Computers Suck!

[Captain]

Pardon my French... it's been a rough month or so computer-wise...

We had a nice big thunderstorm around Christmas time... and my computer, which was honestly set to restart in the event of a power outage for good reason, rebooted when the power came back on (and I was at work)... only the power supply's fan didn't bother to come back on... so it overheated... only it's right next to the processor and mother board... both of which overheated... In other words, the Alpha King (my computer's name) died. I know I'm not the most knowledgeable or charismatic member of the forums here... but if anyone was wondering where I popped off to... that would be why I haven't been around... But I managed to talk my mom out of an old 1.3 GHz celeron PC she had sitting in a closet... so I'm at least checking email (and not doing much else) at home again...

Anyway, just wanted to say "Hi!" since I was back...

[cessna152towser]

It seems that fried motherboard is the commonest cause of death for computers. Eventually this one will need replaced as its coming up for its fifth birthday. I've become so dependent on the computer, not just for games, forums, photography, e-mail, e-bay etc. but I also use it for most of my work, so when it goes it will need to be replaced immediately. I'm taking my wife to Edinburgh for a week at the beginning of February as she needs a change of scene but without the computer I'm going to be lost there for something to do if the weather's bad.

[Caradoc]

It seems that fried motherboard is the commonest cause of death for computers.

:%s/fried motherboard/operator error/

There. Fixed that for you.

That said, I'm not trying to imply that this particular problem was operator error - but I'm at a loss to explain why a fan wouldn't come back on when the computer came back on unless it had an awful lot of hours on it, and froze a bearing when it powered down.

[Captain]

8 years with hardly any down time enough for a fan to shut down?

Trust me... I've been building computers for quite some time now, this wasn't a case of operator error

[Zyzzyx]

Eight years? Yeah, that'd do it.

[Jerry]

Sorry to hear about the computer problems. I went through a similar problem during the summer. Mine wasn't a fried MB. I upgraded to a new M<B and processor, and the old power supply wouldn't handle it. It took a while to find a reliable replacement (don't buy a Chiefmax, no matter what the ratings). I am fortunate to have an old laptop as a backup, so I wasn't totally without net access.

[Bob C]

Since you build computers, you probably don't need me to tell you that you can probably salvage the hard drive from the failed computer and install it as a slave in the celeron machine, so you can rescue your data.

[Caradoc]

8 years with hardly any down time enough for a fan to shut down?

Trust me... I've been building computers for quite some time now, this wasn't a case of operator error

Yep. 8 years of constant spin with no shutdown is more than enough to do it.

It happens to a lot of moving components. Fans and hard drives are the most common for shutdown freezes.

And, as I mentioned, I wasn't implying that your case was operator error - I was simply stating that operator error is the most common reason that things get buggered up.

If you've been building machines for quite some time, you've more than likely had several people ask you questions about why their machines don't work that have been obviously egregious operator error.

[McClef]

I had two drives which were too close to each other and prevented the heat from dissipating properly.

Could only recover data from one of them, fortunately nothing major was lost and I had backups.

Now I just have one larger drive but with plenty of air circulating around it.

[cessna152towser]

Now I just have one larger drive but with plenty of air circulating around it.

Computers are like us, they'd rather wear kilts than trousers