Welcome Back Readers. Wow, this feels like I’m guest posting on my own blog. I’m hoping my computer will behave itself long enough for me to get this written.
For the last month or so the computer has been turning on when it wants to. It started with a simple reboot. But then it “hung up”. “Froze”. “Stopped”. No sweat. I pushed the master reboot switch, aka the Power Switch. Nothing, Nada, Zip. Le Mort. Deader than Kennedy.
“What the Hell??”
I’ve built a couple of computers in my time. I don’t panic. I crank open the hood on this puppy to see what’s sprung loose. There seems to be a desert inside my pc. Okay, I’m not exactly Johnny on the Spot when it comes to dusting the inside. I dutifully dump a full can of air into the guts. Dust flies everywhere. “Cough, cough”. Push switch. Nada.
It looks like I’m going to late for work so that’s it for now.
Eight hours later. I come home and rip this sucker apart. I’m thinking “Bad Switch”. Everything looks okay. I put everything back where it was. The next morning, I smack the power button on my way to the kitchen. Guess what? It fired up like nothing else ever happened. “What the…..”
I fix a cup of coffee and sit down. I push the power switch. Off she goes. Okay…..push again. NOTHING! Fuck. Push, push,push,push (way more than I can type here). Nothing.
When I’m stumped I call Number One Son (Super Genius). I have never heard of a intermittent power supply, but he has. “It’s going out”, he says. Okay. I call the computer shop in town and they have a power supply for $40. BUt then while discussing this problem with my co worker he says he has a spare power supply. My first thought is “Cool!” My second thought is who keeps spare power supplies around the house. I drag my pc carcass into work and take a close look at his power supply. Not the right geometry. The cooling fan will be blocked by the top of the case. Mother board connector doesn’t have enough sockets to cover my pins.
Nice try.
When I get it home, all I do is plug the power cord in and push the button. It fires up. HUZZAH! No wait…nothing is hooked up. I frantically plug everything in and pray. No video signal. Maybe Windows 7 didn’t see it on the boot. I push the power button. Off she goes and stays that way. Damn.
The next morning she fires up quite nicely thank you. Now I’m convinced it’s possessed. It’s on and I leave it on. It goes through the weekend no problem. The computer store doesn’t have the power supply in stock anyway. I stock up on canned air instead. I celebrate by getting a new webcam. A VX-800 with the microphone built in. I plug that in and pray and although it does a really nice picture there’s no audio driver. Anywhere.
This is my video test drive of the new webcam. It recreates most of my reactions during this power problem.
Life is Good…for about a week.
Then we get a thunderstorm. I go to bed because I think thunderstorms are soothing. In the morning I notice the computer is off. We must of lost power. Push the button. Nada. Shit…… I get to spend the day plugging and unplugging the power cord. Work intrudes again. When I get home I push the button and she fires up like blonde on Prom night, I’m used to this now. I thank the pc for allowing me to be on the Internet. But just as a settle into some Backyard Monsters there’ s a rumble of Thunder outside and just like that we lose power. But it’s what I call a “Bump”. the power is back on it a second. the clock doesn’t even reset. The DirectTV starts to reboot. But the computer is dead again.
That was last Monday. Now it’s Friday and I’m resigned to take it to the shop and let them figure it out.
BUT WAIT!!!!
It fired up last night and rebooted while I was sleeping. Now I’m pounding this blog out before anything else happens.
Seriously, do any of you my Loyal Readers have any idea on how to fix this? A new one won’t be possible until January so that’s out. Besides, Rosie has first dibs on a new computer for school.
Also read….
The Big Computer Blow Up
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