Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with damaged

Can Asus EEE laptop be fixed after getting water spilled on it?

micketymoc — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:00:57 -0800

Asus EEE 1000h laptop, daughter spilled water over it. Won't turn on anymore. Help! Asking for a friend. Daughter spilled water on it. Let it dry out, and it still worked. 24 hours later, it wouldn't turn on anymore. Is repair still possible, or practical?

How do I dye my over-processed hair myself?

[insert clever name here] — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 06:46:01 -0800

I'm looking to start dying my hair at home. I'm considering semi/demi-permanent options and need more advice on what to choose. Previously having it done at a stylist. Color treated, previously bleached/highlighted, going-grey hair. Long time ago, I always dyed my hair with whatever box colors I could get ahold of. Some crazy colors, some more normal ones. About a year and a half ago, I decided I wanted to go blond (from unnatural reds - though my natural color is a medium ash brown - I think, its been a while.) The blond seemed to do a number on my hair and I got sick of the roots and the cost of the upkeep. So I had my hair stylist dye it to a caramel brown color, which she did the last two times I had it done. I was thinking I could save some cash by going back to dying it myself.

The reason I was thinking of going semi-permanent is that its less harsh on my hair, and I could do it more often to deal with the roots and the grey hairs. I hate the faded look my hair gets after a few weeks anyway, so I think with a semi-permanent I can do it more often. I'm not sure about the grey coverage though. Some people say semi-permanents work well, some say otherwise.

I've been looking at Clairol Natural Instinct, but also checked Makeup Alley and L'Oreal Color Gems sounds interesting and has a higher rating. But I'm nervous about the lack of "for dummies" box/packaging.

My hair is definitely overprocessed, both from the bleaching and because I usually style with a blow dryer and/or flat iron (if i don't, it's impossible to manage). I wash it every other day-ish, though I often rinse it every day. My hair is medium/short, but I'm trying to grow it out to at least shoulder length.

Bad haircut plus dry and damaged hair. What should I do?

likeapen — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:43:06 -0800

Bad haircut plus dry and damaged hair. What should I do? So i have armpit length, wavy, frizzy, coarse hair and a lot of it. I have been growing out my hair for the past year because of an awful haircut. Parted in the middle, the two sides do not pair up still. I want to keep it long so I am letting the one side catch up. I have only cut the ends every couple of months. I have colored my hair once this year. I always blowdry my hair or use a straightening iron. I like keeping my hair straight and sleek. Now it's dry, damaged and limp and it's screaming for help.

Does anyone know or recommend the following,

1) a treatment, conditioner anything to give my hair moisture and shininess, it can be a product or something I can make at home

2) a salon, hairstylist in New York City or Hoboken so I can get my hair cut and straightened. Max $125. That's my budget. I plan on cutting the ends only and possibly fixing the cut so it can look decent.

Plus any tips on how to keep it from getting worse or suggestions on fixing the haircut, should I style it now or let it grow til both sides are even?. Thank you.

What have we lost forever?

MrBCID — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:14:38 -0800

What significant items have been irretrievably lost? Back in 1906 a fire in San Francisco caused by a huge earthquake destroyed the Levi Strauss headquarters and factories; taking along with it many original designs.

Last Fall the fires in North San Diego destroyed the house of Paul Kassel who owned Mickey Mantle's last baseball jersey.

Is there a list out there that has compiled items or collections lost forever? For example irreplaceable items lost in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001?

How do I combine two identical damaged DVDs into one good one?

bakerybob — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 19:43:29 -0800

I have two DVDs with identical content, both damaged in different places. How can I combine the "good" data from each DVD to make one perfect copy? I burned two copies of a DVD of family footage, so that even if one disc had errors, we'd still have something to show the grandparents. However, both copies seem to have errors that prevent them from being copied correctly using a PC. So, for example, Nero says "Cannot copy this disk to a DVD", and DVD Decrypter craps out with sector errors (even if I select "Ignore").
However, it craps out at different places on each disk, so it seems like it should be possible to combine the data from the two disks to make one error-free "super-disk" that will rule us all, or at least play correctly. Google turns up nothing that seems relevant, although it may be a terminology problem.
So: How do I combine the data from two identical damaged DVDs into one good DVD?

Save my roommate's mp3 player!

Kellydamnit — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 17:08:23 -0800

Asking for my roommate: He just got stuck outside in a freak summer rainstorm. His mp3 player (a creative zen micro, if it matters) was in his (leather, normally fairly waterproof) bag. The rain was hard enough to drench everything in the bag. It got wet, and it looks like there's some water trapped in the display. Can it be saved? It was off at the time, and he hasn't tried to turn it on since (although he did briefly plug the charger in to see if it would respond- no dice.)

