Wednesday, February 27, 2008

H-E-L-P

Over the past several months, I have noticed that the monitor on my laptop seems to be red when I first turn the computer on. Then it slowly "fades" into view. And finally is completely bright--a nice cheery LCD monitor.

Well, a couple of days ago, after I undocked it, the screen suddenly went black. PANIC. So I re-docked it, and the LCD shone as brightly as ever.

Then, yesterday, I took the laptop to a meeting, opened and turned it on. . .and it slowly faded to black.

Brought it back home, docked it and it was fine. It seemed to be when I closed it, while undocked, and reopened it, was when the problem occurred.

Well, last night, the LCD screen faded to black and stayed. . .that. . .way.

GASP. Air, I need air. Stand back. H-E-L-P!

Well, that woke me up early, and now am using my husband's computer that will soon be going to work with him.

Next steps? Stay tuned.
-------------------------
QUICK UPDATE
My husband went shopping, first on the Internet, then to a store that sells office supplies. There he purchased an external monitor, which I set up this afternoon, so I am now back on the Internet. The next step will be to call the manufacturer of my laptop--the replacement for IBM--and see what it would take to fix it, and where it needs to go to be fixed.

9 comments:

Mary said...

I break out in a sweat when things like that happen to mine.

My daughter's laptop was only two years old when the monitor died. It would have cost more to fix it than to buy a new one.

Anonymous said...

My monitor went after 4 years and didn't know it at the time but I now remember it happening when I accidentally also dropped it (caught with my foot). I had to use the laptop with my desktop monitor for a few months until I had enough money to get a new laptop! Doesn't sound good my friend!

Kathryn and Ari said...

Hi!
I wish I could help with computers, but I am so useless!

Thanks for your very lovely note on my blog. I so intrigued and delighted by yours: it's great to meet you!

Beverly said...

I don't know either. My laptop is almost 6 years old, and so far so good, as far as the monitor goes. Some other things have died.

I'll be interested in hearing what happens.

Climenheise said...

When we were on sabbatical in Zimbabwe, we took along a laptop. The monitor quit in Bulawayo. A local computer shop identified the problem -- but of course, there were no parts to fix it. So for two months until we were back in Johannesburg we borrowed monitors and hooked up the laptop to use it.

Then in Joburg we took it to a shop. They sent it off to the Hewlett-Packard centre in the Mid Rand, who charged us 500 Rand (about $80) to diagnose the problem. Soon we got a call that they could fix it for another 2,000 Rand (a further $350) almost what we had paid for this used laptop in the first place. We said, "No thanks. Just give us the computer back, and we'll borrow monitors."

When we got it back, the monitor worked fine! I think the technician must have assumed we would want it fixed, fixed it when he diagnosed it, and not bothered to unfix it when we decided to accept the diagnosis only. So we got it repaired at a reasonable rate, and it's still working more than four years later.

JeanMac said...

Mine is doing same thing this week

Cathy said...

Ddnna! Gasp - doesn't BEGIN to cover my reaction. OMG.

Thanks for sharing. This reminds me that I haven't back up some files in a loooong time.

Mary said...

I had a scare today, too. I love computers until they disappoint me... Glad you are back in business.

Ruth said...

I have been very, very lucky with computers since I bought my first one in 1992..."touch wood"! I am still using my Mac Performa we bought in 1995, but not for the internet. I have a couple of older, very slow laptops around the house.