Remember the Basics

Last night I managed to blow out the computer speakers and the attached headphones. For some odd reason I keep on building these big static charges and when I brushed up against the headphone clip, ZAP, $500+ worth of sound equipment goes bye-bye. I was pretty frustrated, but I think the headphones are under warranty and I found suitable replacement speakers on eBay.

As part of testing the headphones, I had hooked them up to the laptop. Tonight, Shauna found that the laptop got no sound. My first thought was that the headphones had somehow toasted the sound system, a suspicion confirmed when I hooked up a working pair of headphones and had the same issue. So what do I proceed to do? I tear down the laptop to it's guts to see if the sound chip is replaceable, that's what. Naturally, it wasn't. I put the laptop back together (producing an "extra" screw in the process), start it up, and…

The sound started working. If I'd thought about it logically for just a few seconds, I would have taken the time to restart the computer to see if that fixed it. Instead, I spent an hour tearing apart a laptop that was perfectly fine. Just goes to show that sometimes basic steps can fix the problems.

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2 Responses

  1. Jason says:

    Wow. And to think those years of wanting to smash my IT guy’s face in every time he asks “well, do you restart?”

    Any ideas on whatcha gonna use that extra screw for?

  2. Bill Fox says:

    I remember the days when electronics equipment was protected by static mats. Although in a house they might not look so great, losing $500 speakers is not much fun either. Anti static sprays also can be of some help

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