Back Ups

[drcpunk]

On Wednesday (September 23), my laptop kept turning itself on and off when I tried to turn it on. This was not fun.

mnemex fiddled with the power button, and, thus far, it's been working. But, given that I've had to send it back to Asus twice, I'm a tad nervous.

I did a full backup once mnemex got things stable. And I've been trying to use a lighter touch on the power button.

Comments

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

Did it turn on, stay on for about ten seconds, then turn off? If so, the power button was probably sticking down.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Yep. That was what we figured. What does one do to unstick it? mnemex clearly did something, but it'd be good if I could do it as well.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

There's not a whole lot that's easy.

Examine the button closely and see if its catching on something visible. Remove that thing.

Take the battery out. (That's important - alcohol doesn't conduct well, but alcohol plus dissolved cruft might.) Swab down the area around the button with rubbing alcohol. Test a small spot first to see if it ruins the finish. Try to get just a little alcohol in the cracks around the button. Let it dry overnight before putting the battery back in. This has a chance of making the problem worse, so if it's working now, don't do it.

Send it back for service (bleah).

Get out the dremel and the soldering iron and replace the button. This one may be a little tricky and will certainly void any warranty.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

It's currently working, so I'm not breaking out the alcohol or soldering iron yet. mnemex tinkered with it, which is probably why it works now, but I am using as little pressure as possible.

[jl8e]

You should probably also put it to sleep instead of turning it off when possible.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Good point. I'll see if I can figure out how to do that.

When is it actually better to turn off the computer?

[jl8e]

It probably sleeps when you close it.

I only shut my computer down when I'm moving it around or not going to be using it for several days. The rest of the time, it sleeps.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Hm. I gave that a try last night. It didn't hold the charge overnight. mnemex explained that one is supposed to keep the laptop plugged in while doing this.

[jl8e]

It'll run its battery down, but at a much slower rate.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Apparently, a much slower rate is less than, um, nine hours? Ten? Something like that.

[jl8e]

That's much faster than I'd expect if the battery's in good shape.

What sort of battery life does it get while being actively used?

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Mm, 3, maybe 4 hours when I used it unplugged at the library. I never ran the battery all the way down, and prefer to keep in plugged in.

It is possible that the battery is too used to not being used. It is also possible that the two trips back and forth may have tired the battery out or something.

But, I am thinking that it is also possible that the wasn't actually sleeping when I thought it was sleeping. I closed the screen, but kept the computer plugged in last night. mnemex said that this would make the computer hibernate -- is this the same as sleep?

When I opened the screen today, the screen saver was on. I don't know if it had been there a moment ago. It's hard to be sure what the cat is doing when the box is closed.

I'll do an experiment to see what kind of battery life I get when the computer is running.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

9:40 am: 100% power remaining.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

11:12 am: 52% power remaining.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

11:50 am: 31% power remaining.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

12:06 pm: 7% power remaining and low battery alert. I have plugged the computer back in.

Elapsed time to go from 100% to 7%: 2 hours, 26 minutes.