Monday, August 16, 2010

Lightning damage?

Sara's desktop computer power supply blew, and the replacement I bought is also defective, so back to the store I go for yet another replacement PS.

Also, my much-beloved Asus EEE 1000HE no longer charges the battery. I swapped power supplies - battery continues to drop charge, even though the light is on and it says 'Charging'.

So I switched batteries with Sara - system still claims to be charging, amber light is on for the battery, which means it is charging, and it tells me I am on AC power and in high-performance mode. But it still does not charge the battery - the % charge remaining continues to count down.

If I remove the battery while the system is plugged into the wall, it shuts off. Ouch.

So - the battery is not the problem, neither is the charger, as I used two different ones plugged into two different wall sockets. That leaves the computer itself. Which I bought July 30, 2009. Yes, that was 1 year and 16 days ago. The warranty is expired.

Dammit.

So, since it cost me about $379 which is just over $1 per day, and I have used it quite a lot, I'm not too terribly upset about having to replace it with a faster model for less money (Acer makes a better version for $330), but it's a little bit irksome. Sending it off for repair would cost over half of the new system. I don't think I want to do that, I think I'll just hang onto it as a source of spare parts for Sara's which is the same model or nearly enough that it doesn't matter.