September 14, 2007

Makes me all tingly inside. Like being Tasered. Which is a line I used in an e-mail to friend, and decided was just so smashing I had to use it here too.

I'm typing this from my trusty Dell 700m laptop, which is tiny and, apparently, not at all dead the way I thought it was back in July. This, as it happens, is fortunate, because my shiny new Compaq Presario V6000 laptop, all big with its high-tech blue lights and so on, is, in fact, dead. Fatal spasm of the system board, very tragic. Another line from an e-mail that now you too can enjoy!

Usually I'm good with the tech. Turns out that the Dell's power jack had not, actually, cracked off its motherboard the way I thought. It was the power adapter that died, the AC-DC one I used with the solar rig while on tour last summer. That's the second one that's had a problem. The first one died after 30 days, and this one lasted a little over a year. I guess that's why Dell only gives them a 90-day warranty, and I'm fortunate that the second adapter didn't die on the road, which would have caused all kinds of interesting problems. At $100 a pop, I can't really recommend them, due to the expense/suck ratio. In any event: I found the stock adapter that came with the Dell in one of my random boxes of crap, plugged it in, and lo! the 700m, she lives.

Which, of course, means that I didn't have to plunk down the coin for the new black Compaq which is currently on the couch next to me doing a very convincing impression of a brick. Fortunately, my friend K. is a computer tech, and will be able to grab my recent data off of the drive before I send it back to the factory where they will fix it and, in the process, wipe the drive clean.

In a way, though, I'm happy: I really do like the Dell. I'm attached to it, because it was my boon companion across 2,000 miles of the United States, and served me well in forest glades, in my tent, on motel desks, and at the beach. I'm pleased that it's still kicking.