💾 Archived View for magda.cities.yesterweb.org › gemlog › 2023-11-26.gmi captured on 2024-02-05 at 09:24:49. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-12-28)
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Yes, the headline is as ridiculous as the situation I'm currently in.
Last evening, I merely minded my own business and wanted to continue to work on this year's ecological summary. July is next on my list and, as far as I can tell, it won't be near as long as May and June and, for the most part, mentioning species that began to produce their respective second generations. Just wanting to get into the mood, I grabbed a pair of headphones to let some music get into my rhythm. Due to having an annoying tremor, however, I I did not aim for the AUX port but the USB 2.0 port right next to it.
The very loose contact was enough to instantly kill my laptop's power supply with an audible *plitch*. The power button became unresponsive and the laptop did not react to the charging cable; checking the USB port revealed nothing and lightly shaking (and hitting) the device did not lead to a reaction, either.
As I already was aware of the Asus suffering from power issues causing screen flickering that continued to get worse rather rapidly (first only happening at less than 30% charge, yesterday at 80% charge), I assumed that it was caused by a faulty power supply, though the sound it made when the AUX cord came in contact with the USB port, the possibility of a broken motherboard began to creep up.
As much as I loathe this device, I took the dead device downstairs, grabbed some screwdrivers, broke a plastic piece off the case in the process of opening the laptop, and checked everything that could be responsible for such a sudden behaviour. Upon checking the motherboard, a very tiny spot appeared slightly burned, yet everything else looked normal, albeit a little dusty (and stained due to my smoking habits). Deciding to test my initial hypothesis, I removed the battery and first had to struggle with those tiny screws that are way too small for my smallest screwdrivers and gave my hands a very hard time (at the time of wring this, the fingertips of my right index, middle and ring fingers still are fairly sore, making typing an unpleasant experience). While the battery didn't get bloated or demonstrated any physical damages, I put the plastic consisting of the keyboard and the touchpad back onto the case and tried my luck by plugging the charging cable in.
The laptop made its regular *beep* and briefly let its fan whirr. Pressing the power button boot the Asus into an error – Secure Boot, which I turned off before I installed Archcraft, automatically turned itself back on. For the sake of testing, I let this slide and instead let it boot Windows 10, revealing that it was the battery that finally got killed.
A new battery was ordered right away and likely will arrive next Tuesday or Wednesday. Meanwhile, I removed some dust from the interior, most notably the fan, which was covered in a relatively thick cover of dust. Funny enough, the grossest thing I discovered was a tiny, dead fly sticking to the only area covered in sticky cigarette stain. I still don't know how it got inside the case, given there's no hole large enough for it to have it allowed to crawl through, it nevertheless became the weirdest thing I'd find inside a laptop.
Just to make sure I didn't break anything during the cleaning session, I booted it one more time with its charging cable and was greeted with an unresponsive touchpad after booting into Archcraft. Whether I accidentally loosened one of its two connections or even broke either of them, the next test will have to wait until I inserted the new battery and changed my UEFI to its proper boot order again. (And even if I accidentally broke it, this one is less of an issue, as I still got a spare mouse and happen to not really like this paricular touchpad, anyway).
Before getting back to work with this device, I'll have to do some additional backups, thus making my Acer Aspire, which is actually meant to be more of a testing device, my main typing machine for... everything. Not necessarily ideal, as it also begins to show its age, but less stressful than sitting at my Medion tower on my desk, which is in dire need of a new office chair.
All in all, while I'm still up to my schedule, capsule updates will arrive slightly delayed for the time being. And getting those damn screws back into their places and properly closing the case will definitely be a nightmare of its own kind.