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Friday, July 17, 2009

Why it's generally a good idea to stay in bed all day

Here I sit at my computer, barely up for the day, and I've already corrupted some important files and gotten super glue in the Micro USB port of a solid state drive (SSD).

I'm only up for a short bit anyway. I went to bed late, I woke up with an idea, and I'll probably go back to bed in a few hours, after this is done. Yeah, I'm weird like that.



I don't know if it's my Targus USB dock or a fluke in the WD Passport, the drive keeps disconnecting randomly. It also seems to disconnect any time I plug or unplug other items into the USB dock. This is what corrupted a bunch of my files, luckily it's for work so I keep everything backed up. I'd plug the Passport drive directly into my case's front USB port, but my mobo doesn't seem to supply enough power for it, thus the reason for the USB dock in the first place. I only need 8-12 GB for this project, so I decided I'd do a full scan of my 32GB Corsair Flash Voyager USB stick, which has been giving me problems lately. Well, tests show that the Corsair is full of physical errors, and probably too old to get a new one under warranty--not that it would make a difference, I need something NOW. I decided to sleep on it.

I woke up, remembering the 16GB Runcore SSD I bought for my eee901, which I later replaced with a 32GB one. It has a micro USB port on it, so I can use it as an external storage device. It's also lightning fast. The main problem is the flimsiness of the micro USB port. I used the 32GB one externally for a while, and the port eventually became loose, the solder coming off at the one of the connections. I decided I'd use this SSD, but first I'd reinforce the port and it's solder points with some super glue. I've done this before with USB stick drives that bent back and forth a little too much for my tastes, and it works great. This is what made me get up--I decided to glue it right away so it'd be dry and ready for wrapping with electrical tape later this afternoon.

Unfortunately, I neglected to remember the way Micro USB ports work. There is a hole on either side of the port that glue got into, which if I let dry would keep the cord from entering the socket at all. I got out a needle and a utility knife and slowly worked most of the glue out before it could dry. The cord still fits into the socket, no harm done, and I'll be more careful during future applications. It did occur to me that I could just glue the cord into the socket. I won't do it due to the law of unintended consequences. Who knows, as the glue dries it could warp the socket, breaking it off the board or something. No, better to continue applying thin layers (the needle helps with that too) until I have a nice solid shell around the delicates.

One more coat and I'll probably be ready to hit the sack again.

Till then,

David

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