I love you, Dale Keller.

Late last week my adorable little laptop decided to die. I would turn it on and it would go through the motions, but right before I could log in it would shut off. This was frustrating because Lloyd has been so swamped with working on his school’s website, I didn’t want to trouble him to do his voodoo and make it all better.

Last night, though, I interrupted him for a moment to just look at it – so he could percolate on what might be the trouble and maybe work on it next week. He did some voodoo and said, “It’s a hardware problem, not a software problem. It might be time for a new computer.”

Now ordinarily I’d enjoy spending money on a gadget, but I do not enjoy spending money to replace a gadget that I already have just because it’s broken. Plus, it would take forever to get, because he’d have to order it from his technical people so he could get a great deal.

Then he said, “Wait,” and stuck it in the freezer – right next to my t.v. dinner and freezer-burnt ice cream.

Huh. It was fine. Apparently it has been overheating. I did a little googling and someone suggested the fan might be broken or gunky. Lloyd was still busy doing website stuff, so I opened it up to check.

Let me repeat that: I opened it up.

That was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. I took a piano apart once, but that was a crummy thrift store one and I didn’t care if it ever worked again when it was back together. This was my baby – my sweet little laptop. What if I killed it?

Well, God bless Dale Keller. He has a website with extremely detailed instructions and diagrams for how to take apart an Acer Apire One. Diagrams, people!!

I started way too late – 10:30 p.m. – and was tired and shaky while working, but luckily Lloyd was right there for when I had questions about pulling cable connectors and such.

Who are we kidding? I was essentially Lloyd’s hands for this project, much like I am when he is hungry. Hey….that’s probably why his nickname for me is ‘Hands’ – as in “Hands, make me a sandwich”.

Anyway, yes, the fan was super gunky, and there was a wad of lint underneath it that was preventing it from spinning and cooling the innards. I cleaned it out, and viola’! It works!!

Again, I love you, Dale Keller. You the man.