Please pray for my poor laptop!
Just this morning a vertical line appeared on the monitor. I asked one of our techie-friars about it. He asked how old my laptop is. . .five years. . .he shook his head, "Probably gonna die soon."
NOOOO!!! I have to finish the semester and get my book manuscript in. . .
So, pray! Please.
Just this morning a vertical line appeared on the monitor. I asked one of our techie-friars about it. He asked how old my laptop is. . .five years. . .he shook his head, "Probably gonna die soon."
NOOOO!!! I have to finish the semester and get my book manuscript in. . .
So, pray! Please.
You might want to check your virus situation as well. There are always an extra number of them attacking computers on April 1st.
ReplyDeleteIf it is still possible, back up your hard disk data first, and than pray ...
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should put a new laptop on your wish list?
ReplyDelete(written on a 1997 HP Pavilion that is managing to hang on).
I'm Praying for you fr. have you considered perhaps having your hard drive backed up on another machine just in case? if you can manage just a moment to glance at the screen just grabbing the research and putting it on some removable storage would be good. if its just a monitor problem, im sure that in a worst case scenario, someone at an electronics store like best buy could probably recover the data for you. I dont know how much access you have to that but do take care to get a backup soon and God bless!
ReplyDeleteFather, make sure you backup you important documents!!! Don't wait until its too late.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, Father. A line on your screen shouldn't be fatal. It's a problem with flat screens. A computer-savvy friend once told me that it happens when the screen is kept in one configuration for too long. I don't know how far that's true; maybe it's good to have a screen saver to exercise the screen (?).
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of an identical problem I had with a laptop when working in the field. I used the computer with several missing lines for months before getting the screen replaced.
Back up at carbonite.com or mozy.com (for macs)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the prayers!
ReplyDeleteI have the book manuscript stored on two flash drives and on-line. My homilies are all posted here. There's not much else on the laptop that I'm concerned about...basically, all I do with the laptop is composed homilies, writes papers for classes, and blog/email. Pretty boring, actually!
I've seen this a few times. Usually this means that the cable that runs from the LCD panel to the connection on the laptop's motherboard is faulty (or loose). Most of the time this comes from years of heat generated by the processor, hence it's a common problem on older laptops. Most likely the system will continue to function just fine. I would caution against doing anything like opening the case and jiggling the wires (i've done this, usually it just makes it worse). Unfortunately, in the event the monitor does die it would probably be about the same cost to just get a new system. The good news is that even the bargain basement $299 or $399 systems are about 4x-6x as powerful as ones from 5 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI will likely put the average price of a new laptop in my 2009-10 academic year budget...and try to buy a new one while I am in the ststes this summer. I really don't want to buy a new one here in Italy b/c the keyboards are different!
ReplyDeleteI echo Sir Francis and Matt G - the monitor is going out, but your data should be fine. God forbid that you wake up one day and the monitor is completely gone - if it does, simply hook up a CRT (traditional full sized) or LCD (flatscreen) monitor to the external VGA (monitor) port on your laptop. If you are running a Dell monitor, holding the Fn button while tapping the F8 button with 2-5 second pauses between taps should cause your computer screen to appear on that external monitor. On other models, you'll need to look for one of the function buttons that has an icon on it that looks like a monitor or says LCD/CRT in bold text on the button. Perform the same action as with a Dell laptop(hold Fn button plus function key for the monitor) and you should be able to get your laptop running with an external computer monitor.
ReplyDeletePax,
Joshua D.
I just love Geeks! :-)
ReplyDelete(technically, I'm a nerd)
Anyway, thanks guys for all the great advice...if my book does well I will likely shift to a Mac since they have better software for publishing...keep in mind: all I ever do on this laptop is write papers, check email, and blog.