Technology's great - when it works!

I have a Dell Latitude D620 laptop that I bought on eBay a few years ago now because I wanted to get off the ancient Gateway desktop computer that was still hooked to a phone connection. I bought a bundle plan from AT&T that included digital phone, cable TV and broadband internet but I didn't do so until I had secured the laptop. So now that I have it, I find I can hardly get by without it. The biggest problem I seem to have with my laptop is the power supply. I bought what I thought was a new power adapter not long ago and it seems to have already gone kaput. As I write, I am using one of those universal adapters that don't charge the battery, so in order to get the computer to work, you have to pull the battery out and use strictly AC power supply., I know, this isn't the newest computer out there and the more recent ones probably have better power supplies and more powerful batteries, but this laptop was cheap, a mere $250, which at the time was perfectly within my budget. It's been a very sturdy and robust machine that can take a great deal of abuse, but I'd love it if I didn't have to have it plugged into a power supply in order to work. And you can't really keep it on your lap very long because it gets ridiculously hot. I wish I knew how to fix that problem. Right now it isn't doing that as badly as usual because I pulled the battery out, so it seems to be related to having the battery in that makes it run extremely hot to where the computer stops running very efficiently. Not really being terribly knowledgeable about laptops, I wish I knew how to solve the overheating problem. I don't know if I need a different power adapter and/or battery or what, and if anyone here knows the answer to my dilemma, I am all ears. Technology is great so long as it works. It's when it doesn't that it becomes intensely frustrating. Amazing how dependent on our computers we've all become. Even though the Internet hasn't been around that long, it's amazing how quickly we've adapted to having it at our fingertips anytime we want. It's a bit like having an entire library at your beck and call anytime you want.

In fact, I remember as a kid watching original series "Star Trek" and marveling at the idea of the "Library Computer", which is exactly the role our laptops and tablet computers play in our lives. We use them for just about every single aspect of our lives anymore, from banking to communicating to mapping out travel routes to everything else in between. I know that without a computer, I feel helpless, and that's pretty sad. I'm just so used to being able to satisfy my curiosity anytime I want by looking up anything that pops into my head at the moment. I also communicate with far off friends and relatives via the Internet and I use it to entertain myself by watching old movies or listening to music or a host of other functions. And of course, I write this blog here as well, so it allows me to stay in practice doing some writing. But oh, boy, was there a moment of panic earlier tonight when I couldn't even get this computer to turn on! It being just days before Christmas, there isn't a repair shop that could fix this laptop anytime soon if it needed a repair job, and anyway, I haven't started my Christmas shopping yet, so I need to save money for that! Well, I did manage to get the computer to turn on and work just fine by pulling the battery and then plugging the universal power cable in, so all is well, at least for now, anyway. It's obvious I need a new power adapter and battery, but I think I will wait until the after Christmas sales before worrying about that! For now, I have power and all is functioning just fine, at least for the moment, anyway..........