Smack

I am merely weeks away (inshaaAllaah) from obtaining a degree in electrical engineering. So close to calling myself an electrical engineer.

Is it kind of funny then, that the first thing I try when my electronics malfunction, is throwing, dropping, or smacking them against hard objects? Maybe. But so far this has been a cost-effective, simple, and quick way of solving minor electrical glitches.

For example, a week or so ago, my iPhone displayed a "No SIM card installed" error. The error was... wrong, in short. Because there had been a SIM card installed moments before. That is, moments before I dropped it (accidentally.) So how could it be that the SIM card just vanished, or uninstalled itself? I figured that some components had been slightly dislodged (not something that I could really "fix" by myself.) So I needed to apply a force on whatever components to shift them slightly back into their correct position. I threw the iPhone around for a while and rebooted it, to no avail. So I gave up on my smack it around method, and set off to the AT&T store hoping they could fix it. On my way to the store I continued the attempts to beat my iPhone into submission. It finally worked--one hard whack against the gear shifter and a reboot, then voila, everything back to normal.

Another example, last night my laptop (while in its case) slipped out of my grip and onto the floor as I was leaving a meeting. When I returned home and booted up, I discovered the fan was no longer spinning smoothly--it apparently was smacking something on every cycle making a very loud, fast, annoying ticking sound. The noise was just too much to handle, and persisted whenever the fan was on (i.e., whenever the processor would get a little too warm.)

So again I tried with the dropping, hitting, shaking, etc., and of course with no success. So this morning I went by a computer store to have them take a look at it, hoping they could open it up, adjust the fan, and close it up just as general courtesy. But instead they insisted on charging me $100 to open up the laptop and then the cost of the part (I guess they figured it was broken?) which they didn't even have.

But there was no need for them to do that, since the laptop is under warranty after all and I can just send it back to the manufacturer if it needs to be fixed. Only, this weekend a Bayyinah class is coming to town, and I'd be lost without my laptop to take notes. Though that noise would drive everyone nuts, probably. So when I came home I just resumed the dropping and such until... alhamdulillah, no more noise, and yep, the fan is working.

So now I'm going to have to be really careful with my computer so it doesn't mess up again. I know it's not good to just keep hitting things. I could break something else at the same time. But if it works...? Alhamdulillah... that's not happened.