…especially if they’re loud.
Another tale from the bench for you: a laptop came in, so I went through the motions; take it over to the bench, get it hooked up, read the work sheet. From the information on my sheet, it seems that the customer is having trouble turning on his e-mail program.
In slow motion, my index finger descends to the power button. Immediately after the button is depressed, I reel backward from the racket now being emitted from this beast. Unsure of what this terrible caterwaul is, I quickly turn the computer off. My ears ring as peace returns to the land.
At this point, I am told that the customer said something along the lines of the fan being kind of loud. While likely not the winner of such a title, this is certainly a contestant for understatement of the year. This thing sounded like a running vacuum cleaner, or maybe a jet engine.
I decide to give it another shot. I hit the power button and plant my fingers firmly into my ear canals. The sound dies down after a few moments, the fan’s speed slowing after bootup. After a few moments of poking around in Windows (and determining that it has come equipped with a rather unhealthy dose of spyware), the roar reemerges with a vengeance. I live with it for a few moments, but I’m rapidly driven toward homicidal madness. I shut the computer down. It’s time to take care of business.
I begin my descent into the Toshiba’s bowels, removing the faceplate, then the keyboard, then the plate below, revealing its juicy internals. Without removing the fan from the heatsink, I simply try applying some oil to the bearing. Power on; my poor ears! This crying cacophony was not cured. Time for some open heart surgery.
Unscrewing the fan, I lift it from its cradle and look inside.
A piece of paper. No more than two centimeters long, less than one wide, lying in the fan’s housing. With a tilt of the assembly, the paper falls free. Having never owned Operation as a kid, I awkwardly removed the paper from inside the laptop and, crossing the fingers of my other hand, applied pressure to the power button.
Ah, peace. The noise was gone; the scrambling of my brain and rise of my blood pressure was all thanks to… this little piece of paper.
I wish I could say that was the hardest part, but now it’s time for spyware. However, I won’t bore you with that story… at least until it becomes more interesting.