Well, that was interesting…

So, the few of you who check this blog occasionally may have noticed that it wasn’t there for a few days… Here’s the story:

I had Xgl/Compiz installed on my Linux box. When it’s running, it gives Unreal Tournament 2k4 graphics problems, so I decided to remove it. While removing it, I ran into various issues such that I figured it’d just be easier to reinstall Linux, instead of fight with the removal of the program… So, I back up the WordPress database(s) to my laptop, move over the pertinent files to a different hard drive on my desktop, and begin the format. No big deal. Done it many times before.

I walk out to the living room and look at my laptop. It has lovely colored bars running up and down the screen. This isn’t normal, of course… It actually happened earlier in the day, again while I wasn’t looking at it and not really doing anything…but earlier, it restarted and worked fine…this time, not so much… I don’t know if the screen saver somehow triggered the problem (unlikely…) or what, but it went nuts…

Anyway, I tried turning it off and on…no help…  It wouldn’t even show the BIOS screen, let alone get to Windows… I tried plugging it in to my desktop’s monitor to see if it’s just the laptop LCD. No dice. Soooooooooooo…that didn’t sound good…and to make matters worse, some of my music library wasn’t backed up to my Linux box (the music from iTunes) and the most recent WordPress databases for the website(s) were on it as well. Not cool.

So, I pull the hard drive out of the laptop, only to find that it doesn’t have a standard IDE connection…thus, I can’t just open ‘er up on the Linux box and pull files off. Thankfully, there are adaptors that exist to convert a 2.5″ laptop hard drive to a 3.5″ desktop hard drive. I ordered one from Newegg, got it working, and pulled the files off. (Note: that also rules out the hard drive as being a problem for the laptop).

Soooooooooooooooooooooo, to make a long story short(er), the laptop has some issues but I’ve got all the data off of it and my desktop works just fine. Thankfully, the laptop still has a year left on its warranty (w00t!), so I’m going to take it by a repair place tomorrow and will hopefully have it back by Christmas. If it isn’t the LCD screen and isn’t the hard drive, then I’m afraid the problem lies somewhere on the motherboard…and that could take awhile to fix…who knows…

At least it’s under warranty…  If you’re in the market for a laptop that’s worth anywhere near $1000, please get a warranty!!!  It’s worth it!!