Annnnd that would be the laptop dying.

It’s giving me a IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error – I’ve already tried and failed to fix things using the instructions that are there – which suggests that there’s a hardware problem. Not all that surprising, really: it’s old – not old old, but my wife used it until the hard drive failed, then passed it along to me for fixing so that I’d have a laptop for the Republican National Convention.

The replacement parts are probably going to be less than getting a new laptop; unfortunately, neither repair nor replacement is in the budget right now. Much as I hate to shake the can for the tip jar, having a laptop does make it easier for me to do blogging for both here and Redstate.  And we’re not being paid over there, more’s the pity.