Re: Things you never want to see your computer do.
Posted by Tricob on .
Quote from Vimm:
>Yes, sparks are the last possible thing you want to see coming from your computer.
Amen. :-)
It was different circumstances, but the computer I'm using now actually burned up once before, when it was used by a different owner. Turned out so much dust had collected around the power supply fan that it caught fire. The owner said I could have the machine if I could get the data off of it for him (which I did via Data CD). I did manage to have the power supply replaced and was told by a professional how to keep the burn-up incident from happening again; just fan out particular parts of the machine at least once a month (the power supply fan, for one). If I started to smell something burning from your machine, that was pretty much an indicator for me to turn the machine off and turn the cleaning fan on.
Whatever happened to the good old days when we needed no fans of any sort for our machine? In additional to excessive (and Windows-wasted) horsepower that adds to our electric bill, we're paying to power the chip's cooling fan as well. The only reason I want so much processing speed is because Windows XP wastes away so much of it. I'd switch to Linux if I just had Cable Internet and a little bit of time to learn the OS.
- Tricob.
"Glass Tiger for life!
"
I used to think that smoke was the worst possible thing you could see coming from your computer.
When I entered the room today I thought I smelled something burning. At first I figured it was just the heating system, but that's not right for this time of year. I followed my nose and quickly ended up at the power supply of a Vimm's Lair server. Oddly enough, the server was chugging along just fine. Well, a computer smelling like smoke is never a good thing but it was still running, so I hit the power button. It didn't want to shut down gracefully so I held it in to force it. And that's when the fireworks started. The back of the system started shooting out blue sparks like it was the fourth of July and the whole room flickered along. I yanked the cord from the wall, even though it's connected to a battery backup and can still run fine unplugged. Fortunately I think the battery died a few months ago so it's not much more than a heavy surge protector now, and the computer immediately stopped sparking.
Yes, sparks are the last possible thing you want to see coming from your computer.
When I entered the room today I thought I smelled something burning. At first I figured it was just the heating system, but that's not right for this time of year. I followed my nose and quickly ended up at the power supply of a Vimm's Lair server. Oddly enough, the server was chugging along just fine. Well, a computer smelling like smoke is never a good thing but it was still running, so I hit the power button. It didn't want to shut down gracefully so I held it in to force it. And that's when the fireworks started. The back of the system started shooting out blue sparks like it was the fourth of July and the whole room flickered along. I yanked the cord from the wall, even though it's connected to a battery backup and can still run fine unplugged. Fortunately I think the battery died a few months ago so it's not much more than a heavy surge protector now, and the computer immediately stopped sparking.
Yes, sparks are the last possible thing you want to see coming from your computer.