tomhudson's Journal: Disposable laptop, and for those who laughed - bite me!

It's a good thing I had a spare power supply for my old creaky desktop ... because JUST as I had finished putting the finishing touches on a section of code, and saying to myself - "Well, that's now complete ... guess it's time to make a backup" ... my laptop (HP with *grumble grumble NVIDIA@@@ gpu) died. It didn't take much brains to figure out it was the video chip that was the culprit, like so many others before me.

I'm not too happy about that - this laptop was used for a week when I first bought it, then sat for most of a year until I could install linux on it (on a second drive) and upgrade it to 4 gigs. Then it sat for most of another year ... and then I used it at one job for about a year, and when the desktop PS blew a couple of weeks ago, it became my main machine again. So its' death is premature, to say the least. It's the least use I've ever gotten out of a computer, by years ...

So, I guess laptops are disposable now ... it's not like it's worth fixing - like a 3-to-4-year-old car, it's probably worth more as parts, and in the almost 4 years since I bought it, technology has changed ...

Of course, a pair of 2-1/2" 320gig hard drives cost a lot less than when I bought them, but still, a < $20 external drive bay, and they'll be back in business. And there's always someone who wants 4 gig of kingston ram. So, if I can't reflow the gpu solder by heating it up with a hotgun ... salvage time!

And for everyone who laughed at my stupid system for version control - since it *IS* entirely portable, and backing up only takes a few seconds, I *had* made a backup this morning before starting, so all I had to do was re-create the last 3 changesets from memory.

Backups - can't live without them!

Laughing at you for a different resaon

[plover]

Your switch to laptops from desktop iron is the real issue. Laptops are tiny ovens with poor ventilation, and subject to physical abuse that most desktops never see. Their components are always stressed. That you got three or four years out of it, well, that's about it.

Good on you for making backups of your goofy source "control" system, though.

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[jawtheshark]

I agree with plover. You've been lauding laptops for the last few years while completely dissing their disadvantages. This is one of them. In a desktop, your graphics card fries and you go buy the cheapest you can (after all, no gaming is involved) and you're up and running in no time again.

Desktops are better ventilated, desktops are sturdier. There is a middle way though and that is put your stuff on your server (in the basement, or wherever you have space), mount your working space over network and w

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[tomhudson]

First, the complete restore from backup took only a few seconds after I mounted the USB key - just time enough to drag the tarball to my public_html directory and untar it. Since "my" system only creates files when there's a change in the source, if I have 100 files, but only, on average, 4 are changed in any revision, by revision 160, I'll still have only 640 files, not 16,000 files (100 files * 160 revisions). That makes for a much smaller, quicker backup and restore, as well as using up much less space

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[jawtheshark]

Ok, ok... I get it.. It's hard to make a good diagnosis without all facts. Still, instead of getting a drive case, really do get one of those Sharkoon docking stations (they even have versions with RJ45, last I checked. Mine is eSATA and USB 2.0). I don't know if you're halfway like me, but recovering data for people that you help is on the top of my list. I was sick 'n tired of fiddling with enclosures and such a docking station is so incredibly useful. Yes, it's a bit more expensive, but it's so wort

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[tomhudson]

Well, I haven't declared the laptop completely dead yet ... though I'd say the odds are VERY high ... because any fix will be temporary, since it doesn't fix the problem of a bad design. In the meantime, all I *need* is the drive data, and I *hate* docking stations - they take up space. I could literally hang the 2 drives off the back of one of my lcds and not ever even see it ... (and if I plugged them into the lcd's hub, not even see the cabling - I'd have the mouse and keyboard into one (like I do now)

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[jawtheshark]

This takes up as much space as a small stack of CD cases and makes your workspace neat. You truly cannot be helped. Don't waste your time with temporary fixes.... Not worth it.

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[tomhudson]

Right now, the laptop carcass is sitting in another room - I'll probably look at it some time next year ... the hard drives can sit there until I need them - which hopefully won't be any time soon :-)

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[jawtheshark]

If you can get it out without damaging it, keep the LCD screen *with* the cable. Very important to keep the cable. They are alas often proprietary and you have no way to know whether the LCD screen will work or not in another laptop without having it.

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[tomhudson]

I've always been super-careful about heat - this laptop was always run on either on a raised surface (in-box that was just the right size and allowed lots of ventilation) or with the rear raised by a couple of dvd cases (holding emergency bsd and linux boot disks). There is simply NO way that this could be due to poor ventilation. It's either bad design or bad execution. It was also used as a desktop replacement, not a laptop, so it's not like it was bounced around while running, so that's not an excuse

Lucky me...

[webmistressrachel]

I have had a somewhat turbulent home life for a couple of years now, and traded down to a laptop when homelessness became imminent 2 years ago, and since then have traded and dealed several laptops and settled comfortably with an Acer 6920g with ATI Radeon HD 3650 graphics (which handles Skyrim just fine at 25-30 fps with details turned up high and with native resolution - 1366 x 768 - and I overclock from 600 to 750 for that 30+fps smooth glossy goodness when the weather suits!).

I have been using and abusi

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[tomhudson]

This particular HP laptop was the subject of a recall for this problem, but because I didn't abuse it (always kept it running as a desktop replacement instead of a laptop, always either kept the rear raised with a couple of dvd cases or sitting atop my in box for better ventilation, never moved it while running, didn't use it all that much (or at all) for months at a time, I didn't get "bit" by the bug until yesterday.

Next time, it won't be HP. Simple as that.

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[jawtheshark]

Next time, it won't be HP. Simple as that.

And you needed to find it out this way? ;-)

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[k31bang]

What model laptop? (and GPU for that matter) So i can avoid it when looking at used ones.

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[tomhudson]

HP pavilion with nvidia gpu - it's been a long-standing issue [pcworld.com], and also affected dell and apple laptops. Only apple did the right thing - everyone else just issued a software patch to make the fan run on high almost all the time, or moaned and groaned and hoped the customer would go away, or pay for the repairs, or at least part (iow, most) of it.

The best bet is probably to avoid all HP 9k-series (and to be save, all other HP laptops with nvidia gpus). I took mine partly apart, and it shows it's been bab