Taking Apart My Computer...Again

------------------------------- Before Story ---------------------------------

To see the whole thing, let's start several years ago when my family went to visit my dad in Pennsylvania while he was on a short parole. He was staying at his moms house and (needless to say) it was hell being there. The only good thing was that during that time, my CREEPY/CRAZY Grandma funded a trip for our whole family to visit Washington DC for a day. It was fantastic! The bus was great, the monuments were amazing, the National Archives were incredible, and the Space Museum was breath-taking (at that age). The only disappointing part was the walk, the line at the archives, and the fact that we didn't get to visit the Library of Congress. Anyway, we didn't have a camera, but my dad let me take pics and vids on his little phone. Now I had forgotten that completely until four months ago I was digging through my electronics box and found it lying there. Then I remembered him telling me to keep it when we boarded the plane home. So I took the memory card out of the phone and stuck it in a little slot in my computer that said it read memory cards. Well, it was too small and I ended up accidentally pushing it all the way into the computer slot thing...wherever. I meant to take it appart then but got distracted and forgot all about it...

---------------------------------- Now --------------------------------------

So last night, I was bored, it was 11:15 pm, I couldn't go to sleep, and my whole family was snoring. (Yes, literally) So I decided to finally extract it from the computer because I really wanted to see the pictures from DC. So with as little noise as I possibly could, I fetched a screwdriver. The sound was catastrophic. I ended up dropping the screwdriver from four feet above the dryer and it echoed through the house. The dog came in and the cat followed, but thankfully no people. I waited a few minutes before moving and went back to my room. Taking the thing apart was fairly simple...

...but the SD Card reader is wedged under the motherboard, the green plate. So without dislodging the motherboard (or destroying it [too much]) I destroyed the SD slot trying to get the card out.

...for those of you who don't know, that is not the way the SD slot is suppoe to work. I accepted the fact that I could never use it again and kept digging and finally the Memory Card was in sight...

...and I got it! Yea...

...So then the problem was putting the computer back together. I didn't think it would be all that hard, but just to prove me wrong, it gave me some problems. The first of which being the (removed) disc, CD player...

...I broke the showing outside part off while trying to force it into its compartment. It wouldn't fit.so with some extra screws and a snap part, I finally connected the two parts again, but still couldn't get it into the slot. I managed to cram it in there, but I still don't know if it works. Hang on real quick...

(Sticking in the disc closest at hand, a Chessmaster 2000 disc)

The answer is no, my disk drive is no longer being recognized by the computer, I'll have to fix that. I finally got most of the computer back together...

...when I encountered my next problem. A slight deformity with the keyboard...

...That's not the way a keyboard is suppose to look ladies and gentlemen. When I turned it over, I freaked out and frantically searched for a sign of the cause. After 5 minutes I realized that I had put the long screw in the short screw hole and it had pushed the keys up. Yeah, fun. I ended up doing the same thing in another place and now the touchpad keyboard is unresponsive. Then I felt like I was done, everything looked swell. So I plugged it in and turned it on hoping that a flood of power wouldn't explode the demolished SD unit, or the disc drive, or my touchpad, or maybe the battery....pretty much my whole computer. :) Thankfully, nothing exploded and besides not booting up and shutting down every once in a while, it seems to be functioning properly. :D

.....And yes, my desktop picture is my cat in the Spearmint plant. :D