The undead laptop computer

[Winter_Wolf]

"The Beast"* is back from the dead, apparently. I bought a Sager/Midern NP5950 (Clevo M590K rebranded, essentially) which lasted me until just about literally the day after the warranty expired.In August 2008. I couldn't fix it myself, and the Geek Squad was 100% useless. The company I bought it from said they'd charge me $500 just to look at it, and I said for that price I could just buy a new computer, which I did.

NOW, for some reason I decided to brush off the dust of several years sitting under my bed and fiddle with it. Fiddling consisted mostly of repeatedly swapping the two nVidia 7900 GTX cards back and forth, which did nothing, until the time when I put it all together to shove back under my bed. IT BOOTED UP and has been running fine for the past two days. Well, after the initial hiccup with a clean install of WinXP Pro.

*I call it "The Beast" because it's about 14.55 pounds, wider across than my forearm is long, and was at the time a very high end laptop. Now it's a relic, and it smells a little moldy when it's running. For what I paid for it, I could buy at least three Intel quad-core laptops with respectable graphics and storage. I didn't actually DO anything other than repeatedly pull/push vid cards into their slots. It was well and truly dead and would not even boot up a couple years ago. It's on life support now: using a Cryo LX heatsink/fan cooling system and the Fn+1 key "max fans" setting.

All this from, "well it's been a couple years and I can't possibly break it worse than 'not working' unless I catch it on fire. Might as well poke around." I fully expect it to crap out again in the not too distant future, but I'm still a little--nay, a LOT--surprised.

[mootoall]

Neat. I once had a Furby that, despite me removing the batteries, would continue speaking. /non-sequiter accomplished

[Winter_Wolf]

I've heard about those things. Oddly enough, not once has anyone ever said anything good about them. Apparently they're unnatural and evil, yes? Dolls in general are evil.

As it happened, I staked my old Beast through the CPU (or possibly the GPUs, maybe the mobo) and put it back under the bed. About 30 seconds into character creation of NWN 1, and it rebooted. None of the temps were very high, so I guess something shorted out. Oddly this coincides with about the time that it stopped emitting the moldy odor. I guess the mold was acting to do whatever needed done on the inside circuits until it got burned out.

Ah, well. The Beast was an unholy thing when it booted up and functioned for as long as it did. If I actually knew which parts were good and which were faulty, I'd salvage parts and sell them on eBay. I can't in good conscience say to people, "As is. You have a 50/50 shot that it actually works and isn't mold infested scrap."

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Nah, put it on ebay. Just say, straight up: "There's a 50-50 chance it won't work."

See if it's bought.

FOR SCIENCE

[Dr.Epic]

Undead computer!? Quick! Get a cleric to turn undead. After all, clerics are PCs.:smallwink:

[mootoall]

Nah, put it on ebay. Just say, straight up: "There's a 50-50 chance it won't work."

See if it's bought.

FOR SCIENCE

I have a feeling it will be, y'know? Put it on for a reasonable price (let's say 1/10th of what you payed for it), see what happens.

[Ravens_cry]

Undead computer!? Quick! Get a cleric to turn undead. After all, clerics are PCs.:smallwink:
As a fellow punster, I salute you.:smallamused:

[Runestar]

What laptop weighs more than 6 kilograms, and what exactly was the point of marketing it as a laptop again? :smallconfused:

[Winter_Wolf]

What laptop weighs more than 6 kilograms, and what exactly was the point of marketing it as a laptop again? :smallconfused:

I think they might have been marketing it as a "desktop replacement" which apparently is the code word for "really really heavy semi-portable computer". I also made a critical error in not realizing just how big a 19" widescreen laptop would actually be. Looking back, it probably would have been wiser to get the other model which was a single nVidia 7950 with a dual core Intel.

Dr. Epic, Y U hurt me with your puns? Winter Wolf takes 1d6 pun damage. :smallbiggrin:

[The Succubus]

Don't mock heavy laptops. My Alienware M17 weighs an absolute ton but you'd have to pry it from my cold dead fingers.

