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Ailing Laptops


Andrea B.

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My old Macbook Air suffered an eggnog spill years ago

Some of the keys are not working

The punctuation keys in particular !!!

I'm tediously writing each sentence on a separate line so confusion will not ensue

 

The Air is too old to repair unless I do it myself

(Repair query turned down both by Apple Store and by really cool local computer repair shop)

There are about 100 little screws to remove to get to the floppy keyboard thingie which needs replacement

I think I might have better things to do than fix it myself

(not completely sure about that - smile)

 

My newer Macbook Pro Retina has a fan in which the bearing wore out

So I'm warned not to use it while awaiting the new fan on order lest it get too hot and fry a board

OK agreed!!!

I'm told this is very very unusual - sigh

Fan order and replacement coinciding with US school & college start (many repairs needed) and US holiday weekend

Wait wait wait

 

SigOther has all the household windows laptops in use for some book or something

 

Conclusion: Temporarily I"m not commenting on all the very interesting new UVP posts

But I will be back in working order soon

 

This all looks like some kind of boring wandering poem thingie like they used to make us read in school

I could tidy up the meter a bit but it's a pretty day

I'm going outdoors to wander around and look for bugs and butterflies

Or maybe Pikachu

 

C U Later!!!!

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I'm going outdoors to wander around and look for bugs and butterflies

 

 

 

 

What a wonderful Idea , apart from the fact its been raining for two days , only thing alive around here are slugs.... :lol:

Good luck with your laptop

 

Daryll

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You could temporarily use the old Macbook Air with an external generic USB-keyboard.

Any type will work, even if the function of some keys like the command key will be marked differently if you get a PC-type.

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There is much to be said in favour of computer systems for which swapping keyboards, fans, etc. is easily conducted by the users themselves. I am also a supporter of the redundancy principle: each important system should at least have a replicated machine with (ideally) the identical set up in terms of internal drive(s) and (if applicable) peripherals.

 

That being stated, I do hope you are back to normal with working computers as soon as possible ... although taking (or having) time to explore the natural world sounds perfect.

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Most laptop parts are not easily swappable. Laptops are just too thin. Many parts get glued now for even greater thinness!! Most current tablets (like Ipad) are all glued inside. Yikes!!

 

That said, the Macbook Pro laptop fans do happen to be easily accessible. Before taking the MbP off to the shop I popped off the back to see whether dust bunnies were gumming up the failing fan. But that wasn't the case.

 

Sometimes I draw the line at fixing stuff myself. I'm trying to hang onto some old apps in that MBP and do not want to risk frying a component. I have a disk clone and also Time Machine backups but I don't know if I could re-clone onto a newer Macbook Pro should the old one get bricked.

 

*******

 

You could temporarily use the old Macbook Air with an external generic USB-keyboard.

Yes indeed. And I have a nice wireless keyboard. But I have discovered that the poor old Air has some other problems from the spill. It periodically freezes and I completely lose whatever I'm writing. Not something it ever did before the spill !! Anyway I am no longer trusting the Air for any photo work. Only using it for some forum comments. :)

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There is much to be said in favour of computer systems for which swapping keyboards, fans, etc. is easily conducted by the users themselves. I am also a supporter of the redundancy principle: each important system should at least have a replicated machine with (ideally) the identical set up in terms of internal drive(s) and (if applicable) peripherals.

 

If only.

 

The current trend is to make devices more and more disposable so that if the least thing goes wrong, one must send them to the landfill and buy a replacement. This strategy maximizes profit for the manufacturer. To see an extreme example, see this analysis of the Microsoft Surface Laptop:

 

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Laptop+Teardown/92915

 

The paradigm is reinforced by an obsolescence treadmill wherein the latest security updates (required if one wants to be fully protected from malicious attacks) are only available for newer hardware, never older models; and often recent versions of software only run on recent versions of operating systems, which have become too bloated to run on older machines and/or lack the hardware drivers to support older machines.

 

Some day perhaps there will be automobiles which must be junked when they run out of fuel or have a flat tire...

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Running your "computers" as virtual machines solves a lot of these issues. Going from apples to oranges can help, too. I purchase a stack of replacement parts and swap as required.
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The current trend is to make devices more and more disposable so that if the least thing goes wrong, one must send them to the landfill and buy a replacement. This strategy maximizes profit for the manufacturer.

 

Yes, indeed! My Mac Air is now considered disposable at age 5. Some parts are no longer available. But it is a small loss, relatively speaking, because I had a good 5 years use out of it. Aside from the broken keyboard and egg-nog induced daily freezes, this machine now annoys me because it is so slow! We so quickly become used to faster speeds. And I did get quite used to the Retina screen on the MB Pro which the old Air did not have. (Yes, I do know that I have become quite "spoiled" by fast speeds and retinal screens!!)

 

To enable Bjørn's suggestion about swappable parts, it is a good idea to simply forego tablets and thin laptops and build your own "tower". My SigOth just bought a simple Dell Inspiron tower and is adding drives and usb ports to it. Other parts of it are swappable also. I should probably do this myself at some point. But I don't like being tethered to a desk. Although during winter, it would be ok to be on a tower instead of a laptop I suppose. I will give it some consideration.

 

Anyway, I'm now back in business with the Mac Pro. The fan replacement was thankfully a simple task. Just had to wait on the part for a few days because it is back-to-school time in the US so lots of students were getting last minute repairs.

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I am sorry but I find your "egg-nog induced" description somewhat humorous. Was this egg-nog suitably spiked? I can attest that a whiskey sour has similar deleterious on a turntable! :lol:
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Oh, yes, that was authentic egg nog. I think the SigOth used both a tot of brandy and a tot of rum in his "secret" recipe. Whether fortunately or unfortunately - :D - the spill was due to my usual clumsiness rather than any alcohol induced side effects because I had only had one sip before the spill!! And I have to note that I salvaged most of the egg nog with a quick catch. Just couldn't rescue that poor keyboard although I tried mightily. I've been laughing about it ever since. What else can ya do but laugh?? I was lucky in a way that it was an old laptop and not one of the newer items around here. :rolleyes:

 

Ouchie about that turntable.

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