I need a good boffin.

[Dr. Medulla]

Fucking laptop died on me. I can tell it’s a fried motherboard. It’s around five years old and I need it sooner than it would take to get fixed, so I guess I’m getting a new laptop today. It’s funny that getting a new computer rarely thrills me. I always get one begrudgingly and I’m irritated by the expense. I think the last time I was excited was my first iPad.

I went through something similar this week with my very old (16 year) laptop that I only use as an emergency backup to my desktop computer.

Video card was part of a consumer settlement for solder not holding properly on the board, so the display fails. YouTube University shows how to take it apart and use a torch or heat gun to try to get the solder to flow and make contact again, this is the 3rd time I've had to do it.

Looked around various sites and couldn't get too excited about anything that was out there. Mac's seem to be highly rated, but I'm still a Windows guy and I want integrated graphics, no more graphics chip/card to fail.

As jaundiced as I am towards Apple, it’s what I know, so that’s what I continue with. I ended up paying more than I wanted because the basic model I wanted didn’t have enough storage. At least the stuff in stock, and I couldn’t really wait for a delivery. So I had to go a step up and get a better laptop than I need. Luckily I had done a backup early this morning, so I won’t have lost anything at all. And once it’s all done, I’ll break into the old laptop and remove the drive and get a case for it. Never hurts to have another 256GB drive, y’know?

[revbob]

Fucking laptop died on me. I can tell it’s a fried motherboard. It’s around five years old and I need it sooner than it would take to get fixed, so I guess I’m getting a new laptop today. It’s funny that getting a new computer rarely thrills me. I always get one begrudgingly and I’m irritated by the expense. I think the last time I was excited was my first iPad.

I went through something similar this week with my very old (16 year) laptop that I only use as an emergency backup to my desktop computer.

Video card was part of a consumer settlement for solder not holding properly on the board, so the display fails. YouTube University shows how to take it apart and use a torch or heat gun to try to get the solder to flow and make contact again, this is the 3rd time I've had to do it.

Looked around various sites and couldn't get too excited about anything that was out there. Mac's seem to be highly rated, but I'm still a Windows guy and I want integrated graphics, no more graphics chip/card to fail.

As jaundiced as I am towards Apple, it’s what I know, so that’s what I continue with. I ended up paying more than I wanted because the basic model I wanted didn’t have enough storage. At least the stuff in stock, and I couldn’t really wait for a delivery. So I had to go a step up and get a better laptop than I need. Luckily I had done a backup early this morning, so I won’t have lost anything at all. And once it’s all done, I’ll break into the old laptop and remove the drive and get a case for it. Never hurts to have another 256GB drive, y’know?

Its those damn hobo usb drives you keep putting in there.

Pretty much anytime you need to replace something major you either are going to overspend or regret thst you got something that isn't quite good enough.

We had a fridge die during the summer like 15 years ago on a Saturday. Nobody fixes stuff like that anymore, stores have very limited inventory and the lead time for a replacement is often a week or so. Then you get limited by dimensions etc. We found what seemed like a nice albeit expensive unit that we could get delivered the next day. Hooray for us. Well that ended up dying a few years later after the warranty ended and so the cylce repeated. Knock on wood the new one is holding up.

I hate buying big ticket items. I accidentally knocked my laptop on the floor a few weeks ago and it broke the corner hinge and the plastic it mounts to so it is no longer portable as I can't close it. I'll keep it running for a bit but should probably look at replacing it at some point. But I had to get a new computer for my son to take to college and I just finished paying for that. Oh the joy.

[Dr. Medulla]

Its those damn hobo usb drives you keep putting in there.

That laptop has been celibate for a good year now. Maybe that's what killed it.

Pretty much anytime you need to replace something major you either are going to overspend or regret thst you got something that isn't quite good enough.

