.