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Author Topic: Bad technology day - continues!  (Read 5975 times)

tranglos

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Bad technology day - continues!
« on: November 21, 2009, 10:41 AM »
Within a few hours of each other:

- two light bulbs went poof, kitchen and bedroom...

- my puter started freezing when the screensaver came in, and soon after that all I got was a garbled screen right from the boot-up time. After unplugging and reconnecting the displays the problem seems to have disappeared, but I suspect the electronics on the video card may be overheating or just getting flaky...

- my car broke down. Could be anything from a faulty spark plug, the fuel pump, some high-voltage wiring, some blackbox electronic part or spiked fuel, who knows. It's losing power, chugs like a Diesel, and the "check engine" light is on, and the bad thing is, I must wait til Monday before I can have it diagnosed.

There's an old Polish saying, "misfortunes come in pairs". I've had quadruplets already today, and it's certainly not my first bad technology day. Things tend to break down in batches, don't they?
« Last Edit: November 24, 2009, 05:04 PM by tranglos »

MilesAhead

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Re: Bad technology day!
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2009, 12:58 PM »
One thing I will say for the old points plugs and condenser.  Often if you had a screwdriver and a nail file you could take a pitted set of points, file 'em down, then set the dwell with a matchbook cover or by eye... and get it close enough to drive home to do it right.

With the black boxes there isn't much you can do unless you are in a fully equipped repair shop.  Kinda' takes the fun out of it too.  I used to be able to set the dwell one degree high with a feeler gauge.  That way as the high side on the bumper cam wore down, it worked its way into perfect.

You do get higher performance with the computers, when they are working.


mouser

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Re: Bad technology day!
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2009, 01:42 PM »
Hang in there tranglos!

tranglos

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Re: Bad technology day!
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2009, 03:02 PM »
Hang in there tranglos!

No new failures since that post :)




Eóin

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Re: Bad technology day!
« Reply #4 on: November 21, 2009, 04:19 PM »
Here a similar saying declares "Disasters comes in threes".

Innuendo

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Re: Bad technology day!
« Reply #5 on: November 21, 2009, 05:38 PM »
Here on DonationCoder a similar saying declares "Let's get out of here! tranglos is coming!"  ;D

Seriously, I think we've all had days like that.

MilesAhead

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Re: Bad technology day!
« Reply #6 on: November 21, 2009, 05:41 PM »
Here on DonationCoder a similar saying declares "Let's get out of here! tranglos is coming!"  ;D

Seriously, I think we've all had days like that.

If one or two more could be strung on you'd have a Buster Keaton movie(or at least an expression similar to his.  I hate it when it all hits the fan at once.)


« Last Edit: November 21, 2009, 05:46 PM by MilesAhead »

tranglos

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Re: Bad technology day!
« Reply #7 on: November 24, 2009, 04:46 PM »
My bad technology day has turned to a week. The video card finally did die as I expected. Replaced it today (okay, at least now I can run Aero ;-) and while I was doing that, I thought it'd be a good idea to untangle and dust off all the cables at the back of the desk, since I had already unplugged a lot of things before opening the puter.

Boy did I pick a wrong day for untangling cables!

After everything was plugged back in, my D-Link network drive won't start. Must be an electrical failure, perhaps in the adapter, since not even the power LED comes on. So now I'm without an external backup, and if anything else should go wron

f0dder

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Re: Bad technology day - continues!
« Reply #8 on: November 24, 2009, 05:52 PM »
and if anything else should go wron
:D :D :D

At least you still have your good sense of humor :)
- carpe noctem

J-Mac

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Re: Bad technology day - continues!
« Reply #9 on: November 25, 2009, 03:28 AM »
Any chance that your electricity supplier is experiencing voltage variances lately? Brownouts?

Jim