evans, the circuit boards are built not to last. The circuit board went out on our Magic Chef gas slide-in range 3 years after we bought it and it was going to cost $1,000 for the circuit so we opted to just put the stove on the curb for trash and buy another. We bought the new Magic Chef, but this time purchased the extended warranty which is a very minimal amount of money. Within a couple of years the board went out and they replaced it free of charge. That was 10 years ago and the stove has worked fine ever since. In case you're wondering why we purchased a second Magic Chef, the reason is the price was much cheaper than the other brands that we could find in a slide in gas range. When I buy my new range for the new house I'm going to make sure to purchase the extended warranty for that one also. It will be a Jenn Air.

DH laid it in the back floor of the car and then forgot about it. He moved the seat back and squished it (the screen was against the seat and the actual computer part was "possibly" protected since the screen was between it and the seat. I may just have to invest in a hard side case instead of a soft side one. So far I have gotten everything off- still need to dig out the internet bookmarks. I am actually using it right now to send this. The right side of the screen scrolls very quickly by itself (think old B/W TVs where you had to adjust the connected rabbit ears) then there is a giant white section and then the left 1/3 of the screen works but has black sports the size of a silver dollar. I just ran my statistical software and the analysis is coming out like it did this morning. This is a snapshot of the laptop screen (I added the red square to show that is supposed to be my desktop. When I do an "Alt+PrtSc" and save it as a picture, I get the whole desktop (hope I do not offend anyone with my pic, it is from LOL-Cat and so cute!) I just used my level and it appears to NOT be warped... tried it on the desk and the floor because the house and desk are both over 100 years old and not that level, themselves... but the button in the level appears to be in the same spot where it is sitting directly on the desk or on the laptop sitting on the desk. Since the alt-print screen show everything and the software appears to be working, am I fairly safe that the computer is okay? What else should I do to check the hard drive? THANK YOU!!!!

This is certainly repairable but I'm not sure if I, personally, would bother, but if you wanted to go for it. This site shows how to take everything apart. I didn't dig too deep into it so I'm not sure if the touchpad itself can be separated from the top unit, but even so it shouldn't be an expensive part, relatively speaking, if you look at parts recyclers, ebay and the like. To buy the part from Compaq, if even available, it would be more than a new unit I'd be pretty sure. Compaq goes for volume sales. There's likely a lot of units out there and being Compaq, there's likely a lot of junked out units so parts shouldn't be tough to find if you're willing to look and buy from a parted machine. As far as a DIY project, if you have some basic mechanical skills and can follow directions you should have no trouble. The things to be careful about include remembering that this is a cheap, delicate unit so don't force anything. Keep good lighting available and a magnifying glass. Have heavy items like a cups or something to keep the small parts in and keep them in order so they don't fall down on the floor into the carpet. When you work on it, pick a time that you're not likely to be stressed or interrupted. Getting into the middle of a tearapart and leaving it to come back later to finish is not a good thing to do. Be rested and ready to go at it. I doubt this should take long to complete with any luck. It gives a real sense of accomplaishment to do a job like this should you choose to tackle it. Or you might choose to just use a mouse! Good luck on whatever option you choose.

Nicki - try this... Plug in your MP3 player. Go to MY COMPUTER and the device should show up there. Double click on that to open it. Then open the folder you store your music in (MY MUSIC is usually where it goes.) Select the songs you want by left clicking on the song title - to select more than one at a time, hold down the CTRL (Control) key. When you have what you want selected - right click and "COPY". Then go to you device that you have opened and click "PASTE" Now there are much easier ways - but this will get you going at least. Once you get the idea, it should work for you. Also GOOGLE your specific MP3 player. I bet there are detailed instructions on how to load it on the 'net somewhere.