Monday, March 02, 2009
A near miss
On the day that experts predict a slump in PC sales, I just missed a motherboard burn-out ... a rogue USB port was to blame. It had stopped working and rather than throw it away take it to an electronics waste recycling point, I fiddled...trying a replacement power supply with the same(ish) power output.
The result: A catastrophic FAIL. The PC reacted badly - it blew all its cooling fans at max speed for four short bursts and then switched off. No shutdown, just off.
And of course it had everything attached to other USB sockets - the expensive fast CF flash card for the D-SLR, an iPod, a printer ... you name it. Fearing the worst I opened up the case and had a good sniff around (like a parent short-cut checking on a baby to see if the nappy needs changing!) but couldn't smell that fearsome smell of burning electronics ... so gingerly reconnected - and ... it all works.
Except that rogue USB device. That's in the (sin) bin.
The result: A catastrophic FAIL. The PC reacted badly - it blew all its cooling fans at max speed for four short bursts and then switched off. No shutdown, just off.
And of course it had everything attached to other USB sockets - the expensive fast CF flash card for the D-SLR, an iPod, a printer ... you name it. Fearing the worst I opened up the case and had a good sniff around (like a parent short-cut checking on a baby to see if the nappy needs changing!) but couldn't smell that fearsome smell of burning electronics ... so gingerly reconnected - and ... it all works.
Except that rogue USB device. That's in the (sin) bin.
Labels: tech
# posted by Nesjo : 21:24
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]