ryanr's Journal: Teh SUCK!

Crap. I had to stop kinda quickly in traffic yesterday, van in front of me slowed down really quick. I guess I was following too close during rush hour, or something. Anyway.

Laptop bag slid off the pasenger seat onto the floor. Didn't hit very hard. Laptop was properly packed, and it hit in such a way that the side of the laptop would have had maximum padding. I tried to catch it as it was sliding with one arm, out of the corner of my eye, but I was too busy making sure my car stopped in time.

Got home, went to pull out the laptop to set up for the wife to play on while I went to some meetings. Big crack in the screen, big black vertical bar, right half a bit fuzzy, bottom-right edge not displaying properly.

Crap.

Not a particularly exciting laptop, a Sony Vaio PCG-SRX87. I got a good price on it at the time, about $1300. It has lasted about 3 years or so, and I've been hauling it around every day for about 2 years. So something like this was inevetible. And really, I've gotten my money's worth out of it. Still makes me mad though, I don't have budget for a replacement right now.

Not sure if it's worth fixing or not. I googled a bit last night, and anyplace that stocks replacement screens seems to want about $500. The laptop also has broken hinges (not seperated, screen just won't stay up on its own), and the keyboard and trackpad are wearing out. battery is relatively new, I replaced that about 6 months ago. I think I'll have to haunt eBay and see if I can find a used screen for hopefully less than a few hundred.

I do feel a little silly worrying about breaking my toy when there are much worse problems going on in the world today, but this has put me in a bad mood. I think I've complained to everyone at work already, so you're next on the list.

That is all. I could go on about Solemn and Blinder being sickeningly cutesy now that they are all "out", but I'll refrain.

*sigh*

[SolemnDragon]

*sets your shoes on fire*

sickening? I'll show you sickening!

That's it. I must be allergic to cute.

Re:*sigh*

[ryanr]

heh heh, you're in luuurrv.

Yeah, it's my 17th wedding anniversary in a week or so. We don't do much cutesy anymore. Ask my wife, if she wants to know I love her, I should supply diamonds. ;)

You have to expect some teasing. Suck it up. Emr, no pun intended.

Do what I did With my Viao

[Red Warrior]

upon my return to the states.

Get a docking station, a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Dock it. You now have a home PC, which will be adequate for all but higher-end gaming/graphics apps. Depending on the hardware you get, you could be out as little as $75 bucks. Then go get yourself a brand-spanking new (or at least recent) laptop that smokes your old one.
Should be able to do that for around twice the cost of a new screen. Or less. (note I said "or at least recent")

No, nothing broke on my Viao, I just do

Re:Do what I did With my Viao

[ryanr]

Yes, thanks for the suggestion. No, I wouldn't toss it until it died died. If I replace its functions with another laptop, or desktop(s), then I would likely relegate the vaio to some "headless" server function, running some unix. It's XP Home, right now. The screen is tolerable enough that I wouldn't have to worry about some external monitor the few times I needed to do some console work.

Hmm... yes, it would make a decent portable server...

Re:Do what I did With my Viao

[djh101010]

I have _no_ idea why I can't find "reply" to the actual journal entry, so I'm posting here in this nearly random place in hopes RyanR will see it. But. So, here's the thing - everyone uses just a few commodity panels, I've been told. Take it out entirely, and find the real manufacturer's name and part number. NEC, or whatever, not the Sony or Dell or Whatever.com laptop assemblers name. Google/eBay for _that_ number. Doesn't matter what kind of laptop it was in, you just need something that's the same

Re:Do what I did With my Viao

[ryanr]

Yeah, that's a decent idea, thanks. I'll research it. I had been doing some searching by both the Sony laptop model number, and the Sony part number.

laptops

[Triumph The Insult C]

ibm x40 w/3.8-current. yummy

dell c400 here, but i can dream =)

Re:laptops

[ryanr]

I won't be gettting any new hardware of my own for a while. Maybe after the 1st of the year, if some various things pay off. I might be able to get work to spring for a Dell 610, or I might try living on an iBook for a while.