That said however, my faithful beast is getting old now and can only handle Skyrim on minimum settings. I need a desktop now that I have a flat and am just wondering what sort of gaming rig I could get for about £1,500.

[tyckspoon]

That said however, my faithful beast is getting old now and can only handle Skyrim on minimum settings. I need a desktop now that I have a flat and am just wondering what sort of gaming rig I could get for about £1,500.

Pretty damn good. US $800 or so will get you capable of anything on the market; hopping up to $1200ish will get you just below absolute top of the line (the absolute top of the line, of course, has like a $300 or more markup on every single piece and so costs another 1500 or so to combine into one system.) Not sure what pricing is like in Europe for computer parts, but unless it's completely terrible like Australian pricing you probably won't have to get near tapping out that budget to get a satisfactory system (well.. depending on your confidence in assembling parts/having a friend who can do the assembly for you. Buying a prebuilt will eat some portion of the potential cost savings depending on who you order from.)

[Pika...]

Neat. I once had a Furby that, despite me removing the batteries, would continue speaking. /non-sequiter accomplished

Um.......

How is that possible???

I mean, no power = no power, right?

Still cool, though.

[Winter_Wolf]

I think that Teddy Ruxpin had the same kind of issues. Maybe there's a lithium battery tucked away somewhere inside those and Furbies.

Or maybe those things really are possessed by evil spirits.

So we have:
Chucky = the god of evil possessed children toys
Furbies
Teddy Ruxpin
Hina dolls (http://www.japanarts.jp/archives/2007/03/hina_dollheian_bina.html)
Clown (http://www.clown-ministry.com/index_1.php/articles/bozo_the_clown_ventriloquist_doll/) dolls (http://www.horrorsociety.com/2011/11/02/cant-sleep-clown-will-eat-me-you-too-can-scar-your-children-for-life/)
Marionettes
These gawdawful things (http://www.susanscustomcreepydolls.com/morecreepydolls.html)

Yeah. :smallannoyed: Hey I know it's fun to scar young children for life, but we have to remember that eventually they're going to grow up and be running things.

If anyone ever tries to give my child any of those things, I will consider it an act of extreme aggression. Plushy Cthulhu (http://www.toyvault.com/cthulhu/index.html) is far less harmful to a child's mind.

[Flickerdart]

My mother dropped an old camera of mine, ruining the lens - it would only capture weird noise. After a year or so, I decided to take the thing apart and see if I could do something with the parts that still worked, so I turned the thing back on to get an idea of what was still working. In the middle of going through the functions (image capture, view, etc - not changing settings) the camera started capturing properly again.

ALIENS.

[Gullintanni]

Don't mock heavy laptops. My Alienware M17 weighs an absolute ton but you'd have to pry it from my cold dead fingers.

That said however, my faithful beast is getting old now and can only handle Skyrim on minimum settings. I need a desktop now that I have a flat and am just wondering what sort of gaming rig I could get for about £1,500.

QFT. My ASUS G73JH is my baby. The form factor is perfect. If I could, I'd just swap out the parts and keep the chassis til the end of time.

[Dr.Epic]

Dr. Epic, Y U hurt me with your puns? Winter Wolf takes 1d6 pun damage. :smallbiggrin:

Hey, my favorite Marvel superhero is The PUN-isher after all.:smallwink:

[Deth Muncher]

Hey, my favorite Marvel superhero is The PUN-isher after all.:smallwink:

I'm going to PUNch you.

/derail

Seriously though, if you're not doing anything with the laptop and its on its last legs, hock it. I grow too attached to things I should really just sell - don't let it happen to you! Learn from me! Save yourseeeeeeeeeeelf!!!!~

[bluewind95]

Um.......

How is that possible???

I mean, no power = no power, right?

Still cool, though.

Really, really, REALLY good capacitors? I know an old tamagotchi of mine would function for about 30 seconds without a battery... it was awesome cos it didn't have to "die" when the batteries needed changing.