Everything free comes at a price. It’s a pretty cliche bit of advice, but it’s usually, true. Unless you know what you’re doing.

See why this guy’s knowledge became useless at home.

Literally seconds ago – home tech support (my shortest tech tale ever)

Have a few spare laptops around the house from tech donation when I left my old job.

My director said “They’ll just sit around otherwise, at least you’ll use them.”

There was a bit of a snag, though.

Battery’s shot on one of them, but it’s obviously fine when plugged in.

My wife is using one of them right now, so I walked over to check model numbers to look for a replacement battery on eBay.

She asks what I’m doing and I let her know. She asks why I think the battery’s shot.

I point to the orange flashing “NOT CHARGING” indicator.

She is about to learn something the hard way.

“No, hon, it is charging. Look.”

Unplugs laptop.

Aaaaaand whatever she was doing is gone now, since the battery’s not charging. She looked at me and said:

“Okay, maybe not.”

Here is what people are talking about.

You’re not talking about a car now, are you?

It’s a good quality.

A toddler CEO.

I bet she’ll love that.

Yours isn’t?

Always back up your work.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.