Tag Archives: repair

I Might Have Overreacted A Bit (or A Temporary Fix For My Computer)

Posted on May 26, 2021 | Comments Off on I Might Have Overreacted A Bit (or A Temporary Fix For My Computer)

Earlier this month, my keyboard on my laptop broke. It seemed like it broke in a pretty dramatic fashion. Multiple key covers fell off, one bracket was broken in half, and multiple keys stopped working. After writing the post about the broken keyboard, I first ordered another keyboard that I could use since I needed to be able to type. And I also tried to see if there were any repairs that I could do.

After I calmed down a bit, I realized that it looked like the bracket for only one of the keys was broken. The other keys were able to be snapped back into place. They still weren’t working the way they should be, but at least all the parts were back where they were supposed to be. And I decided to do some more research about fixing the one that was broken. I had asked a friend who knows more about computers and that’s where I had gotten the information that the entire thing would need to be replaced (and would be expensive). But when I talked to them again, I mentioned the broken brackets and sent some photos, and they let me know that there was a chance that I could actually fix things.

I got the information for a company that sells replacement key covers and brackets and tried to order a key from them. They were all sold out so I put myself on a waitlist and did some more searching. Then I found another company that had good reviews so I tried to place an order on their site. I was able to order it, but soon after got an email saying they were out of the key that I needed (which was the “a” key). They gave me a few options, and one option was to fully replace the keyboard which was as expensive as I originally thought. But they also said they could sell me a key that didn’t have the “a” on it and they could put a sticker on it too. I would have been fine with just a blank key since I don’t need to see the letters when I type, but I decided to get the one with the sticker so it looks a bit more like the original keyboard.

Before the replacement arrived, I watched some videos online about how to make this repair. I’ve never fixed anything on my computer like this, and while I knew I couldn’t necessarily make things worse I still wanted to give myself the best chance for success. It didn’t seem too hard, but I know those are famous last words and things aren’t always as easy as they seem in an instructional video.

The key arrived the other day and I got the tools I thought I’d need plus a few extras. I ended up using needle nose pliers, tweezers, and a few different mini-screwdrivers that my dad got me in a set a long time ago. And I turned on the super bright light I have on my desk for self-tape auditions or Zoom meetings. And like I guessed, it wasn’t as simple as the video made it look. I was so sure for about half an hour that they sent me the wrong size bracket. I couldn’t make it fit even when I was sure that I was following the instructions properly. I still don’t know how I got it in there, but eventually the bracket clicked in. And putting the key cover on top was pretty simple. I just had to press it down and it fit on there.

You can tell from the photo that it’s not a perfect match, but it looks good. And once I got the bracket and key cover replaced, the other keys that weren’t working started working again. Maybe it’s some sort of fail-safe that they don’t work when there is a key without a key cover on it? Or maybe it was random luck that they broke at that moment and started working again. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter because I have a working keyboard again.

Even though I was able to fix things, I am still looking at getting a new computer later this year. The keyboard wasn’t the only issue I was having with the computer. And while I can make things work for now, I also don’t want to wait until things are really bad. There are supposed to be new computers released later this year, so I’ll be seeing what those are like and figuring out if those new ones will be right for me.

But at least for now, I have a working keyboard and don’t have to use the external one (which was fine, but I didn’t love it). And I know that if another one of my keys breaks off, there is a chance that I can fix it myself and not freak out too much.

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Default ThumbnailMore Tech Issues (or This Was Typed On A Phone) Default ThumbnailHoping To Fix My Computer (or Can The New MacBook Pros Please Come Out Soon?) Default ThumbnailRestoring My Computer (or Glad For A Backup) Default ThumbnailA New Computer (or Out With The Old And In With The New) Default ThumbnailMore Computer Frustration (or Trying To Let It Go) Default ThumbnailTrying To Cut Back On Clutter (or Why Won’t My Computer Do What I Want It To Do?!?)

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Shopping

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Adventures In Car Repairs (or It’s Better Than New)

Posted on December 4, 2015 | Comments Off on Adventures In Car Repairs (or It’s Better Than New)

When I was driving down to San Diego, I was about half of the way through the trip when suddenly I heard a horrible noise coming from the bottom of my car. It was so loud that it covered up the noise of my radio. I thought that maybe I blew a tire (that’s happened before) so I pulled over to the side of the road and contacted 511 (which is the highway roadside service).

When the 511 guy arrived, I explained that I heard a horrible noise from under my car and had no idea what caused it. He looked at all my tires and under my car and couldn’t find anything. He said that maybe I had hit something and was dragging it but it’s gone now.

I got back into my car and continued my drive, but the horrible noise continued. I even called my parents and asked if I should take my car to a mechanic that night to have it fixed in the morning. They told me not to, so I went straight to the rental house.

