Home: August 2009 Archives

Yup, it certainly was the power supply. I got a new supply with an increase in the power rating (not sure how I’ll spec this in the future), swapped it out in less than a half-hour, and voila — a working computer. Power supply swaps are easy, as long as the computer maker gives enough room to get to some of the connectors.

In my case, it was made a little tough by how HP placed the main 20-pin connector on the motherboard behind the drive bay. My big hands didn’t fit in there so well, so I had to pull the panel off the other side of the box, too, to get at it from behind.

But it works now, so I shouldn’t complain. Now, if the computer would just have the energy of my twins as they chant the mantra I want this computer to keep repeating…

The bouncing came from when they were watching a 70s music retrospective on PBS in our bedroom and decided they liked the phrase and could jump to the music.

Argh, is it this time of year that’s doing something? A year ago, our previous desktop computer’s hard drive gave up the ghost and we replaced it.

This evening? It appears that the power supply just gave up. There was a slight power surge, but no outage, during a storm this afternoon. However, the computer was on a power strip, and everything else on the power strip still works. But the power supplies LED is out, indicating it is likely fried. I only have about 20 things to try (according to HP) before knowing for certain it is out.

So, I’ve got some troubleshooting ahead of me tomorrow. Luckily, if it is a power supply, it’s something I can troubleshoot and fix on my own (with a new unit). And in my research so far, it appears that this unit that HP uses does appear to be a little susceptible to simple power surges.

In the meantime, you will have to wait for some of the other postings I was planning, as it depends on the pictures and video on the desktop hard drive. And yes, I did learn my lesson last year and have those folders fully backed up. (That’s a posting for another day.)