Friday, August 22, 2008

Once the magic smoke is gone, you can't put it back

I was installing a newer version of linux on the craptop (an ancient 800 mhz p3 laptop that I keep for Matthew's use) and unknown to me I had plugged it into an outlet that only worked when an otherwise unused lightswitch was in the on position.  Mid-install, someone turned it off.  When the battery died, so did the craptop.
No problem, I'll just restart the install on a more stable outlet.  Plug it in, it started to boot and died again.  Then I smelled something.  Uh-oh.  Turned it around, sure enough there was smoke coming from the power plug.
Damn.  Time to get a new craptop.

2 comments:

Kathleen and Justin Lofley said...

My brother told me when working with computers you're NOT TO LET THE MAGIC SMOKE OUT or it won't work anymore. I thought, being a computer guy, that you would've known that...sorry you had to learn the hard way. This rule also applies to iPods, which I learned the hard way.

Rachel Ellis said...

Alas, poor iPod...