Last week I addressed one solution to find usefulness in something broken–salvaging the still functional parts to use in something else. But depending on what goes wrong, it is possible to change the way you use a broken device to take advantage of what does work while avoiding the problems of what doesn’t work.

Through hand-me-downs, tinkering projects (broken laptops) given to me, and my own laptops, I have dealt with a wide variety of laptop problems. In some cases I could repair the laptop myself to either use or give to someone who needed it, but in others the laptop was essentially totaled and completely useless. This post discusses one broken laptop that I was able to give new life, even though it was essentially unrepairable and ended up being no longer exactly a laptop.

One of my biggest splurges and greatest joys in high school was a gaming laptop. Unfortunately, its display stopped working shortly after its warranty expired, likely caused by an expensive-to-repair problem with either the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) or the screen itself. The GPU and its associated parts are a relatively common point of failure in laptops. Opening and closing the hinge puts wear on the cables that lie within the hinges, and laptops often run hot, which is not an ideal environment for any computer component to have a long lifespan. As part of my initial troubleshooting, I powered up the laptop while connected to an external display. Everything showed up as normal on that monitor–the GPU worked and it could even play games just as well as it used to.

The only part that didn’t work was the laptop screen itself, and replacing the screen would cost way more than I wanted to pay to bring the laptop back to life. With this in my mind I decided to attempt a relatively inexpensive repair, replacing a cable connecting the motherboard on the keyboard half of the laptop to the screen. Unfortunately, this did not solve the problem. But while my laptop was essentially useless as a laptop, it was not useless as a computer. Unfortunately, I didn’t need a computer, I needed a laptop, so I got a new laptop, and the broken laptop sat for a couple years essentially untouched, until the COVID-19 lockdown started. With two students taking online classes and parents zooming into work or other things, often simultaneously, we needed more computer workspaces in sonically separate parts of the house. That’s where repurposing comes in.

Attached to power and an external monitor, the laptop was ready to be a computer–keyboard and trackpad included, but I made a few changes to the setup anyway. The first and largest change was removing the screen of the laptop altogether. This made it easier to position and use the laptop without accidentally shutting it off by closing the lid. This also had some of its own drawbacks, primarily that the antennae for the wifi ran along the border of the screen and there was no more webcam. Wired internet, which I intended to use anyway and a USB webcam fixed both of those things. The other change was to use an external mouse and keyboard.

The former laptop has been repurposed into essentially a small desktop. It couldn’t function as a laptop after the screen broke, but it gained new life as a computer with the things that did work. 

Last week I outlined my troubleshooting process, and I briefly mentioned that I had to use it with a WiFi incident at my home. There is never a good time for your internet to go down, but this was a spectacularly bad time. My dad was teaching a class over Zoom, and the next morning, my sister had a video interview. Unfortunately, as is sometimes the case with troubleshooting, the process was stressful and complicated. Ultimately, the “solution” did not explicably come from any of my personal actions. 

Now, WiFi is the classic example of troubleshooting that even moderately technically knowledgeable members of the younger generation have experienced. “Turn it off and turn it back on again,” the simultaneously delightfully easy and frustratingly broad solution is, well, often effective. When it isn’t, your options are much less promising.

When turning it off and turning it back on did not work for me, I had to go through the troubleshooting process. Here’s what that looked like:

 

1. Identify the problem

While our home network appeared as an option in the WiFi settings of our devices, there was no internet connection.

 

2. Gather information about the problem.

The router and mesh wifi system still works. Devices can still connect to the router, they just don’t have any connection outside of the home network. 

An Xfinity worker was working outside my home and just left after tinkering with something in the outdoor utility box in my front yard.

 

3. Narrow down the possible causes based on your information.

The router is most likely not the problem because it appears in WiFi settings.

Because the modem does not show any connection to the internet and there is no internet connection over the network, it may be a problem. 

The cable connection from the utility box into our house might be a problem.

The specific line going from our external connection to the particular jack inside of the house could be a problem. 

 

4. Plan out the troubleshooting steps you want to take. Only take one step at a time

Turn off the modem and turn it back on (mostly for good measure, as this has already been done)

Test the modem at a different coaxial jack in a different part of the house. 

