The shiny red laptop

It was awhile back I actually replaced the DVD in my new Dell laptop. I love the laptop. Specs are pretty darn good for a $600 laptop, the screen is large enough for my 1/2 blind eyes to see. Here are the specs for those interested:

Dell Studio 1737 Refurbished Notebook PC - Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 4GB DDR2, 320GB SATA HDD, DVDRW, 17" WXGA, Vista Home Premium, Red

However, it is a refurb, and sometimes things go awry. Well, my DVD drive stopped reading disks. Luckily I had tech support for a year and they sent me a replacement drive - catch was I had to install it.

I downloaded the instructions for repairing my laptop. It was, in a word, ridiculous. I had to remove everything to get to the DVD, including the screen. Then I lost a screw. I looked and looked and looked. I turns out it fell into a hinge of the screen back and I had to disassemble the screen. Geessh!

All and all, I got it back together, with all parts, screws, and wires going back into the machine. And can you believe it! It all worked, including the new DVD!

Some pictures of the event:














I still would recommend the machine even if fixing it is going to be a lesson in the efficiency of space. However, my coaches would be to get the extended tech support if you don't feel comfortable cracking the case on it (I was a little leery since it was a laptop). Also, this thing is a tank - 14 lbs. So if you want to be mobile, but less computing power, get a netbook. I do use mine for active software development, and I am considering upgrading to 8GB of ram.

As a side note, I will be returning to my minimum of once a week posting and will be covering my newer projects as well as my current freelance job hunting.

That said, be well,

Jeffrey