Turns out my eldritch nephew is a fancy boy.  When he was loading Linux on my computers, he was disappointed in the age of my computers.  My situation is better and worse than he knows.

Nobody cares about computer performance anymore.  Games and Windows bloat need better performance, but otherwise, computers aren’t working too hard.  The computer I am on right now is 13 years old.  Dell has current models that aren’t much more powerful.

This computer is 13 years old, so it’s not obsolete, but wear and tear is taking a toll.  The power button was getting dodgy.  This morning, I hit the power button a few dozen times, and the computer wouldn’t boot up.

I’m too lazy to buy a new computer, so this morning, I replaced the power switch.

I was bitter because I just wanted to drink coffee and stare at a screen, but my regular computer wouldn’t turn on .  I should not be dismantling a computer and soldering wires before 9 am.

It’s not a hard project.  Opening up the computer case is the trickiest bit.  Getting all of the panels off is like an ancient puzzle box. 

This is the button.  The power button is circled in red.

That assembly was easy to pop off.  I  cut the power wires, rerouted them, and solder a connector on for the new power button.

I drilled a hole in the front panel, mounted the switch and put the panels back on.  It works great, and looks like original equipment.  This red button switch should last for another 20 years.