I came home this evening to a dead computer. The computer in reference is my laptop which I use to trade, so it has all my trading applications and backtesting software installed. I did back it all up about a month ago, so likely nothing major is lost.
I’m thinking that it might just need a new AC power adapter/charger as the light does not light up on the charger brick anymore when plugged into the wall, and the laptop appears to be getting no power. Because the battery ran out of charge, it is difficult to determine if it is a motherboard issue. Unfortunately, when I got out my voltmeter to test the cord, I discovered that non-use of the meter over the past 5 years resulted in it corroding to the point where it no longer works. Can’t catch a break tonight. If it turns out to be the cord, then I should be back in business within a few days or so. If not, I will likely be upgrading to a new laptop. At least it is a good time of year to be making such a purchase.
Unfortunately I am left with only a little netbook, and it is not going to handle my trading applications. Until I get back up and running, I am not going to be able to run my nightly scans and tests. Blogging may be light until I get things figured out.
Should things take longer than I expect to work out, I’ll just have to pirate my wife’s awesome new laptop.
I absolutely hate when this kind of stuff happens.
If it’s an HP Pavilion Dv7 series it will be the motherboard. They are junque.
Nope. Lucky, I guess.
Might I suggest moving your development system to EC2?
What is EC2?
Amazon’s EC2 aka “the cloud”. As far as moving everything onto the cloud, your guess is as good as mine.
By moving your development system to an Amazon virtualised system you bypass normal hardware failures such as you’re experiencing.
Though if Amazon goes down you, along with a significant part of the internetz will too…
Wood, there’s big things happening in the laptop space right now with the emergence of a new class called Ultrabooks
You should check them out, priced in the 1000$ range, they use SSD (solid state drive) instead of the traditional HDD (making them faster and slimmer than before)
There is not many out yet but the 2 best are the Asus UX31 and the Lenovo U300s
If you can wait til January the market is supposed to be flooded with more models
NOTE: SSD and related stocks are going to be my main focus in 2012 barring any global melt-down
Links to some reviews:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/21/asus-zenbook-ux31-review/
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/13/lenovo-ideapad-u300s-review/
SSDs are great – I have two computers with them as the primary drive. It’s the kind of technology that, once used, you’ll never be able to go back because it is so far superior to anything before it. Now when I use computers with only HDDs I feel like they’re dinosaurs.
HOWEVER, SSDs do fail on a more regular basis than regular HDDs. One of mine has failed twice for no obvious reasons – the disk lost its boot sector. I was able to recover both times, after a pretty arduous process of scanning and looking for the lost sector, but it is also possible, in some cases, for them to brick and you’ll lose everything on it, as well as computer functionality. So I’d caution using it if you don’t know how to recover from such a crash, if it happens.
I just ordered an Intel 320 SSD yesterday for my HTPC. Now all of our computers will have them! These are quickly becoming all the rage.
Thanks for the advice guys. Really appreciate it. I’ll look in to SSD. I can take care most computer problems myself, especially hardware related.
What we have here is essence how economy works in a nutshell. Things break down and have to be replaced. Hopefully with better product.
Seems like your computer could have used a social security net 😛
Seriously though, condolences, I know what a pain technical problems are. Hopefully you can use this as an excuse to upgrade.
Sorry to hear that, Wood. They don’t build things like they used to. And planned obsolescence is a crying shame. I hope you get it resolved soon.
Wood, quickest fix: hop onto ebay and find an exact match, then swap the hard drives. Once you repair the original, you’ll have your new spare.
I like that idea, a lot. Thanks!
I’d blame it on global warming and Obama
lol. Yep!
If the AC Adapter doesn’t light up when it is plugged into the wall, and NOT the laptop, it would be an issue with the AC Adapter.
If the problem is the AC Adapter, it is a very cheap fix. Less than $20 at ebay.
It doesn’t light up at all, even when NOT plugged into the laptop. I’ve already ordered one. Turned out to be about 40 bucks after paying for fast shipping. I also bought an OEM one due to the numerous stories out there about cheap power adapters failing within weeks of purchase.
Not trying to be a jackass, but check to make sure that you haven’t tripped a breaker……happens.
I have a backup laptop with all of the software and applications loaded and I update it monthly. That way if my main pc dies,(happened last month)I am back in business in 30 minutes. It is worth the $500 it cost me.
While I am hesitant to offer tech advice to someone who owns their own VOLTMETER, depending on the financial risk for computer downtime investing in a real backup system and possibly a hot spare could be relatively inexpensive.
Claim it all under Section 179 for 2011 and build yourself something completely bulletproof with cloud backup.
If you are mostly web based (who isn’t nowadays) just get a Google Chromebook. Stateless cloud device that boots in <10 seconds.
Hi there..lol at voltmeter reference.
Since I don’t typically daytrade, most of my orders can be placed using tradestation or IBs online platform, so in most circumstances, I’m placing orders outside of regular market hours. I can also place orders at work or using my wife’s laptop, so it is not so crucial for me as it may be for a daytrader or someone who needs to adjust positions during market hours.
However, I cannot test and anaylze as I need to, and that is handicapping me as I rely on the signals for trades.
Here are the results: Buying every 3 day rally in excess of 5%…
exiting trade 1-20 days ….
every single equity curve is neg. !!
http://www.dailyfx.com/forex/video/technical_analysis/2011/12/01/Extent_of_Aussie_Rally_is…Bearish.html
Hi Woodie
Looks like the ROC indicator is signaling sell at the close today. Maybe time for a small update?
Would love to but I don’t yet have access to all of my backtesting software or data.
Ok, good luck with re-establishing your system. I know it can be a pain in the arse.
A little late but two comments:
1) You can buy a case allowing you to take out your laptop hard drive and use it as an “external” hard drive with another computer. This should allow you to salvage the data even if the computer is dead. (Unless it is the hard drive itself that is the problem, but if that was the case the computer would probably turn on.)
2) For your next computer, try getting a dual drive laptop so you can run mirrored drives (RAID 1). This will provide data redundancy; if one drive fails, you just boot from the other drive. It also allows you to take one drive out if you have a problem while leaving the other drive in while you try to fix the computer.