I had done some online research and some people reported a similar noise to what I had and it was a rock caught in the wheel. So my dad and I tried to dislodge anything that might have been in there the next morning and it seemed to make the noise go away considerably.

The rest of my trip in San Diego the noise continued to happen in my car, so when I got back to LA I took it to the repair shop that I now use (they are the ones who fixed the water pump in my car when I was towed home from San Diego).

At first, they thought it might be a $4000 repair and I freaked out. My car may not even be worth that much, but it’s cheaper than a new car. I told the shop that I’d wait until they knew what the problem was because I knew that I’d be panicking at home waiting for what they had to say. About an hour later, they told me that they had some somewhat good news.

It wasn’t the $4000 repair, but instead it was an issue with my wheel that they had mentioned to me last time I was there (it didn’t need to be fixed then so I didn’t do it). They also noticed that my axle was looking close to breaking, so they encouraged me to fix that too.

All of these things were adding up, so I asked them if they could do any sort of deal for me since it was a lot of work and I don’t have a lot of money. They quoted me a price that was expensive but I could deal with (thanks to the Hanukkah check I had gotten from my grandma at Thanksgiving), and I left my car at the shop overnight to be fixed.

The next day I was able to pick up my car. They honored the price that they had quoted me even though the repair ended up being more expensive (the bill reflects about $150 discount on the price). And not only is the noise gone from under my car, it drives better now than it did when I got it in 2008 (I bought it used)!

It’s funny that this happened to my car when it did. I was talking with my dad at Thanksgiving about having to get new tires soon for my car and how much that would cost. My dad asked me how much longer I was planning on keeping my car. Honestly, I want to keep my car for at least another 3 or 4 years (preferable more unless I win the lottery or something). So he said that putting money into the car is just what you have to do to keep it going. And my dad knows about that since his car is a 1992 Subaru SVX and he just decided recently that he might get a new car soon.

I know that these are all things you have to deal with as a responsible adult, but my financial situation really doesn’t allow for these sorts of things. I’m working on budgeting right now, but my priority on my budget is getting my credit card debt eliminated. That’s not going to happen anytime soon (unless again, I win the lottery), but I’m taking baby steps toward it. This repair isn’t helping that goal, but it is helping me not have to spend more money down the line on more expensive car repairs or a new car sooner than I want to get one.

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Default ThumbnailDay Trip To San Diego (or Driving Disasters) Default ThumbnailAdventures In Customer Service (or Trying Not To Be The Bad Call) Default ThumbnailUnexpected Car Shopping (or New Year New Car) Default ThumbnailNot Quite Winning At Taxes This Year (or Owing Money And Seeing Car Accidents) Default ThumbnailTrying To Help (or An Adventure In My Car) Default ThumbnailHit and Run (or I Don’t Want Car Accidents To Be An Annual Thing)

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FaceTime Repair (or Baby Steps To Prepare Me For Home Ownership)

Posted on September 29, 2015 | Comments Off on FaceTime Repair (or Baby Steps To Prepare Me For Home Ownership)

For the last several years, whenever something goes wrong at my house that my landlord needs to fix, my dad reminds me that these are things that I will have to deal with on my own when I’m eventually a home owner. He always says that there are some things that you just need to be prepared to write a check for (like those floods and gas leak that I had at my house) but there are other things that I should know how to do myself.

I think that I’m pretty handy with things. I have issues with some repairs at my house because my walls are weird (it takes anchors and a special drill bit to hang things on my walls), but I was able to install my air conditioning with the help of a friend. And a couple of years ago, a built a screen door with my dad and installed it at my parents’ house (we talked about that accomplishment a lot). I have a pretty well stocked tool kit thanks to my dad and I’m prepared for several things that I might need to do around the house (or that my dad might do for me when he comes to visit).

The other day, there were some friends over at my house. After everyone went home, I was putting things back where they belong and fixing things up when I realized that my toilet was broken. I eventually figured out that the chain (which on my toilet was actually a rubber string) had broken off. Without the help of YouTube or my dad, I did figure out how I could manually flush the toilet by putting my hands into the tank (that’s clean water, don’t worry) and pulling up the stopper.

But I didn’t want to have to do that a ton. So I let my landlord know that my toilet was broken and then called my dad to see what he would say. He was out but got back to me a bit later that night. He agreed that the chain was broken on the toilet and we tried to think of some temporary solutions to fix it before my landlord would have a chance to fix it.

Somehow, my dad remembered that he had given me picture hanging wire in the past, so I dug through my tool kit and found the last piece of it. I then put my dad on FaceTime and balanced my phone on the shelf behind my toilet so he could see what I was doing.

FaceTime Help

It only took a few minutes, but I managed to fix it! I know this will sound so corny and silly, but it was the greatest feeling ever that I was able to create a temporary fix for the chain in the toilet. I needed this positive boost in my life after having a bad day. I was on such a high knowing that I did this and so thankful that not only is my dad handy but that he is willing to get on FaceTime and help me fix things on my own!

