Thursday, June 17, 2010

Electronics Crisis

Last year, right around this same time, in the middle of grading final exams, my computer stopped working. Guess what? It happened again on Sunday. The screen just went black and it turned off.
That evening, as Tucker was begging for more time on his XBox, I asked him to work his magic on my computer. Whenever anything in the communication world goes down, I turn to Tucker -- television, cable, DVD player, computer, iPods, phones. He's my go-to guy.
So, he unplugged everything, blew on it and plugged things back in.
It worked. For about three days.
Yesterday, it succumbed again to the black screen.
I had deduced that the problem was either the battery or the cord, because when the computer came back on Sunday, the battery charge was very low, okay, nonexistent.
So this morning, with the black screen facing me, I unplugged and replugged. I took out the battery and replaced it. I turned to Tucker. Nothing worked.
I had grades to finish for the other college where I teach, so I completed those on Earl's computer then hoisted my computer into its bag.
I took it to IT department at the college.
The computer geeks there suggested that -- since the cord had been kittenized -- I should probably start with a new cord. The kitten chewed on the cord when he was little. We have it wrapped in electrical tape and it has carried on for nearly a year.
This evening, after some amazing swims at a swim meet, Tucker, Grace and I returned home.
"Can I have more time on the XBox?" he asked, his hair still wet and his trunks soaking through his shorts.
"Fix my computer," I ordered as I picked up a dish towel and began to dry the "clean" dishes from the dishwasher.
He unpacked it from the case and 30 seconds later said, "Mom, I got it to work."
I walked in and, sure enough, the lights were glowing and the battery was charging, slowly but surely.
"Can I play XBox?" he asked again.
"Have at it," I said.
Could it be that he does something to the computer so that he can fix it and gain more time on his video games? Very possible. For now though, he's just the electronic miracle worked.

5 comments:

Lucia said...

I remember in the my younger days to make anything work, I would shake it or bang it or kick it. Now things are much too delicate for my liking!

Linda said...

My husband's son is like that-an electronic genius. One of my son's is really great too, but mostly with how to do things on the computer. I always feel like I'm at the 3rd grade level when it comes to computers. I've also decided that you need to buy a new computer every 3 years or so-they just get slower and slower and get more problems as time goes by.

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