Repairing my own laptop
This was a short but sweet project — very empowering. For years I have owned a Dell Precision M4300. It is not a sexy computer by today’s standards, but it has a very large screen, comfortable keyboard, runs fast, and has all the ports I need. Therefore, no reason to replace it. I figured at […]
Saving the TiVo
A couple of weeks ago, I started hearing some funny noises from our Series3 HD TiVo. Sort of like an engine periodically revving up then stopping. I said to my husband, “The cooling fan is going bad.” But we ignored it and eventually the noise went away. Until, a few days ago, the TiVo got stuck at […]
Replacing an ethernet cable jack
A week ago my 4 year-old daughter bounced on the bed and knocked off my laptop. The laptop was fine, but the ethernet cable had some minor damage. The plastic tab on the RJ-45 plug, which holds it in the computer socket, snapped off. At first, this didn’t seem like a big deal. The cable still worked well. […]