I pushed the on/off button to restart my Dell XPS desktop computer after a storm about a week ago and felt the button click the switch, then keep going into the interior of the computer.
Uh, oh.
I wasn't in a hurry to tackle the problem, so I didn't shut the computer down for several days - just taking it through the restart cycle every now and then to keep things running smoothly.
(And, yes, I'm still running Windows XP SP2 and have no immediate plans to change - I still don't think of it as "upgrading" - to Vista.)
I finally forced the issue Saturday when I shut it down before going to Mountain View with Maria, her daughter and the daughter's boyfriend.
That meant that Sunday was Fix The Button Day.
I disconnected all of the wires and cables and put the big XPS tower onto a table for easier access. I determined that the button base needed to be glued back in place. I also concluded it was a really lame design and wondered how many other XPS users have had or will have the same experience.
While we were at Lowe's in Paragould buying the Table of Drama (see earlier blog entries), I bought some Loctite Super Glue. The switch base has five little pins and corresponding holes, configured like the dots on the number 5 on dice. I put a dot of glue into each of the five holes, held the parts together firmly for 30 seconds and then went off and did something else for awhile to give the glue time to set up/cure/do whatever it does.
An hour or so later, the switch was working like new and I was back in operation. It's not often that you can fix computer hardware for less than $3.
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