Double teamed by HP and I emerged victorious

So a few weeks ago our HP monitor just went black. I could tell that the backlight was still coming on and there was still sounds coming out of the speakers but there was nothing displaying on the screen. A few days later it mysteriously started working again. Fate killed it again on black Friday so I upgraded to a 36" television. Unfortunately even with the increase in size, the monitor had a better resolution so I decided I would take the monitor to the electronics market and see how much it would be to fix. Fate struck again when the service man plugged it in to see what the problem was, it turned on again. I decided that it must not be a serious hardware problem since it kept mysteriously fixing its self that it was probably a loose wire and something that I could probably fix. Unfortunately, this monitor had no visible screws and I had no idea how to open it without breaking it. After the monitor stopped working again for the 3rd time, I decided I had nothing to loose so I took the plastic pry tools from my bike tire changing kit and went at it. After trying for a while it was obvious that there were four screws holding the shell on from the other side. I could not find any assembly manuals online so I decided to do it the Cottrell way (got a bigger hammer). I drilled out the screws from the back and pulled the shell off. I jiggled all of the wires put it back together and it is as good as new notwithstanding the four new holes in the back.

The next mess was one that I have faced before. My laptop and I have been through a lot. A couple of years ago I tripped over the power cable and broke the connection between the power jack and the motherboard. I found a service manual online, bought a soldering iron and was able to put a bead to restore the connection. Two years and one kid later, Logan's was building a fort out of chairs and blankets and snagged the cord resulting in my bead cracking. I knew what was involved in fixing it but my soldering iron runs on butane and I haven't picked any up since our move to Korea. Luckily I found out that Zippo fuel was a suitable replacement for the soldering iron butane and picked some up today at the four-seasons.
This is what my kitchen table looked like today...
This is the new bead. One of these days I am just going to have to spend the $2 to buy a new power jack.
Logan said a prayer for me and with a little luck and one left over screw... It lives yet again. Six years and counting!