Yeah, my fear was that given the newness of the Mac, 256GB for storage wouldn't cut it. As is, the old one usually hovered around 25GB free, so I felt obliged to get 512 this time around. But Costco was out of stock on the 512s, so I had to go to the Macbook Pro, which is better than I need. If I could have waited, I could have ordered one, but there were files on the laptop I needed immediately, and the back-up is encoded, so I wouldn't be able to just plug it on another computer to pull them off. The Boss is pretty lax on these things. She doesn't stew like I do, so she just told me to bite the bullet and that over the course of a few years, it won't matter. She's right, but my mood over the whole thing was already sour, so paying more was one more irritation.

We had a fridge die during the summer like 15 years ago on a Saturday. Nobody fixes stuff like that anymore, stores have very limited inventory and the lead time for a replacement is often a week or so. Then you get limited by dimensions etc. We found what seemed like a nice albeit expensive unit that we could get delivered the next day. Hooray for us. Well that ended up dying a few years later after the warranty ended and so the cylce repeated. Knock on wood the new one is holding up.

We had that situation last year. The condenser went and it was a pick 'em to fix or replace. The repair guy recommended getting it fixed, saying that that's the only big part that'll fail anyway, so there wasn't much advantage to replacing the whole fridge if we were happy with it.

I hate buying big ticket items. I accidentally knocked my laptop on the floor a few weeks ago and it broke the corner hinge and the plastic it mounts to so it is no longer portable as I can't close it. I'll keep it running for a bit but should probably look at replacing it at some point. But I had to get a new computer for my son to take to college and I just finished paying for that. Oh the joy.

I will admit that I'm glad to be rid of that laptop as it was a problem very early on. The keyboard was dicey—the ink rubbed off most of the keys, it had the habit of repeating randomly—and the outer seal started coming off, so I taped it down with electrician's tape. It was a dud in construction. I'm not someone who needs things to be perfect, tho, so I chugged along, but it was a device that demanded a lot.

[Sparky]

Fucking laptop died on me. I can tell it’s a fried motherboard. It’s around five years old and I need it sooner than it would take to get fixed, so I guess I’m getting a new laptop today. It’s funny that getting a new computer rarely thrills me. I always get one begrudgingly and I’m irritated by the expense. I think the last time I was excited was my first iPad.

I went through something similar this week with my very old (16 year) laptop that I only use as an emergency backup to my desktop computer.

Video card was part of a consumer settlement for solder not holding properly on the board, so the display fails. YouTube University shows how to take it apart and use a torch or heat gun to try to get the solder to flow and make contact again, this is the 3rd time I've had to do it.

Looked around various sites and couldn't get too excited about anything that was out there. Mac's seem to be highly rated, but I'm still a Windows guy and I want integrated graphics, no more graphics chip/card to fail.

As jaundiced as I am towards Apple, it’s what I know, so that’s what I continue with. I ended up paying more than I wanted because the basic model I wanted didn’t have enough storage. At least the stuff in stock, and I couldn’t really wait for a delivery. So I had to go a step up and get a better laptop than I need. Luckily I had done a backup early this morning, so I won’t have lost anything at all. And once it’s all done, I’ll break into the old laptop and remove the drive and get a case for it. Never hurts to have another 256GB drive, y’know?

Its those damn hobo usb drives you keep putting in there.

Pretty much anytime you need to replace something major you either are going to overspend or regret thst you got something that isn't quite good enough.

We had a fridge die during the summer like 15 years ago on a Saturday. Nobody fixes stuff like that anymore, stores have very limited inventory and the lead time for a replacement is often a week or so. Then you get limited by dimensions etc. We found what seemed like a nice albeit expensive unit that we could get delivered the next day. Hooray for us. Well that ended up dying a few years later after the warranty ended and so the cylce repeated. Knock on wood the new one is holding up.