Test the modem at the source coaxial jack coming from the outside of the house.

Test a different cable from the jack to the modem.

 

5. Carry out the plans in Step 4. 

No success with anything.

 

6. Always take note of what happened when you made a change. 

 

7. Consider your results. Was the problem solved? Was it improved?

No and no.

 

 

While running through these steps, my dad called Xfinity, who did all they could to help over the phone. Between my troubleshooting and the help offered over the phone, we could not pinpoint the problem. 

A temporary workaround was found, however: we could use “Xfinity wifi” for the time being, but the slow, completely open network was not ideal for Zoom classes and video interviews. 

The problem came to a surprising end when resetting the modem one more time, hours later to prepare for an xfinity crew in the morning, yielded a connection to the internet. Nothing else was changed, but the problem was fixed. While it was a relief, it was also somewhat disconcerting for the problem to have disappeared with no apparent change.

At the end of the day, the problem was solved, and more than a week later, the wifi still works. The troubleshooting process is not always straightforward, and it is often successful in surprising ways (if it is successful at all…) But, just like tinkering, reaching a solution one way or another is satisfying.

I was recently reminded of tinkering’s more stressful cousin–troubleshooting–during an unexpected and extremely inconvenient wifi outage at my home. While I generally consider tinkering to be a relaxing and enjoyable pursuit, troubleshooting usually is quite the opposite. Troubleshooting is a higher-pressure, higher-stakes form of tinkering, inspired not by joy, but by necessity. With the right approach, however, troubleshooting does not have to be a painful experience.

In a CISCO networking course I took in my freshman year of high school, I learned the troubleshooting process that I still follow, even if subconsciously, to this day. CISCO’s 8 Step Process goes like this:

1. Define the problem

In less jargon-y terms, this means “figure out what is going on and think about why that might be happening.” For all the following steps, it is important to be focused on what the actual problem is.

2. Gather information about the problem.

It is always important to take note of the current state of whatever you’re troubleshooting at the time you start to troubleshoot it. This step refines your definition of the problem and forces you to take note of what the symptoms of that problem are. The type of information you need to gather will vary wildly from problem to problem, 

3. Narrow down the possible causes based on your information.

With a better understanding of the problem itself, you will have a better view of what might be causing the problem. More importantly, you will know what is not causing your problem, and you can save time by removing that from consideration. 

4. Plan out the troubleshooting steps you want to take. Only take one step at a time.

Having a plan for how to go about trying to fix something is important. It will keep you on task and help you keep track of what has, and has not, made a difference as you work on troubleshooting. 

5. Carry out the plans from Step 4. 

Though CISCO recommends that you tackle the probable causes in order of most likely to least likely, I personally make a more subjective choice based both on the likelihood of solving the problem and the ease of attempting the fix. If the most likely cause is significantly more difficult or time consuming (or even destructive!), I will try an easier fix first. An easier fix will be easier to attempt and also easier to reverse with a smaller likelihood of making the problem worse. 

6. Always take note of what happened when you made a change. 

Regardless of whether the experimental fix does or does not make a difference, it is important to have an understanding of where the problem stands after making a change vs. before. 

7. Consider your results. Was the problem solved? Was it improved?

A problem will not always have a binary answer of “fixed” and “unfixed.” In some scenarios, there is room for improvement without fully solving the problem. This can take the shape of an intermittent issue happening less often, a slow connection being faster, but not ideally so, or only one of several problems being fixed.

8. If the problem has not been solved, return to step 4 until a solution has been found or all possibilities have been exhausted. 

As I noted in Step 7, a problem may or may not always be completely solved, but it may be fixed to the point of satisfaction, or even just usability. You need to determine whether you should leave good enough (or at least “better”) alone or continue trying to make something better. If the next step you might take is destructive and risks making the problem worse, you might consider letting the troubleshooting process come to a close. If the problem is not solved or if it can reasonably be improved further, then repeat the process.

 

Though the troubleshooting process seems much more rigid than tinkering normally would be, using a methodical approach in a stressful troubleshooting situation can help you achieve better results and maintain some of the tinkering joy, even as you work to solve a serious problem.