Monday night I shut the computer down.
Tuesday morning the power button on the computer is blinking yellow. No power. Tried switching the cords, switching the outlet, unplugging and replugging the power supply. And still the damned blinking light on the power switch.
They call it the “amber alert”.
Several calls to Dell support and a visit from the local computer quack have confirmed the need for a new power supply and motherboard. Fortunately, the disk drive appears to be OK. Damned good thing, too – we’ve never backed up any of our data in our lives.
The effects of this event upon our household are truly devastating, for the world’s most powerful solitaire machine has been reduced to a state of deadness akin to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential aspirations and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ brain cells. Tracey can’t play her 40 Thieves game, there’s no e-mail, and no access to the CD burner (meaning Tightwad’s Flower Power collection I was hoping to bring back with me to Massachusetts next week is on hold). Sorry about that, Tightwad…
Good thing I have this doohickey called a laptop in my home office, as otherwise we’d be cut off from the outside world – no computer, no Goodboys Nation weblog posting, no food, no water, no FOX Business Channel. Um… well, maybe I’m overstating things a little bit there.
Seriously, however, I’m beginning to question the quality of our Dell XPS 400 – in less than 1 1/2 years we’ve had to replace a fan and now the power supply and motherboard.
Maybe it’s time to start backing our data up after all?
Power supplies have been my one complaint with all of the Dells I’ve owned, at least the home market models. I think they underpower them and adding just about anything that needs juice from the PC like an upgraded graphics card really stresses them. My solution was to replace the dinky 250W they kept sending with a 400W from a local computer store when the warranty finally ran out. The 400W is much quieter and I think it will last much longer.
Comment by Dave E. — May 12, 2008 @ 4:54 pm
Thanks Dave! Yeah, it was a power supply. The world’s most powerful solitaire game player is back in service!
Comment by The Great White Shank — May 12, 2008 @ 6:35 pm