My landlord was able to come the next day to do a real repair, but he was pretty darn impressed with my picture hanging wire repair. He even tested it a couple of times before doing the fix to see how well it worked!

Obviously, it would be nice to be able to call a plumber for every little repair that I need. I’m lucky that I’m in an apartment where I’m not financially responsible for repairs. But I’m trying to do as much as I can on my own (or learning how the repair is done when the professionals do work here) so that hopefully one day when I own a home I can do as much as possible on my own. As easy as it would be to write a check for these things, it’s so much more empowering to do things myself.

Who knew that a broken toilet would be the key to improving my mood?

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Default ThumbnailBaby Steps Back To Cooking (or My Check In Kicked My Butt Into Gear) Default ThumbnailBaby Shower Saturday (or Celebrating Baby Allen) Default ThumbnailBaby Steps Progress (or Surprising Myself) Default ThumbnailBeing A Bit Of A Show-Off (or More Baby Steps) Default ThumbnailBaby Steps Of Improvements (or Getting Ready For The Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailBaby Steps (or Trying To Be Proud Of The Little Victories)

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff

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Upgrading My House (or Feeling Lucky)

Posted on May 13, 2015 | 1 comment

Monday was a pretty exciting day at my house. It was the day that my house felt like it was completely refreshed!

First, a little back story.

My grandma switched apartments recently (since my grandpa passed away she didn’t need such a big space). Her old apartment had a guest bedroom with a really nice mattress (my mom picked it out based on what she would prefer to sleep on). Over the few years in that apartment the guest room was used pretty rarely, so the mattress was almost new.

With the move, my family had to think of what to do with the surplus furniture. The original idea was to donate the guest bedroom mattress because that was easiest. But my mom remembered that I had been saying for a while that I wanted a new mattress and was hoping to save up for one. So my mom called me and asked if I wanted the guest room mattress.

I said of course and tried to figure out how to get a mattress from San Diego to LA. In the end, my parents had to hire movers for some stuff for them so they hired movers for my mattress (they gave my parents a pretty great deal). So my parents told me that I should be getting a phone call sometime this week to schedule the mattress delivery.

I had found someone who needed a mattress and was going to take my old mattress and box spring from me, but they weren’t going to take it until my new mattress was here. So we were all just waiting on the delivery guys to call me.

Monday morning, I get a call from the movers. They were parked in front of my house and wanted to know if I needed them to carry the mattress for me! I had no call prior to that to arrange for delivery and they were lucky that I happened to be home when they called. There were a couple of moments of stress, but in the end I had the movers move my old mattress into my garage and then move the new mattress into my house. And since they arrived with no notice, I wasn’t able to tip them (didn’t have time to go to the bank). But they seemed to understand and my parents agreed that it was ok since no delivery time was told to me.

Even with the craziness and stress, I have to admit that having a wonderful new mattress in my room makes me so happy!

New Mattress

And I slept pretty well the first night on it. It’s a much nicer mattress than I can afford and it had a pillow topper mattress pad. So I pretty much feel like my bed is something you would find in a hotel now!

Besides the new mattress, I got another upgrade in my house on Monday. The day I moved into my house (over 5 years ago) there was a small chip in the laminate floor near where I ended up putting my desk. My landlord said that he would fix it but asked me if I wouldn’t mind waiting on the fix. I was fine with that until the hole continued to get bigger and bigger. I covered up the hole the best that I could and waited for it to be fixed.

I reminded my landlord about it a few times, but I was not dealing with annual rent raises so I kind of stayed quiet. But after my recent rent raise, I said something again to my landlord.

There were a couple of issues with fixing my floors. Mainly, the flooring that I have isn’t manufactured anymore so there was no way to match it. After some ideas, we finally came to the conclusion that the flooring could be removed from my closet and put in my living room. Then the mismatched floor could be inside my closet (where it doesn’t really matter how it looks).

The construction was pretty loud and took a few hours, but as you can see from the before and after it was worth it.

Floor Before and After

So in one day I got a new mattress and some new flooring! And my old mattress went to its new home so someone else got a new (used) mattress on Monday. I love win-win situations like that!

Sometimes when you are renting a place it can always feel like a rental and not like home, but I’ve worked really hard to make sure that my place feels like home. And the new mattress and perfect floors really helps!

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Default ThumbnailFeeling Jet Lag Without A Time Zone Change (or Back To Home) Default ThumbnailAnother Leak In My House (or Testing My Patience) Default ThumbnailFeeling So Much Love (or Embarrassed By People Complimenting Me) Default ThumbnailUpgrading My Kitchen (or Time To Organize) Default ThumbnailUpgrading My Self-Tape Set Up (or 2 Auditions In 30 Minutes) Default ThumbnailMaking My House Look Fancy (or Doing Some Upgrades For The New Year)

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