Laptop Woes

[ceitfianna]

Apparently after two hours of trying things, HP told me that I need to hook my laptop to an external monitor to find out what's about to fail.

Hopefully its something cheap like the graphics card and not anything involving the motherboard. HP was really helpful, I think I made the HP customer service guy happy, because I understood so much of what he was talking about and we were able to just talk as things processed.

Now I'm backing the few things that aren't backed up so that things are alright. Hopefully the monitor won't act up too much during my shift tonight, I'd feel horrible if that happened while I was helping someone.

I've had this laptop for about a year and a half, that's too soon for it to break. Though I wouldn't mind getting a Mac at some point. My whining about how heavy my laptop is, is not an excuse to break. I like my solid laptop with its big screen.

Comments

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a year and a half is way too soon (I'll just insert my "things don't last any more!" whine here). At least you have stuff backed up, so that's good.

[ceitfianna]

I bought my external hard drive two weeks before the backlight on my last laptop died. So I know all about external hookups since that's how I moved all my stuff over.

Yes, its so annoying, and the phone call helped. At least I know what might be wrong.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

And then you get to do the "is it worth it to spend this much on a year-and-a-half-old laptop if I can get a new one for $300 more" thing. Ugh, I swear, it's such a racket.

[ceitfianna]

I'd rather save up for a nice Mac and use this one until it dies. Hopefully it won't be too costly to fix.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping! Good luck.

[julyflame.livejournal.com]

What sort of laptop is it, besides HP? One of the Pavilion ones? If so, those tend to have screen problems. Mine's got a big issue where it'll randomly die on the bottom two thirds of the screen.

In all likelihood, it may well be just the screen, and that is fairly easy to solve if you're willing to spend a bit of extra cash and have someone around who isn't afraid of screwdrivers. It's supposed to be fairly easy once you remove the frame to just pop out the old one and reconnect a new one.

That'd save you some cash if you are willing to try it.

[ceitfianna]

Its a Pavilion and that's good to know. I'm quite willing to switch the screen out if that's what it takes.

[julyflame.livejournal.com]

Ooh yeah. The Pavilions are known to have this problem; I got mine in 2007, and even then it was a known issue with them. HP hasn't really fiddled at all with what makes the screens go like that for whatever reason they have, which is ridiculous, really.

Sorry you had to find out the nasty way like I did. :(

[ceitfianna]

At the moment the problem seems to be intermittent, at least and once I try it on an external, I'll know what's to be fixed.

It is annoying, but it could be worse. My old laptop, a Toshiba, the backlight on it just plain died.

On this one its more like I'm getting static on a TV screen, but everything else works.

[julyflame.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the connectors playing up since it's come loose in there, I believe.

The best thing for it is to just be careful with where you apply pressure on the top if it seems like it only comes up after you move the screen or hold it when it's closed in a particular spot.

[ceitfianna]

I'll remember that and pay attention to it. I don't move my laptop that much, it tends to live open, but due to my internship, its been going about more.

My instinct when this started acting up was that it was going to be an HP thing. Now its just a question of how much does it cost to fix.

[julyflame.livejournal.com]

Hundred, twohundredfifty tops depending on where you find the screen.

[ceitfianna]

That's not too bad at all.