That week in 2019 when my old laptop died mid-deploy

I was pushing a simple CSS fix to a client site from a coffee shop in Austin when the screen just went black, fan spinning like a jet engine, and I lost the whole afternoon to a broken Ubuntu update plus a dead battery backup. Turns out my 2014 ThinkPad had a swollen battery that I'd ignored for months, and it finally gave up right before a demo the next day. Anyone else have a random hardware meltdown that forced them to rebuild their whole beginner setup from scratch?

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wright.leo16h ago

My 2015 Dell XPS 15 did the exact same thing except it was mid-merge on a client's staging branch, not a simple CSS push. I'd noticed the trackpad bulging for weeks and just assumed it was some rubber pad thing, then the whole bottom case cracked open like a book when I finally got the back off. I honestly think you got lucky it died when it did, that battery could've popped way worse in your bag or on your lap. Rebuilding from a fresh install is annoying but at least you caught it before it took out the whole drive.