XanderLand

I often wander around the house with my laptop and I always eventually reach the point where it's time to return to home base (the desk) and plug it back in to recharge the ol' battery. Usually, (and particularly at night) the easiest way to do this is to grab the power cord connector and poke repeatedly at the back of the laptop in the general vicinity of the power receptacle until it finds its way in. Tonight, however, I found that if my hand wanders a bit too far to the right, it can (and will) close the circuit agaist the metal VGA port housing, and short out the motherboard in rather spectacular fashion. A neat side effect of this technique is that I've discovered a way to bypass that pokey Windows shutdown process, and stop the machine cold...Instantly. So, after the shock wore off, with a bit of trepidation and a lot more care I tried once again, turned the laptop back on, and after a few tests everything *seems* to be in working order. No apparent harm done, save the fading remains of the unmistakable acrid scent of electrical fireworks.

Lessons learned:

• Be more careful when plugging in the laptop.
• Next time, buy the extended warranty with accidental damage coverage, just in case.