I hate buying big ticket items. I accidentally knocked my laptop on the floor a few weeks ago and it broke the corner hinge and the plastic it mounts to so it is no longer portable as I can't close it. I'll keep it running for a bit but should probably look at replacing it at some point. But I had to get a new computer for my son to take to college and I just finished paying for that. Oh the joy.

I can relate, our microwave and fridge both had to be replaced last year.

The mw lasted about 12+ years, then blaht! it failed one night. Fridge had an extended warranty and the fan that circulates air from the freezer to the fridge to cool things failed with less than 30 days to go on the warranty, so they replaced it, but we lost some food. It struggled to keep things in the cold range, so we replaced it before it failed completely.

Asked the repair technician "who makes a good fridge" and he said nobody! For that kind of money, you'd think 10 - 15 years would be a reasonable lifetime, but I guess not.

[Dr. Medulla]

Asked the repair technician "who makes a good fridge" and he said nobody! For that kind of money, you'd think 10 - 15 years would be a reasonable lifetime, but I guess not.

Ha! My parents had an old fridge in the basement—overflow storage kind of thing—from the 1950s. It had the child deathtrap door with a latching handle that could only be opened on the outside. Fucker lasted 40+ years.

But when I asked our repair guy about replacing the fridge, the other thing he said was that if we do, don't go with LG. "Complete garbage" was his phrase.

[Sparky]

Asked the repair technician "who makes a good fridge" and he said nobody! For that kind of money, you'd think 10 - 15 years would be a reasonable lifetime, but I guess not.

Ha! My parents had an old fridge in the basement—overflow storage kind of thing—from the 1950s. It had the child deathtrap door with a latching handle that could only be opened on the outside. Fucker lasted 40+ years.

But when I asked our repair guy about replacing the fridge, the other thing he said was that if we do, don't go with LG. "Complete garbage" was his phrase.

We had an GE, then LG, GE again, went back to LG, even Consumer Reports says they don't last anymore.
The LG's are supposed to have a 10 year warranty on the "linear compressor", ours didn't fail, the motherboard did.

[Dr. Medulla]

Asked the repair technician "who makes a good fridge" and he said nobody! For that kind of money, you'd think 10 - 15 years would be a reasonable lifetime, but I guess not.

Ha! My parents had an old fridge in the basement—overflow storage kind of thing—from the 1950s. It had the child deathtrap door with a latching handle that could only be opened on the outside. Fucker lasted 40+ years.

But when I asked our repair guy about replacing the fridge, the other thing he said was that if we do, don't go with LG. "Complete garbage" was his phrase.

We had an GE, then LG, GE again, went back to LG, even Consumer Reports says they don't last anymore.
The LG's are supposed to have a 10 year warranty on the "linear compressor", ours didn't fail, the motherboard did.

We have a KitchenAid. I think it's about 15 years old (came with the house, which we bought 9 years ago).

[Sparky]

Asked the repair technician "who makes a good fridge" and he said nobody! For that kind of money, you'd think 10 - 15 years would be a reasonable lifetime, but I guess not.

Ha! My parents had an old fridge in the basement—overflow storage kind of thing—from the 1950s. It had the child deathtrap door with a latching handle that could only be opened on the outside. Fucker lasted 40+ years.

But when I asked our repair guy about replacing the fridge, the other thing he said was that if we do, don't go with LG. "Complete garbage" was his phrase.

We had an GE, then LG, GE again, went back to LG, even Consumer Reports says they don't last anymore.
The LG's are supposed to have a 10 year warranty on the "linear compressor", ours didn't fail, the motherboard did.

We have a KitchenAid. I think it's about 15 years old (came with the house, which we bought 9 years ago).

15 years! Probably going to last forever because it's the last of the "when they used to made shit that works" era.

[Dr. Medulla]

Asked the repair technician "who makes a good fridge" and he said nobody! For that kind of money, you'd think 10 - 15 years would be a reasonable lifetime, but I guess not.

