The latest bad news/good news. . .

We have determined that the little pin inside the power outlet wiggles. So it's NOT stable any longer, meaning damage WAS done to the inner workings after all. Bad news.

Also, there is no one locally who knows what they're doing. . .the one guy we called told us a lie (claimed the motherboard must've gotten shorted out, which is clearly not true) and tried to gyp us into hiring him to get my stuff off it and sell the used computer to him for scrap parts. :P Jerk. :P Dad IS checking out one last place over about 30-45 mins away, but otherwise our only hope is a place back home which might be able to help.

Sigh.

In one bit of good news, however, I managed to drag all my stuff onto a single 2.0 gig flash drive this afternoon - pics, Ais docs, fanfic docs, and all. Haven't tested the results out yet, but everything appears to have "taken" properly. :) So that's REALLY good news. :D I feel infinitely better now.

Of course, that leaves me with barely half an hour to forty minutes of battery power remaining, but hey. It was worth every minute of it.

This means I can post fic as long as I'm at my parents' house, which will be for at least one more week. How soon I resume after that depends on how soon I get my computer back.

OK, Dad talked to the guy. He recommended calling HP directly, said they usually have a flat rate, like $200, to fix it. I like the sound of that, so I'm gonna get the number now so we can call. And now that my stuff's saved, I'm less terrified about my baby leaving my hands. . . .

Just an update,
Febobe
who is beginning to regret taking the monitor off her desktop at home and storing it upstairs!

The latest bad news/good news. . .

We have determined that the little pin inside the power outlet wiggles. So it's NOT stable any longer, meaning damage WAS done to the inner workings after all. Bad news.

Also, there is no one locally who knows what they're doing. . .the one guy we called told us a lie (claimed the motherboard must've gotten shorted out, which is clearly not true) and tried to gyp us into hiring him to get my stuff off it and sell the used computer to him for scrap parts. :P Jerk. :P Dad IS checking out one last place over about 30-45 mins away, but otherwise our only hope is a place back home which might be able to help.

Sigh.

In one bit of good news, however, I managed to drag all my stuff onto a single 2.0 gig flash drive this afternoon - pics, Ais docs, fanfic docs, and all. Haven't tested the results out yet, but everything appears to have "taken" properly. :) So that's REALLY good news. :D I feel infinitely better now.

Of course, that leaves me with barely half an hour to forty minutes of battery power remaining, but hey. It was worth every minute of it.

This means I can post fic as long as I'm at my parents' house, which will be for at least one more week. How soon I resume after that depends on how soon I get my computer back.

OK, Dad talked to the guy. He recommended calling HP directly, said they usually have a flat rate, like $200, to fix it. I like the sound of that, so I'm gonna get the number now so we can call. And now that my stuff's saved, I'm less terrified about my baby leaving my hands. . . .

Just an update,
Febobe
who is beginning to regret taking the monitor off her desktop at home and storing it upstairs!

Upshot of the phone call to HP...

...is that Brian, the service tech, said it would cost $398 to get the work done. That's with fixing anything and everything that's wrong plus a three month hardware warranty. But still. . . . You can get a new one for around $600 or so baseline. . .maybe more, but depends on your bells and whistles. So we said we'd talk about it and call him back.

They offered the dv 6000 series, so I'm looking at that now.

Any advice, y'all? I have my stuff saved to flashdrive, so apart from the dread of having to set my wireless 'Net up on my own, I'm managing okee with the thought of a new laptop. . .although there is a pang in my heart over the thought that I finished writing my first novel on this one.

Thanks,
Febobe

Upshot of the phone call to HP...

...is that Brian, the service tech, said it would cost $398 to get the work done. That's with fixing anything and everything that's wrong plus a three month hardware warranty. But still. . . . You can get a new one for around $600 or so baseline. . .maybe more, but depends on your bells and whistles. So we said we'd talk about it and call him back.

They offered the dv 6000 series, so I'm looking at that now.

Any advice, y'all? I have my stuff saved to flashdrive, so apart from the dread of having to set my wireless 'Net up on my own, I'm managing okee with the thought of a new laptop. . .although there is a pang in my heart over the thought that I finished writing my first novel on this one.

Thanks,
Febobe