And it ends with zzzzZZZZT!

Well, with my hand on my heart, I can say most honestly that I saw that coming. A little over two months ago in fact. That's when I noticed the plug on my laptop's power adaptor beginning to fray near where it connects to the computer. It's never a good sign (I tend to get through laptop power adaptors on nearly a yearly basis so I know all too well the severity of the situation).

Of course, technically this wasn't my laptop, so the solution was simple. Call up work and request a new power adaptor. Which I did. On a regular basis. For almost two months. The fact that the state of the cable was deteriorating at a rapid clip didn't seem to make my difference to the general lethargy with which my problem was viewed. Nor did my complaint that it was now being held together by tape after a spot of emergency power cable surgery. I threatened on numerous occasions that I was on the verge of being unable to perform my functions as a consequence. A gentle breeze rustled the trees in response.

And today, at a little before 4pm my predictions came true and the power adaptor gave out once and for all. In a final act of spite, it also took out the laptop with it. With an audible crackle the laptop ceased to be - not a flicker of life remained. My best guess is that the motherboard's been fried. There's no problem that can't be made worse by holding to a course of inaction for long enough it seems.

I'm not completely netless fortunately, since I dug my old laptop out of the bottom of the wardrobe in which it's been languishing, but age has not been kind to it. One of the fans has given out, and the other seems to spin with arthritic irregularity. I've installed a temperature monitor and it's in severe danger of overheating if I stress the cpu any. Light browsing seems fine, but anything beyond that and the temperature soars to worrying levels.

I'm in a bit of bind workwise, naturally, since there's little I can do without a decent laptop to work from. Rather worringly the infrastructure department didn't seem to have much of an idea as to what the deal with Dell is support wise. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm off to Venice on Wednesday, and it doesn't seem likely I'll have a suitable replacement before then. I'll find out more tomorrow.

I'm quite adamant that I'm not going to be taking the next few days off as holiday if I can't work however. It's a situation I've been warning off for two months, after all. I think I'm going to claim it as time off ill instead. It's a bit of a stretch given that it's my laptop that's ill rather than myself, but the net effect is the same, and given my mostly exemplary record at work for sick days (8 days in 5 years, mostly due to a spell in hospital for surgery), I don't feel it's too far out of line.

It's almost galling just how preventable the situation was though. For want of a power adaptor...