In the 1986 movie Short Circuit, a robot, Number 5, comes alive as the result of being electrocuted. He winds up in the home of Stephanie, who immediately tries to educate him (give him "input", in his words) about the world. At one point, she tries to explain to him what "dead" means and says, "Disassemble." His reaction: "Disassemble . . . dead?!"
This is what I feared I had done to my computer yesterday.
It all started when I got fed up with my computer overheating. I had used compressed air to blow out the dust from the air vents, and it was still overheating.
Two days ago, I took the computer apart, with the help of a YouTube video, but I was unable to figure out how to take off the motherboard.
Yesterday, I tried again. I first got a set of precision screws. My BFF Laura says it's because I'm smart. It's more like, our garage is in chaos and I can't find the screwdriver I need!
Then I used the precision screws to take the back off the computer, pry off the keyboard, unscrew the top, take OFF the top, and finally remove the motherboard to get to the fan.
I cleaned the fan and other portions of the computer. I will just say that it desperately needed the cleaning.
Then came putting the computer back together.
The first main problem was, trying to figure out where two certain wires went. I replayed the YouTube video that showed how to take apart the computer and couldn't figure out the location of the wires.
Finally, in frustration, I Googled, how to reassemble a HP Pavilion g6 series computer . . . and found a YouTube video showing how to put the thing back together!
After watching the video, and putting the screws back in, I realized there was a portion of the motherboard that I had not reinstalled.
So, I disassembled the computer, put in that portion of the motherboard, and put the computer back together.
Then I pushed the power button.
Nothing happened.
Had I, in the words of Number 5, disassembled my computer so it was dead?
I took apart the computer, again, and discovered that there was a ribbon cable unplugged. I plugged it in.
Computer reassembled, I pushed the power button.
Success!!
Until I tried to move the mouse.
No mouse.
Back to disassembling the computer, where I found another ribbon cable unplugged. I plugged it in and put the computer back together, again.
This time the mouse worked!
Then, I went to get on the Internet, and was greeted by the following message: can't find proxy server.
Aaarggghhh!!!
This time, I did NOT have to disassemble the computer. I DID, however, have to play around with the proxy settings and turn the computer off and on.
Finally . . . computer turned on, mouse maneuvered the cursor, and Microsoft Edge got me on the information superhighway. (Not only had I disassembled and assembled my computer, I also upgraded to Windows 10 yesterday!)
My husband went to bed knowing that I couldn't turn the computer on. He got up and went to work this morning before I could tell him that I had fixed the problem. Today he wanted to know if I threw in the towel and called the Geek Squad. I said no. :-)
I can't tell you what on a motherboard makes a computer work, and I can't tell you what the red wire does or the black wire does . . . but I found out yesterday that, with proper instruction, I CAN take a computer apart and put it back together again.
Contrary to Number 5's assertion, "disassemble", in this case, does not mean "dead"!
Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.
