Computer Question

My favorite daughter just called from the Milwaukee airport (straned by foggy bad weather trying to get to Indy from Dallas yesterday) and her laptop went thru security screening it got Nuked or X rayed or cat scanned or gamma rayed or MRI darn if I know lol, and the screen is sort of blue and faint now grrrrr rrrrr

SOMEONE PLEASEEEEE TELL ME THIS IS TEMPORARY and it will be fine later????? ?????

John T

We pick her up at midnight tonight so I will post an update tomorrow once old dad gets his grubby lil hands on it lol

Thanks n merry Christmas

John T

I thing the problem was not with the xray, but physical damage of dropping, banging, etc. Or it just happened to die that day of whatever failure.

If the simple things mentioned don't revive it, hope it is under warrentee - laptops always seem to cost more to fix that to just replace, everything is hardwired in tight places and only oem stuff fits. A computer geek that likes to fiddle with things could work it over some, the 'offical' repair process is to ship it to a national center & replace the motherboard or LCD for $1000 or more.

--->Paul

Either physical damage occurred from dropping or squashing or it was simply coincidence.

I travel a lot & have never had a problem with the security machines bothering a laptop, although that's only a very small point of reference.

Keith

That is a totally normal symptom.

It will almost always manifest itself at this particular time of year, oftentimes showing up only after the owner observes ol' dad makin' his third trip to dip into the egg-nog. :>)

Allan

Don Hopf

90% of all laptop failures can be traced right back to a bad battery. Replace or just yank it out of there and run on the AC adaptor.

Allan

Now I have seen laptops with bad displays from violent mishandling (they break internally) and I've seen excessive cold temperatures wreck 'em. And my cell phone's LCD lights up when I pass a magnet near the screen.

If it were a CRT I'd tell you to locate a magnetic head degausser. That might do something. Or it might not.

Theoretically the x-ray machines shouldn't hurt them. If they are going to get hurt it is at the hands of a human, whether that be TSA, daughter, etc.

If it isn't out of warranty then I would call the manufacturer and see what they have to say about it. Even if it is out of warranty I would call and ask, if they say it will cost up front tell them good bye and go to option 2.

2. She could always take the battery out and then put it back in (when it is unplugged). I don't know why, but that seems to fix multitudes of problems. However, if that doesn't do it then you can try the next option.

3. You can hook it up to a regular monitor to see if the thing is completely flat lined or if just the monitor is funky. If the other monitor can read the info, that is at least a light at the end of the tunnel (whether it is an oncoming train or not is another story). I would back up the data just to be safe. If you want to be sure, you could take it to some techie and ask them to check it out (preferably for free) and get their take on it, but that is up to your daughter.

Since it is cheaper to get a new laptop (then to replace the monitor) you just might want to keep an eye out for some since there will probably be a few on sale. I know Compusa is going out of business after xmas and will probably have a some decent prices on laptops. Whatever you do, don't get their extended service contract (since it will be like sending me a check out for no reason - you won't get anything back).