Well, I got a surprising gift for Christmas - a new computer!
To make a long story longer, I've had computer woes for a really long time. When I first moved in with Mike, for our first Christmas one of his gifts for me was getting my computer fixed. I can't remember why I couldn't use it, but I think it had something to do with the battery.
For awhile it worked just fine, but after a few months the weirdest thing happened. I had the computer plugged in and it looked like it was charging, but when I unplugged it, the computer died. I didn't know what was wrong with it. I could turn it back on but it had to be plugged in. If I hovered the arrow over the charging icon it would show that it was charging, but the percentage that it was charged would barely move. You could have it charged for days and it would barely move. And no matter how high up it got - even if it was 50% - I couldn't use it without plugging it in.
But I decided to live with it because at least I could use it. After a few months though I had another problem. I tried to turn my computer on and couldn't. It would make the sound that it does when it's starting to come to life, but then would just stop, and even though the screen would stay blank, the power light would stay on. I was able to get it to turn fully on after three tries, but it got progressively worse over time. I looked up what the problem could be online and one solution was to remove the battery and hold the power down for a minute or two. That worked sometimes, but other times I would have to leave the computer "on" for like a half hour, turn it off, and then turn it back on to get it to work. After awhile the time I had to leave it on for got longer.
I was pretty sure the problem was due to overheating. When I first bought my computer I had a cooling pad, but it stopped working. Then I got a mini-desk that I could plug into the computer to cool it down, but that stopped working and it wasn't long before these issues started.
So I finally had to take the computer to get the battery issues and whatever was preventing the computer from turning on fixed. It turned out that there was something wrong with a video chip in the computer and once they got that fixed it was working again.
Unfortunately, not that long afterwords the computer started acting up again. At first I thought it was just normal issues with getting it to turn on, but after a bit it was clear it was the same issue again. It was less than a year later and I didn't want to deal with going to the computer place again. I was starting to lose a little faith in the computer place I was taking it to. But it was close by and not to expensive and I didn't know where else to take it.
This time I was able to deal with it a little longer than last. The last time, after it wouldn't turn on after a day, that's when I gave up and took it to the computer place. This time I just waited it out, so I was eventually able to turn it on again. A lot of times how long it stayed off was proportional to how long I left it on for. Like there was one time I was working on a fest fic and didn't feel like dealing with using Mike's computer so I left the computer on for four days and then wasn't able to turn it back on for four days.
A few weeks ago, Mike asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I didn't really want to waste a gift on this again, but I really wanted it fixed so I told him he could pay to get my computer fixed. So we took the computer back to the place. I was surprised that the guy said he could fix it that day. He said that once again it was the video chip. He replaced something on it like last time. I couldn't remember when exactly we'd been there last so I said vaguely that we'd been there the year before (though when I got back home I looked at the receipt from last time and it had only been April.) He said that those kind of chips don't last very long. It was something called an AMD processor, or something like that, and he said they easily get screwed up and he advised against getting computers with that.
So he fixed it, apparently, and turned it on to make sure it was working, and it was. So we paid and left. But I was wary about how fast it took. I was kind of worried that maybe it just turned on because it was due to turn on (I'd had it off for a couple of days) and maybe it wasn't really fixed. And sure enough when I tried to turn it on when I got home, it wouldn't turn on.
I took it back the next day, but it was Friday and they aren't open on the weekends, so he told me that I could pick it up on Monday. To my surprise, he called on Sunday and said he'd fixed it and I could pick it up. I got there and he said he came in to work on it. I guess maybe he had a lot to do the next day and just wanted to get it over with. He explained what he did differently this time, something about completely replacing parts on the chip. Again he turned it on and it was working. He said if it stopped working this time that the only option would be to completely replace the chip. He had his kids at the place and they were talking, so may attention was kind of halfway divided when he said something about getting rid of the computer altogether. He said something about it not being worth the hassle to fix. I was starting to get to that point but not exactly. He said the video chip only cost 50 dollars and I couldn't imagine the cost for labor would be that high.
When I got back to the car, I turned it on again to make sure what happened the last time didn't. And to my relief it turned on right away. I left it on and brought it home. I put it in our room and then I left to do the dishes. When I came back the computer was off. I thought at first maybe the computer wasn't fully charged and turned off. But when I tried to turn it on again it didn't work. Unlike last time, where the computer whirred to life, went silent with a blank screen, but the power stayed on, this time it would whir to life and after a few seconds it just turned off automatically.
I was so frustrated at this point. Since what was happening was different I wasn't sure if it was still the video chip or what. I had to work the next day so I asked Mike to take it to the computer shop so I could get a new video chip. When I got home I started talking to Mike and I looked down and saw my computer plus another one. Mike explained that the guy said the cost of labor would be so high because to replace the chip he'd have to take the whole computer apart, that it would be better to get another one. They were refurbishing a few older ones that, though used, would work as good as new, so he bought one for a little more than $200. It's a Dell and the guy said it's supposed to be much faster than my computer and doesn't have that AMD processor.
He had to order a hard drive thing to transfer info from my computer to this new one. It was supposed to arrive last Monday, but we haven't heard anything yet, which I figured might happen because of Christmas, but I'm still a little concerned now.
Mike said the guy wanted to use my old computer for parts, but Mike wanted to ask me first before he just left it there. I have no real us for it, so don't see the point in keeping it.
Mike asked if the new computer is running any faster than my old one. For right now it is, but I assume that's because there's basically nothing on it. I'm a little worried about whether this computer will hold everything from my old one, since I was pretty close to capacity and was trying to get rid of some stuff to make room.
I don't know if this is necessarily a red flag, but the next day after we got the computer I tried to turn it on and it came on and then turned off. I feared that it somehow had the same issue as last time, especially when I plugged it in and it turned on. But then I saw that, just like Mike's computer, it was saying that the battery needed to be replaced. I asked the computer guy and he said he'd order a new battery when the hard drive comes in.
Other than that, the only problems I have with the new computer is that, just like with Mike's computer, it has this horrible tendency that when I'm typing, sometimes the cursor will jump to another spot randomly and the words will appear there. I still have no idea why it does that. Also, the touchpad thing where you move the cursor is a bit more slippery than my old computer and sometimes I have to press down more than couple of times to select something.
I hope this one lasts for awhile.
Stacey