The Motherboard and I

One of my best friends has raised a Techno-kid, and last evening he looked at my still ailing, on and off computer.

"What poor design", was one of his comments. He was talking about the fan and the vents, which are on the bottom of this $2000,00 top of the line laptop. He diagnosed overheating, which was causing the Blue Screen of Death, the distorted psychedelic graphics, and the start-up problems. He suggested that I raise the computer on stilts, so to speak, so the fan could work and the air vents vent. So here it sits today, propped on a souffle' dish with its nether parts in the air. Techno-kid also broke it to me that laptops are overtaxed by too much Netflix streaming video. I know this is true because this machine crashed initially after a marathon of the first two seasons of "In Plain Sight".

So soon I will be going to the re-built computer store to buy myself a desktop, which Techno-Kid says is more reliable. Since Techno-kid gave me speakers,a keyboard and a monitor, I will pay under $150.00 for the computer. And I bet it will last longer than this laptop.

Yes, this computer overheated and "fried" the motherboard, but I smell a whiff of "planned obsolescence" here. Never again will I spend $2000.00 on a computer. Not if they are just this side of disposable. Not if replacing a "Motherboard" costs $500.00.

My friend had listened to her son's diagnostic of my sick laptop. "What's a Motherboard?" she asked.

"Oh Mom", said her son, rolling his eyes in disgust, "Everyone under 30 knows what a motherboard is." That is true, I wager, but what I have learned is that the minute one hears about trouble with the Motherboard, the next thing one will hear is "You are better off just buying a new computer".