On Monday the hinges I’d order to repair Joe/Frank’s laptop arrived by courier in an absolutely Enormous Box (28x15x23), but I felt far too ill to even attempt repair (strangely I feel much less well than I did at the end of last week).

Enormous Box (hinges in wee bubble-wrap packets)

So Tuesday morning became devoted to repairing, and goodness, I’d forgotten how much I really enjoy dismantling electronics (always a little thrill at breaking the void your warranty sticker) and just fixing things! There were a few challenging moments such as removing a couple of horrible torx security screws from the case (cunningly solved with a cup of green tea and a very tiny flat jeweller’s screw-driver).

I had to strip the poor thing down quite a way:

But now the new hinge is in place, I’m hoping it will last another 6 months at least. The best part of course is that I’ve put off having to drop several hundred on a replacement machine.

Now all I need is a somewhat indestructible replacement case. I’m trying not to beat myself up too much about not replacing the case much earlier – the whole repair process could have been avoided, but then where would be the fun in that?

I’m thinking a good test of suitability would be to put an egg inside the case and hurl it repeatedly at a wall and then jumping on it a few times, if the egg survives, so might the laptop.

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