Valentine?s evening, 10 PM. The whole house was quiet, and I couldn?t sleep. I thought I would get up and do some work on the computer (OK, read some blogs, pre-write some of my own posts - that type of work). I turned on the computer, it booted up and I clicked on the email icon.
The computer shut itself off - and not nicely
I started the computer, it booted up and Windows got going. Everything is fine. I clicked on the Internet.
The computer shut itself off.
Now I'm getting peeved (remember all the trouble I went through just a month ago; reformatting and such?). I restart the computer and hit F8 repeatedly, until it starts in Safe Mode. Beautiful, now I can trouble shoot except . . .
The computer shut itself off.
Alright, I get out the screw driver and open up the case. I turn on the computer just long enough to check that the fan over the Pentium chip is working. Fine, the fan?s doing its thing so I shut off the computer before it gets very far into booting up.
I unplug the power cord, touch some metal to discard any static charge I?ve built up and check all the connections as well as make sure that everything is well seated. I plug the power cord back in and start up the computer, but immediately shut it back down as I notice all the dust in the fan and air outlet of the power supply.
I have compressed air, I can take care of that. I blow off the fan for the chip, blow off the memory chips, blow off the air outlets for the power supply and blow out the dust to the power supply fan. At this point in time, I suddenly remember that I never unplugged the power cord. A nanosecond later, I hear the sounds of something frying. I unplug the power cord as the innards of the power supply start smoking.
I go upstairs and read a book for a couple of hours before finally succumbing to the need for sleep.
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