Power Tripping and V for Vexation
Posted by Joni in General
When it rains (literally) it pours (figuratively). There was lightning storm that passed through here last night from around 4:30 p.m. until around 6:00 p.m. I was upstairs in my office on the computer and decided after the latest lightning bolt to unplug my systems. So I yanked both power strips from the wall and went downstairs to make sure Robert’s laptop and mine were also unplugged. And the cat and I proceeded to watch some TIVO’d programs. (You should have seen that fat old thing high tail it out of the room when the lights went off briefly. He was just an orange blur!)
Anyway, after the storm passed, I decided to head upstairs and plug my equipment back in and settle in for an evening of coding. Everything roared back to life (external fantom drive, router, both printers, monitor, speakers, flatbed scanner) except the desktop computer. Nothing. So I dragged it out of its enclosure and opened up the case. I didn’t see anything loose. I did see a green blinking light on the motherboard. It continued to blink (although slower) when I removed the power cord. Shit shit shit shit. Well, I needed to open up the case anyway to install a second 750GB SATA drive I recently purchased from Woot!. I figured it had to be the power supply since if it was the mobo, I wouldn’t be seeing a green blinking light.
I then decided to drag my laptop upstairs to get some work done. No sooner had I plugged it in, hooked up the monitor and started typing than the “V” key fell off. I tried every trick of Eve to get that sumbitch back on. I even took off the “B” key next to it so I could study how it went back on. I’d been having trouble with that key for awhile. Apparently, there was a small metal flange on the bottom that fell off. This would necessitate buying a complete new keyboard. Oy. So now my less than two year old, nearly two grand Sony Vaio looks like a toothless old hag. Thank heavens that I also recently purchased a wireless mouse and keyboard. So I hooked that up and for now, we are rocking along.
I waited for my personal tech support guru to get back with me about what he thought the desktop problem might be. He too suspected the power supply and the local repair shop confirmed it. They are also going to replace my lappy keyboard.
The Sony Vaio Desktop (RB43G) was purchased mere days before Hurricane Rita hit in September 2005. I’m the kind of person who believes in the computer being on at all times, so I guess it was just a matter of time before that nearly three-year old power supply gave up the ghost.
I’m more disappointed in the Sony Vaio FS780W laptop Robert bought me the same month we bought our house. He paid a pretty penny for it and I think the keys should have lasted longer than that, but maybe, being a power typist, I’m just naturally hard on keyboards?