Thought I was home free...
...but it wouldn't really be 1L year without a freakout, now would it?Around 8:30 this evening, my laptop stopped taking a charge. Cue the GIANT FUCKING FREAKOUT.
So, I madly threw everything in a bag and hauled it into the Geek Squad guys at Best Buy. Their conclusion? The cord is fine, and my battery is fine, which means that it's the AC port--in other words, the worst possible thing it could be, since they could have fixed the other crap.
So, in tears (very rare for the Lioness....including this time, I've cried 13 times in my life that I can remember. I'm not a crier.) I called my dad who gets me numbers for the one day fix it places in Austin. So instead of studying for my crim law final tomorrow, I get to traipse around town getting my computer fixed.
Right now, its decided to take a charge again. Who knows how long that will last. In the meantime, if anyone has an extegrity-registered computer that they won't be using at 8:30 am on Wednesday, please shoot me an e-mail. I'd love to have the backup option of borrowing it.
posted by The Lioness @ 7:51 PM
5 Comments:
If it's a Dell and stopped taking a charge, mine got really finicky like that my 1L year. I had to position the cord, when it was plugged into the adapter in the computer, at a very sharp angle. Try fiddling around with that (if you haven't), because I definitely took my contracts final with a book shoved under my computer to put the cord at the precise angle.
FWIW, Apple has (last time I checked) a 14-day (at least) no-questions-asked return policy, with (I think) something like a 5% restocking fee -- so you could always go grab the cheap iBook and use it for finals in a pinch, I would think ...would cost what, $50? ;) Who knows, you may end up liking it.
Or, alternatively, if it really is the AC cord, you have a couple options (esp. if it's an Apple):
1. find someone else's computer that's the same model, swap batteries, and use the other computer to charge your battery before your exam
2. go buy an extra battery and a portable charger (things you could probably use anyway) and do the same
Those would both be stop-gap options until finals end and you can deal with the problem properly... and of course both assume that your battery can get through an exam on one charge; turning off your wireless/bluetooth (which you don't need anyway), taking CDs out of the drive, and maybe cranking down the brightness is usually enough to get my charge time from 3 hours up to 4+, which would be more than enough for an exam. Don't know if the same is true for you.
Good luck!
Thanks for the suggestions guys. It's an older model Dell laptop, which is why it's so problematic, and the problem really does appear to be the AC port, not the cord. Anon #1, that's exactly the problem I'm having.
The big issue here is not just having a computer...it's having an Extegrity-registered computer on which I can type my exams, since I'm a very slow handwriter. And you had to register your computer for Extegrity a few weeks ago.
Just an FYI: you have to sign up your own extegrity account a long while out, but you can download your account information to any computer at any time after that. I know someone who forgot her laptop at home, realized it ten minutes before the exam and downloaded her information to her roommate's computer which she used for the exam and it all worked out fine. It sounds like you have it all handled, but just in case someone you know runs into problems, all you really need is your own extegrity account and a laptop that can use the UT wireless.
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