Grrrr! Don’t you hate it when you lose somethin…

Grrrr!

Don’t you hate it when you lose something you rely on daily? For some of you this if may be the car that takes you to work, or a pack of cigarettes, or a can of coke. For me, it’s my computer.

Some of you may think that is sad, but it is my lifeline. I’m a writer and having a hard drive filled with snippets of story ideas, plot outlines, character vingettes and other related paraphenalia that I can’t access is annoying to say the least. Plus there is also the fact that the computer is the cheapest and easiest way for me to communicate with my wife while we’re apart so having a working computer to me, sad or not, is a necessity that I can’t live without.

So anyways… for the last week or so my computer has been making a long drawn out death rattle of a noise. This isn’t surprising as it’s 4+ years old and has been in a constant state of upgrade since the day I got it back when P2 233Mhz was the coolest thing on the block. It’s had a good life, and while I want (and need) a new one, this one is all I can afford so I have to take care of it while I can.

Using the vast powers of psychic knowledge at my disposal, I decduced that the problem was the CPU cooling fan was giving out. Not a good thing to have fail, especially when my comp runs hotter than it should already. So a trip to the local radio shlock ensued and a replacement fan was procured. Bippety Boppity Boo. Replacement complete and everything is kosher again, though the comp is still making noises of it’s impending demise. Oh well I figure, it’s always been a noisy beast. There’s not a whole lot more that I can do.

Later that night, while I was surfing along merrily, the noise stopped and all was quiet. Hrrrm, I think to myself. This can’t be good. So I peek into the case and lo and behold the wee little bugger of a replacement fan had shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the choir invisible. Bereft of life, it rested in peace. It wouldn’t voom if I put four million volts through it. It was an ex-fan….

Right enough of the the Monty Python-isms. The fan was dead. No big deal, I’ll just go take this one back and find a decent one at a different computer store. Trip to the store #1 resulted in a dud fan that went about as far as a talking slug. Back to the store I went and returned el-duddo and garnered myself a replacement.

So go to put in the new fan and everything looks copacetic. Press power to test it and nada. Nothing. Not a sausage. Bugger all. I double check my connections just to make sure nothing is loose. I even went so far as to try the original mr squeaky fan that was the start of this adventure. Still nothing.

Next stop. The almighty guru on top of the mountain… or in my case. My dad, in the basement. I take the wounded beast of a machine to him and Mr. Wizard whips out the old tricorder and pronouces my power supply kaputski. My best guess is that I must have shorted it out somehow when I was replacing things. Either that or karma really IS a bitch.

So, delving into my ever-shrinking pocketbook, I buy me a new powersupply today. And voila all is right in the world once more.

Thus endeth the lesson.