Ariel Millennium Thornton @arielmt@computerfairi.es

The most reliable computer I have today:

Well, crap. I can't even test if my HDD is good or not (I have a known-working I can reformat if it isn't), because both the FDD inside my laptop & the spare I recently picked up have spindle drive belts that either slipped off the motor or just lost too much elasticity to grip the motor's spindle. Worse, the FDD is a slim model with ribbon cables, & IDEK if off-brand replacements ever existed. (Using a USB FDD is out because USB didn't exist yet.)

@QuestForTori Same, though in my case it took decades to realize that's what I felt.

Fun fact: When laptops were thick-as-textbooks monsters, some manufacturers broke up the motherboard into a mainboard with modules sandwiched above. Toshiba did that to my laptop: 3 layers of 4 or 5 modules stacked behind all the peripherals & keyboard.

I had to spend the evening digging through everything again to convince myself that a hard drive problem isn't why I stopped the repair 16 years ago. (It went through an earthquake, & even though it was barely felt where I was, about 100 miles away, the utility power was messed up enough to kill the DC power-in module.)

I guess I shouldn't be too shy about the taped printout. How many things taped to the outside of a frequently-carried, frequently-shuffled plastic box survive almost a quarter century without a single edge peeling loose or corner turning up?

@pettancow Both, but especially the Scotch-taped Amy Squirrel; and you're right.

Put a giant black panel or posterboard in your lap while sitting in front of it, or rig one to hang from your neck or shoulders while standing in front of it, to minimize reflections.

Perk: If you can cover your face as well (& still see through it), it's a half decent privacy screen as well.

Almost.
?

And repaired! (I made it mine in 1998; don't judge.)

@azushark My favorites are the ones that promise to recover all the money lost in scams like this, that are literally just the same scam with different words.

I love the "horny people are X" toots @beth bot is doing.

@maxinered Is her apartment made of adobe, or is this a communal wifi?

@kyhwana A printer that prints new shinies? :3

It wouldn't have taken so long or been so worth it today if it wasn't my first laptop or one that runs Windows *without* Internet Explorer. (Yes, IE was actually optional back when I first got it.)

I'm excited to finish a PC repair that I started 16 1/2 years ago. I thought it would never happen.