Improbable Island Message of the Day (MoTD)

Folks, I'm in trouble because of tea.
Admin CavemanJoe – 2011-05-13 21:17:06 [Permalink]
Those who follow my Twitter feed will know that yesterday I managed to spill tea in my laptop's keyboard. The keyboard is currently out of the laptop and sitting in some rice to dry out what the air compressor couldn't remove (and the bastard thing's riveted together, too, so I can't dismantle it and do a proper job). While removing the keyboard, I figured I'd whizz the screen mask off and get rid of the dust that had somehow managed to find its way inside.

CRACK.

Shit.

It's a 2004 Toshiba Portege M200, and it's the best laptop I've ever owned. The part number for the screen mask is P000388420.

The screen mask costs a hundred dollars.

A HUNDRED DOLLARS. FOR A SHEET OF PLASTIC. OR YOU CAN GET A SCRATCHED ONE FOR SEVENTY-FIVE.

For $130-odd, I can get an entire top-half assembly - panel, digitizer, bezel, mask, body, backlight, inverter, wiring harness, the works. For about $180, I can get a whole new M200. But for just the plastic bit that covers the panel? A hundred bloody dollars, and there's no cheap aftermarket equivalent.

There's a guy on eBay selling a set of six for two hundred bucks. I suspect that last week he bought a set of seven for two hundred and twenty.

I'm right smack in the middle of writing our new combat system, and I can't be without a computer. I figure I drank a hundred-dollar cup of tea either way, but I reckon I can get one of my mates to take this working-but-distracting one off my hands for a hundred or so, then bump up to a M400 (which is like the M200 I have now, but a bit bigger, a bit faster, with an optical drive and only five years old) which go for about $240-odd on fleabay.

So, I need either a couple of hundred bucks in a hurry, or a replacement screen mask (and probably a keyboard too). That part number again, P000388420 - if you've got a broken M200 lying around that you don't need, and would post it to me, there's a metric shitload of Supporter Points in it for you.

Thanks for your support, and I'll endeavour not to break this one.

-CMJ

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