Such a Cliche

My laptop warranty expired at the end of September. By the end of November, the battery would no longer hold a charge for more than a couple of minutes at a time. By the end of December, the laptop would not boot up unless it was plugged in for the battery to charge up to at least half way, and then only if you left it plugged in the whole time-- kind of defeating the main purpose of having a laptop. So I went online and bought a new battery on eBay, thinking that would buy me a little more time before I have to go buy another laptop. Our cash is otherwise spoken for at this very moment, so I couldn't really go out and just buy another laptop anyway, unless I decided to buy a strange off-brand with no memory from some place like Bob's House of Laptops, and that just seems short-sighted.

I got the new battery in record time, charged it up and WOO HOO! the laptop works again. WorkED again. Because, hahahahahaha, now it's making a very loud grinding, whirring noise that, to judge by the search results on google, probably means the hard drive is about to go.

So. Fun!