Ha! My parents had an old fridge in the basement—overflow storage kind of thing—from the 1950s. It had the child deathtrap door with a latching handle that could only be opened on the outside. Fucker lasted 40+ years.

But when I asked our repair guy about replacing the fridge, the other thing he said was that if we do, don't go with LG. "Complete garbage" was his phrase.

We had an GE, then LG, GE again, went back to LG, even Consumer Reports says they don't last anymore.
The LG's are supposed to have a 10 year warranty on the "linear compressor", ours didn't fail, the motherboard did.

We have a KitchenAid. I think it's about 15 years old (came with the house, which we bought 9 years ago).

15 years! Probably going to last forever because it's the last of the "when they used to made shit that works" era.

Not sure I'd call 2008 the quality-control era!

[Sparky]

Ha! My parents had an old fridge in the basement—overflow storage kind of thing—from the 1950s. It had the child deathtrap door with a latching handle that could only be opened on the outside. Fucker lasted 40+ years.

But when I asked our repair guy about replacing the fridge, the other thing he said was that if we do, don't go with LG. "Complete garbage" was his phrase.

We had an GE, then LG, GE again, went back to LG, even Consumer Reports says they don't last anymore.
The LG's are supposed to have a 10 year warranty on the "linear compressor", ours didn't fail, the motherboard did.

We have a KitchenAid. I think it's about 15 years old (came with the house, which we bought 9 years ago).

15 years! Probably going to last forever because it's the last of the "when they used to made shit that works" era.

Not sure I'd call 2008 the quality-control era!

I can only dream of our current appliances lasting that long!

[Dr. Medulla]

We had an GE, then LG, GE again, went back to LG, even Consumer Reports says they don't last anymore.
The LG's are supposed to have a 10 year warranty on the "linear compressor", ours didn't fail, the motherboard did.

We have a KitchenAid. I think it's about 15 years old (came with the house, which we bought 9 years ago).

15 years! Probably going to last forever because it's the last of the "when they used to made shit that works" era.

Not sure I'd call 2008 the quality-control era!

I can only dream of our current appliances lasting that long!

Actually, all the appliances we inherited with the house have lasted. We replaced the dishwasher a couple years ago, but that was only because we found it overly loud and slow.

[revbob]

We have a KitchenAid. I think it's about 15 years old (came with the house, which we bought 9 years ago).

15 years! Probably going to last forever because it's the last of the "when they used to made shit that works" era.

Not sure I'd call 2008 the quality-control era!

I can only dream of our current appliances lasting that long!

Actually, all the appliances we inherited with the house have lasted. We replaced the dishwasher a couple years ago, but that was only because we found it overly loud and slow.

My biggest gripe is with washing machines. They've packed them with so many sensors, interlocks etc that they take too damn long, they malfunction too easily.

[Dr. Medulla]

15 years! Probably going to last forever because it's the last of the "when they used to made shit that works" era.

Not sure I'd call 2008 the quality-control era!

I can only dream of our current appliances lasting that long!

Actually, all the appliances we inherited with the house have lasted. We replaced the dishwasher a couple years ago, but that was only because we found it overly loud and slow.

My biggest gripe is with washing machines. They've packed them with so many sensors, interlocks etc that they take too damn long, they malfunction too easily.

Oh yeah. We’ve had our washing machine repaired twice in the past two years.

[oliver]

My biggest gripe is with washing machines. They've packed them with so many sensors, interlocks etc that they take too damn long, they malfunction too easily.

Yep... last washing machine I bought cost $600. Needs a new control board which comes in at $200 :/

[revbob]

My biggest gripe is with washing machines. They've packed them with so many sensors, interlocks etc that they take too damn long, they malfunction too easily.

Yep... last washing machine I bought cost $600. Needs a new control board which comes in at $200 :/

The markup on parts can often be ridiculous. I had to get new washers for my rental. I went thru a few new models and ultimately found a few used/refurbished old models without the bells and whistles but they are rock solid.