Despite the title, this blog is not about a baseball movie starring Anthony Perkins. It’s about something that scares me—computers. I’ll admit it, I’m a computer-phobe. I always have been. I use them to write stories and to find stuff on the web. That’s about it. When they fail at those two tasks, which I naively consider to be simple ones, I have zero patience and assume that no matter what the issue is, it will cost at least a few hundred dollars to fix it.
Some of you may have had similar thoughts regarding cars you own or once owned. When something went wrong, you didn’t know how to fix it, but you were convinced that it was going to cost some serious coin.
Any of you who have read my blogs before know that just about all I know of the mechanical aspects of cars came from a need—a need for my car to get me to work and/or school. Not having the funds to pay to have my car fixed every time something went wrong with it, I made an effort to learn how to fix myriad issues that would crop up.
What faced me this weekend was an exploration into uncharted waters—computer repair. My wife’s laptop screen had been flickering for months and had finally gotten to the point where it wouldn’t turn on anymore. Faced with a charge just to have the technician open it up to see what was wrong and then additional charges for the labor and parts to fix the problem on a unit that I felt wasn’t worth that potential repair cost, I decided to try it myself. A few hours later, I’d either be a hero with a working computer or a zero who was in the market for a new one. No pressure.
The odds for success weren’t in my favor because, to me, computers are way scarier to work on than cars. In my mind, their tiny, fragile electronics can break or toast with the errant touch of a finger. Unfair I know, but such was my phobia.
Normally, when faced with a car repair that I need to learn more about before I attempt it, I consult the service manual, tech stories on the subject in my old car magazines, books on the subject if available, and then the internet for possible videos or further tips. I know that the internet can be hit-or-miss depending upon where the information is coming from, but getting the basics down from the previously mentioned sources, allows me to more easily recognize good info online and weed out the rest.
Truth be told, in this instance I really didn’t want to try to hunt down a computer service manual, so I cheated a bit and went straight to the internet. I typed in the make and model of the computer and its symptoms and started doing searches. In a few minutes, I learned that some others suffered the same problem and the origin was the LED LCD connector cable going bad.
Further searches revealed videos on how to tear down the computer, replace the cable and reassemble it. The part itself cost me about $10, so I ordered one. Once it arrived, I chose what I thought was the most comprehensive video and went to work. It took a good portion of a Sunday, because I was trying to be really careful.
Employing some of the same basic techniques and tools (the smaller ones) used to work on cars, I felt I had at least a fighting chance at success. Zip-lock bags for hardware usually used for the cars were replaced with masking tape folded over to trap the tiny hardware. I then wrote what was in it on the outside. I proceeded slowly and took a few digital photos to aid my memory for reassembly. I used a light touch to avoid breaking anything and I made sure I didn’t try to force anything back together if it wasn’t going easily. I plugged the plugs in gingerly and routed the wires the way they were when the computer came apart. I even realized where the video inadvertently skipped a step and also forgot to tell me about an additional screw that needed to be removed.
In order to get to the cable and replace it, the computer had to be taken almost completely apart. Of course I didn’t think to take a photo of how apart it was, since I didn’t realize at the time that it could be used for a blog comparing it to concerns many of us have regarding working on certain aspects of our cars.
Fortunately, the operation was a success and the computer now works as good as new. If you have qualms about working on your own car, approach it in a manner in which you perform some task in daily life that you know a lot about. I applied very basic working-on-the-car procedures to a broken computer. Bear in mind, this wasn’t a software issue where I would have been totally lost. It was a cable issue that I could at least relate to.
If you have basic mechanical aptitude and are willing to do the research required to learn how the job should be performed, there’s really nothing you can’t accomplish yourself on your vintage car, given the proper parts and the tools to install them.
Tell us about how you overcame your anxiety regarding performing particular tasks on your car, and what helped you through the process.
from Hemmings Daily - News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/1xfVmja
Sourced by CA DMV registration services online. Renew your registration online in only ten minutes. No DMV, no lines, no hassles, and no appointments needed. Visit Quik, Click, pay, and print your registration from home.
0 comments:
Post a Comment