web analytics

shit.

My computer died this afternoon.

I woke it up from hibernation and it tripped a house circuit. When the power was restored, I hit the switch and…nothing. Not a flicker.

Is that the power supply? It sounds like the power supply.

That leaves me with a dilemma. Power supply is a trivial fix, but this is already a ten-year-old computer. It’s been an excellent one (I always stretch my budget to get the bestest machine I possibly can), but it’s had other hiccups.

In fact, there’s a chance the fancy new graphics card may have overloaded the power supply. I don’t know. Does it work like that?

Anyway, I’ll open it up over the weekend and see if there’s a…fuse or short or something. Like I could spot that. And then I have to make a painful choice.

What am I typing on now? I have a vintage 2003 XP machine up in my workroom that I use exclusively to look at pictures of chickens. Anything more sophisticated than that (like surfing the internet) and it whines and cries and gets the hives.

I’ll keep you posted.

p.s. Unkawill wins the Dead Pool with Roy Clarke. Despite my…issues…there will be a new Dead Pool tomorrow. Same weasel time, same weasel channel.

Comments


Comment from Jeff Weimer
Time: November 15, 2018, 7:57 pm

Power Supply? Almost certainly. Tripping a circuit is a hard short at the input. You’ll likely see something burnt. Hopefully it didn’t harm anything in the computer.

New Video Card? Quite possibly what ruined the power supply. New ones nowadays come with power supply wattage requirements. Check the manual and see what it recommends vs. what you have.


Comment from gromulin
Time: November 15, 2018, 8:01 pm

Surely it just heard the news about Roy Clarke and joined him in solidarity.


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: November 15, 2018, 8:17 pm

What Jeff W. said. The power supply tripped your breaker before it (or as it) went down for the eternal siesta, but it very possibly failed because it was feeding something greedy like your video card. It has been a couple of years but the last time I looked high-end power supply prices were three-digit numbers of dollars.

I’ve been in this dilemma myself. With complete certainty about the nature of the problem, a couple of hundred bucks to fix it isn’t out of the question. The problem is it is completely certain that you won’t have complete certainty.


Comment from Weasel via phone
Time: November 15, 2018, 8:18 pm

Aw. Roy Clarke died? Did anyone have him in the Dead Pool?


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: November 15, 2018, 8:20 pm

Oh, yeah. Dead Pool. If you’re asking for a show of hands, you can take mine as raised saying I’ll forgive you if you let the DP slide a week. In fact, I won’t even grumble a little bit!


Comment from thefritz
Time: November 15, 2018, 8:20 pm

Unkawill is the winner….


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: November 15, 2018, 8:35 pm

“I have a vintage 2003 XP machine up in my workroom that I use exclusively to look at pictures of chickens>”

You pervert!


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 15, 2018, 9:16 pm

Nah, Dead Pool is no problem. It’s just a cut and paste job.

Even DOS could cut and paste. (No, wait…it couldn’t, could it?).


Comment from Sigivald
Time: November 15, 2018, 9:28 pm

New computer. Migrate the graphics card if it’s good.


Comment from Mark Matis
Time: November 15, 2018, 10:10 pm

Good 750 watt power supplies are not that expensive:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438017

And even if you take it up to 1 kW so you can heat your house with it, that’s only $120. Amazon looks like they have the same pricing. I prefer NewEgg when prices are similar because NewEgg actually provides useful information about the products they sell…


Comment from Mark Matis
Time: November 15, 2018, 10:22 pm

VAT inclusive price for you UKers:
https://www.newegg.com/global/uk-en/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817438017


Comment from unkawill
Time: November 15, 2018, 11:40 pm

I’m happy I won. Not Happy that Roy Passed. He was a virtuoso on anything with strings.


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: November 16, 2018, 3:24 am

@Mark Matis – Wow. Prices sure have come down. It must be longer than I thought since I looked at that stuff.


Comment from BJM
Time: November 16, 2018, 4:09 am

Could be the motherboard.

I have a 2004 Dell XP laptop that monitors our home network & security and it handles HD camera images without complaint.


Comment from BJM
Time: November 16, 2018, 4:23 am

This is off topic but I wanted to share with youse guys. A hankie may be required. As some of you may know writer & blogger Gerard Van Der Luen lost his home and possessions in the Paradise fire.

His posts since the fire are touching and show just how resilient we Americans are. Start with today’s The orchard at the end of Paradise


Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: November 16, 2018, 12:17 pm

Migrant graphics card destroys power supply!

Trying my hand at a little sensationalist journalism.

Very sorry to hear Stoaty – losing the system is (unprintable)
Sadly it means the ‘bad news’ from all over lately has slopped over into Castle Badger.


Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: November 16, 2018, 12:26 pm

BJM – that post must have had a lot of the smoke from the fires in it so you were right about the hanky… but thanks, it reminded me how freaking lucky I really am.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: November 16, 2018, 1:34 pm

I know zip about computers but I know this: my Dell acts badly when it falls into hibernation. I don’t understand it, but if I’m going to be away from my computer for even an hour, I shut it down completely. Oh yeah—don’t buy a Dell. I loved Dell for decades, but I am done.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 16, 2018, 4:51 pm

Yeah, BJM, I don’t really understand why this computer is so bad. I rescued it from the dumpster at work. Its *one job* was to display our web page to visitors, so I’m sure the spec is suck. It is a Dell, though. Our IT guy likes Dell.


Comment from Steve Skubinna
Time: November 16, 2018, 7:00 pm

Just saw that William Goldman died.


Comment from BJM
Time: November 17, 2018, 4:18 am

Stoaty, I do too, Dells are easy to maintain, expand and provision. I’ve literally bought hundreds of them over the years, in all sorts of specs/configs, and never had a DOA or a problematic machine that wasn’t human caused.

So nothing happens when you power on? No post beep (one short beep)? Nada, zilch. Dead as Hillary’s chances of becoming president?

Open the case and power up, look for the PSU green light, if the light is lit then it’s not the PSU and still not posting, then the motherboard is non-funzione.

The newer card would require the bus to run more power between components and could exceed the PSU and/or motherboard’s limits leading to failure…although the culprit is usually a power surge or a voltage dip…motherboards hateses power fluctuations.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 17, 2018, 2:45 pm

Absolutely nothing. I had the lid off and tried again, but I didn’t look for the green light. Frankly, it’s probably time to splash out. I’ve been thinking about it forever.

I’m assuming a PC spec’ed for gaming would also be good for Photoshop and 3D modeling. ‘Spensive.


Comment from Sorry Precious
Time: November 18, 2018, 11:57 pm

Roy was twice national banjo champion.

Buck was pickin’
Roy was grinnin’

Speaking of Banjos, Butch Robin’s ’40 Years Late’ is a treat if you like that sort of stuff.

Write a comment

(as if I cared)

(yeah. I'm going to write)

(oooo! you have a website?)


Beware: more than one link in a comment is apt to earn you a trip to the spam filter, where you will remain -- cold, frightened and alone -- until I remember to clean the trap. But, hey, without Akismet, we'd be up to our asses in...well, ass porn, mostly.


<< carry me back to ol' virginny