Arg, what a month
Throughout grad school, it was a running joke with Natalie and me that while we owned three or four computers, only two were ever working at a given time. During our four years in Boston, the following events occured (in roughly chronological order):
- My laptop broke (one of my Best Buy "repair" stories. After a couple months trying to "repair" it, they gave me a new laptop.)
- Natalie's desktop broke (fatal, unfixable).
- My MythTV box broke (fatal)
- New Shuttle MythTV box broke (turned into a desktop... I think the TV tuner died)
- Shuttle dies (fatal... used hard drive as part of a new desktop build)
- Big laptop (the Best Buy replacement) dies (had to put in a new inverter)
- Little laptop dies (hard drive death... rebuilt with new hard drive)
Since moving to Portland last year:In the last month:
- Little laptop dies again (can't power anymore, AC input dead)
- Big laptop dies last week (fatal software failure? No more internet, had to re-install windows)
And then, this morning, I wake up to discover that my DESKTOP is now dead. I push power and NOTHING comes up on the screen. After debugging, it looks like the motherboard is fried. So now I get to build a new computer (again)!
Also, I own two cars (one with 228k miles, the other with 145k). Last month I had to spend $400 to repair my (228k) minivan, which had a broken radiator fan. And then last week, our commuter car completely dies. So in the last month, I've had two major car failures, and two three major computer failures!
I'm not trying to be a drama queen or anything, it's just odd how these things are all happening at the same time. It is partly explainable, as in order to save money Nat and I use things until they are absolutely dead. This results in our stuff being much older and generally more likely to break down. Why buy a new car when the duct tapped one still runs? Why buy a new computer when you can use scavenged parts to make one? This philosophy has generally worked out for us, as while I've had the many computer failures listed above, when the problems have been fixable I've often been able to do it rather cheaply (e.g. the inverter was like $25, a new hard drive was $100, etc, which is much cheaper than buying two new laptops).
But tonight I'll be buying parts on New Egg to build a new computer which will use a scavenged hard drive, video card and DVD player from my now dead computer. I guess it's time for me to enter the multi-core era of desktop computing.
Just ONE thing to consider
Just ONE thing to consider as well... a co-worker I had recently noticed electronics in his house dying and just seemed to have a string of bad luck. What he found is that he had power fluctuations or "dirty" power in his house.
Here is an article on clean power. This may not have anything to do with the equipment you have... but it's just worth a thought. Also, I know you kept the side of your computer open which allows a lot more cat hair and things of that nature to get into the case. Dust, cat hair, and all these small things can cause all sorts of issues... including frying equipment.
Overall, I'm sorry that you have all this crap happening at once. While it's sort of fun to get some new equipment... it's not fun when you really don't have the money for this sort of this stuff right now. Either way... good luck. I do recommend that you make sure you have your case closed... consider the power issue... and also verify that your PSU is not unstable.
Yup
I agree with everything you said. I've always assumed that having the side of my case open was one of the causes of premature death. The most recent problem was that my cause was broken from being shipped across the country, so the side case didn't stay on anymore(so I just gave up). I also always bought a cheap psu, so that could definitely have something to do with it.
For my most recent build, which I placed an order for online last night, I bought a higher quality PSU. Once I have some money, I also plan on buying a backup power supply, which will not only help in cases of power loss, but will help maintain consistent power to my electronics (overcome possible "dirty" power). Hopefully all these things together will be beneficial.
I will always remember
Adam packing his computer's motherboard into a paper bag on the last day of school in the dorms. Oh the surprise when it didn't work when it was hooked up back at home.
Oh yeah
I remember that. I believe that was the motherboard that I had epoxied the CPU and Fan directly onto it. I had to run the computer in it's "naked" form because the case did not have the proper motherboard mounting brackets, so the motherboard kept touching metal, causing a short and not turning on. I ended up wrapping the metal mounting board in newspaper to prevent shorting, and just sort of had all the peripherals dangling around nearby. That setup was doomed from the start...
Oh
And to specifically address the "dirty" power hypothesis, I don't think that is the culprit in my house, because two of the three computer failures in the last month could not have been related to electricity (little laptop died of a mechanical failure, big laptop died of a software failure). The desktop could have been related to dirty power, but it was also a pretty old computer that has had an open case for much of the past year (case broke during the move to Portland).
So I'm pretty happy that my house probably doesn't have dirty power.
Maybe
this is why I can't sleep!