Power Supply go kaboomWed., Mar. 30, 2005 22:11:49
I know this is a horrible excuse not to blog, but my computer is broken. Seems so typical doesn't it? Well, I'm not lying; I'm writing this from my laptop.
[commence typical intro] It all started a couple weeks ago, when my power supply stopped making that annoying whirring noise that power supplies make. I thought, "oh, this is nice, my computer is quiet now." Apparently, this whirring noise is a fan that has something to do with cooling the power supply, go figure. Over the next 36-48 hours my room smelled somewhat like burning electronics, though the computer was still operating fine. This smell eventually went away and I thought my problems were over.
What? Problems over? That doesn't happen! About a week later I turned my computer on and left the room. I came back a minute or two later and it was still off. Funny. I turned it on again and it ran fine that day. The following day the same thing happened, but I stayed in the room to witness the problem. About 5 seconds after turning the computer on, it died again, somewhere in the process of powering on all of the peripheral devices.
Hoping this symptom would go away, I continued using my computer normally. One time I turned the computer on and it lost power about 2 minutes later, meaning everything I had just opened to start working on was lost. Bad times.
Two nights ago there was a power surge. I think this was the final straw for my power supply. The next day after school when I went to turn it on, nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. For those of you non-computer people, this is not a good thing at all.
So what do I do? ...whip out the plastic. Within two minutes I had ordered a new power supply and a UPS (uninteruptable power supply (battery backup)) from an online computer store. I have no problem spending money when my life breaks. I mean, my computer breaks.
As an emergency backup, I ran downstairs to find another ATX power supply. I found one, but trying it with my motherboard I discovered that it must be an older version of ATX because it didn't have the extra 12v power connector I needed. Darn, no computer until the new power supply comes.
The power supply I ordered is a 400w SilenX. I knew what I wanted within two minutes of search the web because I had looked into SilenX a few months eariler. SilenX makes virtually silent power supplies. They even sell fanless power supplys for literal silence. I didn't opt for this model because it was about $250, a little over my emergency budget. The model I bought has one of their super-quiet fans. It should at least be quieter than my current power supply is, or was rather.
Not having a computer has left me with kind of a dilemma. Interestingly enough, not working hasn't been my biggest ailment. Not being able to download music is driving me crazy. I can't use the laptop because the hard drive isn't big enough, and I don't feel like installing the software. I've started a list of songs to download once I have my main computer working again. I did have to bend my no hard drive space problem a little to download the one on the top of the list though. Here's the list of songs in queue for download upon computer reinitiation: - Tegan and Sara - Walking with a ghost
- Presidents of the United States of America - Some Postman
- Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve
- ZTrip - Walking Dead
- Kaiser Cheifs - I Predict a Riot
- Bravery - Honest Mistake - Unconditional
I found a website to download a low quality version of Walking With a Ghost, and I've since listened to the song 12 times (according to Windows Media Player); I have it on repeat. Check out this link if you want to hear Walking With a Ghost.
Commentsgreat blog tom! love the song choices too! very cool. sucks about you computer, though. hope it gets fixed soon
Frieda Aw, Tom. Your computer broke. That totally sucks. I hope it gets fixed soon. You like Tegan and Sarah? That's totally awesome. They rock. You should blog more often though, like, daily or something. That would be totally cool.
Hayden Add Comment
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