probably nobody will care, but I’m sad at the passing of my microwave. It was born in July of 1983, and died march 24th, 2026. I had bought it used in 1992 and it faithfully served me and my family for many years until today, when the keypad decided to partially quit working. Rest in peace Zappy, you will be missed.
I’m looking for a new keypad but unsurprisingly the parts for this ancient thing are no longer in stock so I doubt I’ll be able to resurrect it without some sort of miracle. I know it’s just an appliance but it still makes me sad to see it go.
Just to be sure, have you tried unplugging it, waiting 30 seconds, and plugging it back in?
Ya, that was one of the first things I tried… I was hoping it would reset and start going again to no avail.
I’ve got it apart now, but this weekend if I have time to mess with it I’m going to plug everything back in and try it again. Maybe it just needs a little vacation lol!
So, I water damaged a laptop years ago, and while i didn’t kill it, the repair shop said it was likely some corrosion would eventually cause problems and it could break in the future without notice, and also my monitor had a damaged area in the bottom corner about the size of a credit card. You could see things there, but the color was really distorted.
I needed a solid and reliable laptop for work as there was real time stuff it was used for where failure would be catastrophic so I got another one, but I still used the broken one for various things.
Well, to my surprise, like 5 years later (after repeated low but yearly use), I turn it on to test some software on the older operating system, and the fucking monitor is perfect, no longer distorted.
Clearly it just needed a vacation!
I work in IT and deal with people spilling shit on their laptops all the time. This is precisely why I tell them that im not saying their shit is broken, Im saying they cant depend on it. Right now it might seem fine. Once whatever drop of liquid manages to corrode whatever random trace enough to break the connection, it wont. That day could be tomorrow, that day could be 10 years from now, or even never!
But the important takeaway from the conversation isnt that the laptop is broken, the key takeaway is when it stops working right, IM NOT PUTTING TIME INTO FIXING IT. Replace it, or dont…but dont call me on that day because the answer then is going to be the same as now…replace it. If you dont want to replace, goto 10. Thank you, have a nice day.
That being said, I’ll use those things for noncritical shit all day long. I dont care if it shits the bed…I just grab another piece of shit off the shelf and make that the new bed shifter. But my plex server taking a dump is not the same as your CAD workstation taking a dump mid project, obviously.
I like taking mine on vacations where I dont need a reliable machine and if it does finally break, or gets stolen, im less fussed about it.
Man, my vacation would be fucking ruined if my laptop conked out on me.
What do you need your laptop for while on a trip that you couldn’t manage on your phone if you had to?
Ironically enough, I write smartphone apps on my vacations. Maybe you can do that shit practically on smartphones now, but I’ve never seen it.
Oh, well that’s actual work. If I wanted to do actual work on a vacation, I’d be upset if my laptop died as well, and I wouldn’t take the risky one. I also do smartphone apps!
Perfect use case! Well, as long as the battery isnt compromised, I aint trying to die in a flaming plane crash lmao
I have so much random eWaste built up myself that Im like Oprah over here…“You get an old crappy laptop, you get an old crappy laptop! If it breaks who cares, I have plenty more where those came from, but dont use it for your tax documents because I will not be responsible” lol
Sometimes iffy electronics will work if you keep them cold. You might try keeping the microwave in a chest freezer—just run a fairly flat extension cord in.
Uh, so it turns out this is one way people die horrible deaths. Microwaves are pretty dangerous contraptions.
The danger is you need to discharge the capacitor or you will get a shock.