...but don't call me a computer repairman
kelly's laptop, howard, was a little slow so i ordered some more memory for him. tonight, i swapped out the ram chips with the new ones (as i have done on dozens of computers over the last decade) and turned howard on and ... nothing. howard's motherboard, always a little flaky, is more or less a goner. i got him to turn on once in fifty attempts, and he worked perfectly with his shiny new memory, but it hasn't happened again. reseating the chips or replacing them with the old ones is likewise ineffectual. after reading a half-dozen message board posts by folks with the same computer and the same problem, i called it quits so we could watch The Office--and our digital converter box wouldn't pick up the channel. right on cue, the roof leak i thought i had fixed by caulking the skylight returned in force. drip drip drip. some days it feels like the universe has got it in for me.
