Computers

I just got off the phone after 2 hours and 15 minutes of working with Dell about my laptop computer. That is after an hour of being on the phone with them yesterday. And after being on the phone with them on Monday for an hour. The LCD screen back light went out and the computer is under warranty.

I think it is actually the power supply to the back light, because I can get the screen to light for several seconds, but the light goes out. If the brightness of the LCD is kept to a minimum (think watching a very dark screen at the bottom of a cave), then you can watch the LCD screen on my laptop.

The Dell service person asked me to remove this plate, then remove some screws and then the keyboard. Then unplug/replug the main LCD feed cable, put the computer back together and see if that fixes it (no), I did this same procedure with three different people. Then go through diagnostics buried in the computer, then hook up an extra monitor to make sure it works (testing the video card). After that, go through Dell remote assistance so he can check my settings to make sure that no setting is causing the problem.

After all that, he then agrees that I have a bad LCD back light. My computer will be fixed tomorrow night. For now, I will use my computer with an external monitor.

I realize they do not want to give away parts, but we had the service call number and they could see what I was asked to do in the previous two calls. The other thing they do not know, is my aptitude at fixing things.

This is the second laptop computer where the LCD back light went bad. I will be trying to get my company to let me buy or provide an external monitor to maximize the LCD life.

I enjoy the

technical side of life sometimes, to the dismay of K occasionally. Recently, I stumbled onto a discussion about Moore's Law (think computer speed doubling in ~24-36 months).

Personally, I found it interesting that people would track certain things to extrapolate what they should be seeing in the future. Anyway, this discussion was interesing to me.

Stuff Happens

Seems my weekends have been filled with fixing autos lately. A's car had a problem, then another problem, now all fixed, then it was time for the timing belt for my VW. That took all day Saturday of last weekend.

On the way home this week, while out traveling on business, the Passat started to make a ticking noise. Not too loud, but loud enough. This was as I was coming through the mountains in TN/NC. The oil was fresh from a change, changed every 4-5000 miles by using synthetic.

I investigated the noise but could find nothing. By the time the trip was over, the engine was running roughly. The car had 60K on the spark plugs, so I thought that might cause the rough running. I pulled the spark plugs and changed them, did not fix the problem.

So a compression test was done, and the #5 cylinder showed 0 compression. Not good, especially when cylinders 4 and 6 had over 200PSI. I popped off the valve cover gasket to find the center intake valve lifter to not be touching the cam. The cam also looked like this:



The cam should look smooth, not rough around the edges. Seems a valve lifter failed. Tomorrow I will remove the cylinder head to see if there is more damage. It appears not, but you never know. After the head is off, the true picture will unfold.

The off to work on K's van.

Wow, just wow

I read this today and thought, this is amazing. Bravery on multiple fronts.

http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2007/09/army_rpg_moss_070922w/