The HP notebook computer (HP Pavilion DV8110-US) that I bought in late 2005 or early 2006 died on me in September of 2007. First, the fan quit working right and I thought it was just dust, but I was wrong. Then a couple of weeks later, the monitor started developing vertical red lines and I thought it was dirty connections, but I was wrong. I'm not a genius, but I was able to take it apart and clean everything. It was to no avail, because the problems did not disappear.

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I live in an area where we have frequent, unannounced brownouts. They can range from a few minutes to a few hours and there's no way to tell which is which until after the fact. The most frustrating part about not having electricity for more than a few minutes is that I no longer have an Internet connection for obvious reasons.

I had already planned to buy a diesel-powered backup generator for the house, and that plan still stands, but I've now added a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) to my backup plans, way ahead of anything else.

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