Dead Confuter

[caddyman]

I think I have killed my PC. I am using ellefurtle's computer right now, but in the morning I shall take the back off mine and see if my untutored eye can see anything that is obviously wrong. I doubt it, though.

Annoyingly I was quite pleased with myself earlier on, but I expect my ham-fisted attempts at PC maintenance have earned me my just rewards.

The past couple of days, I have been getting warnings about heat on the computer whenever I have been playing Warcrack for maybe a whole three minutes. I wasn't sure that there wasn't a bug somewhere because that's the only time I got the warning. Anyway, I did some deep scans to make sure there was no naughty malware or similar, but the warnings still popped up, so I turned the PC off, let it cool down and opened it up to look at the fan and heat sink.

I - and you can see it all unravelling from here, can't you - disassembled and removed the heatsink and fan. Cripes, it was dusty and that, I reckoned was the problem. So I cleaned it and despite having the devil's own job, reassembled it with help from Furtle. (Who knew there was a plastic plate behind it that would just fall into the back of the PC?). Well we fished that out, repositioned it and reassembled and reattached the heatsink and fan. I put the cover back on and wired it all back up to the various doodads I have - you know, mouse, printer, screen etc.

Pleased with myself, I turned it on. The greenlight came on, thought about it for maybe a second and turned itself back off. I tried again: same result.

So, I unplugged everything again, dragged the PC back out and took the cover back off. I hadn't reattached the wire to the fan properly. Hoorah! Problem solved! Repeat the re-covering and reattachment of bits, plug it in and Hey Presto!

Green light comes on, flickers and goes back off again. It no workee.

I shall leave it for tonight and look again in the morning when it is a) light and b) I am less tired. But I have that feeling...

I expect that I shall have to ask someone better equipped than me to look at it. I hope I haven't done anything too expensive.

Buggrit.

Comments

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

The world is littered with chaps who love to poke about in computers and will spot the prob in a second, in fact they love it so much that they'll do it for nowt. Then you make them dinner or drag them to a restaurant. It always works for me.

[romney.livejournal.com]

Invite me round to watch Dr Who and I will be happy to take a look.

[romney.livejournal.com]

Caddyman The Computer-Slayer.

[littleonionz.livejournal.com]

Prolly not dust, (you can of course write what I know about computers on a postage stamp) for gaming prolly have a couple of fans, no idea why but that is what 'they' say. Good luck with getting it all worky again.

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

I don't even have to take the back off to kill a puter. I just have to touch it - especially if it isn't mine. Mr M does not let me use his puter or even breathe in its direction.

I loaded firefox on mine two weeks ago and darned near killed it! I dread to think what it would do if I wanted it to play a game

[probablyscotty.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_grease

;-)