my attempt at being miss fix-it

I haven't blogged for a while now and the reason will be explained in this post.

For a few months now, my computer has been a bit temperamental. Sometimes when I turned on the computer, it would fail to boot up and instead started beeping incessantly. When it did this, it would sometimes turn on normally after I had turned it off and then turned it back on again, but a few weeks ago, it seemed as though the beeping was there to stay.

I asked Google and my brothers what I should do, and discovered that the reason for such an occurrence was due to a build up of dust in the computer. So operation de-dust began. First step, opening the computer. After undoing a whole heap of screws, that in the end, did not need to be undone, and re-screwing them in, I discovered there was one large screw on the computer that could be undone by hand. I unscrewed the large (and quite obvious screw). The side of the computer could then be slid away quite easily. First der-brain moment overcome.

I was now confronted with a whole bunch of electrical looking things - wires, green boards with metal bits on them and two fans. Which one do I take out and how does one go about removing it to clean it anyway? Enter my brother. After fiddling around with some levers and internal brackets, the fan came out and I proceeded outside to begin cleaning.

Second der-brain moment - blowing into the fan thing and then getting dust all over my face. I soon learned to blow and then quickly snap upwards to avoid another face-full of dust. It's really amazing to see how much dust gets into one of these little babies. Incredible. When I was satisfied with my de-dusting attempts, I then went back into the house and tried to re-insert the fan.

This took a fair while, but was done eventually.

Now for the moment of truth. I plugged everything in, braced myself for more beeping (meanwhile making sure I didn't have a cricket bat or something I could bash the computer up with - the beeping can be quite frustrating you know), and then switched the power on.

NO BEEPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoooooooooohooooooo! I started yelling at the computer! Take that fool! I beat you this time! Whooooooooo! Yeah!

Minutes passed and the screen remained black. This isn't cool. The computer seemed to be running, the fan was working beautifully, the light on the computer was on, and most importantly, the brain-numbing beeping had ceased. But the screen was black, the keyboard lights weren't on, and yep, not even the mouse light had switched off. The forecast did not look good. Not good at all.

Now the computer couldn't be switched off as well. It was mocking me. I unplugged the power cord and felt a strange sense of anger, frustration and a little satisfaction all at the same time.

I consulted Google again. Google advised me (through other unfortunate souls who had encountered the same situation) that I had most likely touched something I shouldn't have touched and had therefore killed my computer. I had given it the touch of death. Third der-brain moment. Miss Fix-it had failed miserably. The computer was beyond repair.

I sat there for a few minutes in disbelief and then sulkily walked outside to watch TV. I could count on the TV to turn on at least.

So now the computer resides in it's normal spot, but the familiar hum that used to keep me company in my room is now long gone. I will have to take the old girl to someone who knows what they're doing to see if there's any hope for her.

In the meantime, I'm stuck with all the reject computers in the Cheng household that nobody uses cos they're too slow. So gay.