Saturday, March 15, 2003

Refurbished Computers

This morning I took my parents' computer apart to try and fix the power button.
Basically, the little, plastic disc with marked with the 0 with the 1 inside it is actually just a sort of cover for the actual button, which is a tiny, black, plastic box with a little shaft sticking out of it. When you press the botton-covery-thing, that pushes the little shaft into the box, creating a spark that somehow starts the computer up.
What seemed to have happened was that someone had pressed the button to hard, pressing the button into the computer and causing the cover to fall out. It was imposible to turn the computer on without sticking a pencil or somthing in.
So I took the front of the computer and a whole heap of little pits of folded up apper fell out. I had no idea why. I fitted it all back together. But when I tested the button it fell apart again. Noticed the part that was meant to hold the button in plce had been broken. Decided to superglue it in. Couldn't find superglue.
So I decided to call my parents and find out if there was actually any superglue in the house. The answer was no; Mum doesn't like it. But I did find out why there was paper inside the computer. Justin had tried to use it to hold the switch in.
Anyway, I went up to the supermarket and got some five-minute araldyte, mixed it up, and used that to stick the switch back in. You're probably not meant to do that, but it works now.