It's not my fault...

[el_exigente]

It's been an eventful week or two of technology. Over the weekend, my laptop died a terrible death. It's really just the wrong time of year and the product cycle to deal with that. As far as I can tell, the mainboard has a bad solder joint. I pulled the hard drive and sent the laptop to corporate IT for evaluation. Other good news -- it failed

Comments

[zanfur]

If it's actually just a bad solder joint, I can fix that for you. I have the equipment, and used to do such things for a living.

[el_exigente]

The original kit uses vampire taps and crimp connectors. I hate vampires. The problem wasn't a *bad* solder joint, it was *no* solder joint. I've been doing electronics work since I was a kid, but it's an adventure to use a hot iron under a dash (see the lower pictures) no matter how small an iron used. I did it, anyway, with a lot of cardboard and care. The spade lugs are definitely on now and the joints are solid. At this point, bad connections would be in the box itself, which is a warranty issue.

[el_exigente]

Oh. You meant the laptop. :) Nah, the laptop belongs to the Mighty-M -- up to the corporation to deal with it. If it were *my* laptop, I'd certainly be reviewing my options in that department. ;)

[zanfur]

Yeah, the laptop. I'm amazingly good with soldering chips and the like onto surface-mount boards, but when it comes to soldering simple *wires* together, I am made of fail...oh well. Yay for work-owned equipment!

[el_exigente]

Surface mount stuff is impressive; even when I have access to the right equipment, I have no skill with surface mount. "Hey, what's that silver blob in the middle of... oh..." :)

[ladybriggan]

This is why I don't modify Ronin; and keep an extended warranty.

Though I am starting to like the idea of -some- modifications, heh.