Your computer asplode

February 4, 2008 09:21 PM

I had an interesting surprise today. For pretty much the entire day, I was unable to remote desktop into my computer at the house. Further investigation turned up that, even from my Linux box at the house, I couldn't even get a ping from my desktop. Hmm.

So I booted it up after I got home, and after a while, it just shut off on me. Hmm. I opened it up and cleaned out all the dust I could without having any compressed air. It booted and ran for a while, but eventually stopped again. I should mention that both of these sudden shutdowns happened while I was in the process of writing my "Music Game" blog post. Dangit.

The brief smell of smoke or burning or something hung in the air when I got home. The power supply also seems to be the warmest part of the computer after each shutdown. I'm thinking the issue is with the power supply fan--I'm not hearing or feeling it work after I boot up the computer. That would be all well and good since I could just change the power supply, except I have an HP with one of those screwy mini power supplies. Lovely.

So I'm glad I never got that NAS, because it looks like I'm going to have to get me a new computer soon.

Comments

You can probably replace the fan

Steve Barbour • February 5, 2008 07:51 AM
If you're game, you can probably replace the fan. Just be careful when opening the PS, the capacitors can give a nasty shock if you're not careful. I've done it a time or two in my younger, hardware hacking days.

If you need a hand, let me know.

--Steve Barbour (from ETNUG)
http://lifecodeeverything.wordpress.com

Replacing the fan

Dylan Wolf • February 5, 2008 08:16 PM
Thanks. Since I have my work laptop, I'm not dying to get my desktop up and running. Within the next couple days I'll probably put it back together and give it another go, and if that doesn't work I may give replacing the fan a shot. It's been years since I've done anything as far as computer hardware goes, so I'm pretty sure I'll screw it up.

The computer's fairly old, so I'm not going to be heartbroken if I need to replace it.

Mini power supplies...

Der Klown • February 8, 2008 09:44 PM
Mini ATX power supplies aren't actually that hard to get. Check eBay - you should be able to get one for about $15 plus shipping, so $35 total, give or take.

The shutdown thing seems to me like it'd be more than just the fan. It's usually much easier just to replace the entire supply rather than dicking around with the fan. There's a reason that it has a bigass warning sticker on it that says "No User-Servicable Parts Inside". The only times I've just replaced the fan is because it was in a really weird power supply, like some of the old Gateways and Compaqs. HP generally uses standard hardware, so it's not that hard to get a replacement part.

Usually, by the time the fan starts going out, something else inside the power supply is nearing the end of its lifespan, too. You're better off just yanking the whole thing.

Also, you may want to check your CPU fan. The shutdown thing makes me think your chip's temperature is getting high enough to trigger the board's protection. Usually this is because the CPU fan isn't circulating air like it should. Haven't been getting any blue-screen 0E errors, have you?