For those not familiar with it, the zen micro's a flash player with a rechargeable battery.

It's sitting in our not-terrably humid apartment right now, on a paper towel. Is there anything better we can do? (I've read about similar things in the past but couldn't find any on a search.)

Bypass administrator priveleges!?!?

nserrano — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 13:09:03 -0800

What did I do to gain Administrator privileges to install software and how can I do it again? Background info: I work for a company that restricts users to install software in the C:\Program files folder. People can't install Yahoo or MSN messenger nor programs that install themselves (meaning you can't change the installation location). I did however found out you can install a program directly to the c: drive or to the users folder, that is if you can change the location when installing the program. I also have access to manipulate the registry. This still does not let me install yahoo or msn messenger or a few other programs. I can't even pull up the date/time window.
What I did: I downloaded the trial version of ABBYY Finereader Pro and installed it successfully. When I tried to uninstall it through add/remove option in windows, it didn't let me (told me it was busy even after closing it in task manager) so I went to the registry and deleted all traces of the program (I went to find and searched everything with ABBYY and Finereader and just deleted everything that came up. I know that was stupid.) When I tried to install it again, it gave me a registry error so I couldn't install it again. I searched the internet with the error ("the configuration data for this product is corrupt") and was told to add an "installation key" and some other keys (one of the websites is http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=knowledgebase.techarticles.articleShow&d=24710). Also I downloaded PCmechanic and tried to fix the registry. The last thing was to download a program from microsoft )Windows Installer CleanUp Utility from http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301) to recover the registry (funny thing is that I could install everything else but not ABBYY again). after all those steps I was able to install ABBYY again. Something that I did or one of the programs I did gave me access to install any program I desired without the "Administrator access required" box. Can anyone tell me what I did and how can I do it again without doing all those steps again? I'm running Windows XP Pro. Let me know if you need any further information.

I just got my passport back from the dry cleaner

gesamtkunstwerk — Tue, 16 May 2006 14:22:07 -0800

Does anyone have recent experience with a damaged U.S. passport? When does one need to be replaced. I just got a jacket back from the dry-cleaner. I reached into my pocket and found that my new passport had been dry-cleaned. The inside is okay, but the photo looks a bit darker. The protective laminate is still in tacket, but slightly cracked. THe outside has been mostly erased, and the texture is now different.

Six years ago, I wouldn't have thought anything about it. But these days things seem a little touchy. Does anyone have recent experience with a damaged passport?

Replacing a damaged Powerbook Screen yourself?

Sevenupcan — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 15:44:00 -0800

Just recently my friend dropped his beloved 17" Powerbook G4, while the end result was pretty bad, as in the screen was completely smashed, the rest of the unit is still in good condition. Luckily I have been able to find a replacement screen at a pretty good price, and I am looking to replace/attach it myself. The only trouble is I don't know how hard this will really be. Which is why I am seeking your experience and advice. From what I have checked the new screen and the old damaged unit are compatible. What I'm not sure about is how to wire the new screen to the base of the old unit. Does anyone have any experience in this? What tools would I need probably need? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you for your time and effort,
Best regards,
Gavin

Should I ditch my cell phone provider?

kirkaracha — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 15:03:01 -0800

Should I ditch my cell phone provider? [more inside] I bumped my cell phone a while ago. I can dial and receive calls, but the screen's fading into oblivion like Marty McFly's photo in Back to the Future. So here's what happened:

Went on the customer service area of Cingular's web site. (Which is not connected to the account info; there doesn't seem to be a way to replace the phone from the account info area.)
Couldn't find info on replacing a damaged phone (they have info on replacing one that got damaged when they send it to you, but not on after it's your phone).
Called customer service, waded through the bewildering menus, and waited while being told many times that my call was very important.
Explained my situation to a customer service rep, who told me to place a new order through the site (I wanted to use the site because there was a web-only deal on a Bluetooth phone).
Placed the order.
Waited two weeks.
Checked the web site for an order status. No record of the order.
Called a customer service rep to check on the order. No record of the order.
Vividly expressed frustration with the user experience of the web site and phone menu system combined with a blantantly insincere assertion that I didn't blame the rep personally, and stated that I would cancel the account, but didn't actually cancel the account.
Stewed indecisively, while being irritated but not suprised when I got an email asking if I was sure I wanted to place the order.

I feel like I should cancel because the customer experience sucked (each interaction with them took about an hour between the web site and phone menus). But can I really expect any better from another company? Is proving a point they won't notice worth paying the contract buy-out? If I switch, what's a good OS X-compatible Bluetooth phone?

Special San Francisco-area question: who's got good coverage?