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September 15, 2006

Computer on the Fritz

So I go to use my desktop machine the other day and noticed that it was off. Since I run Linux, I keep my computer running at all times. Finding the machine turned off was something that I wasn't expecting. I hit the power button, but nothing happened. I've had this issue occur before just a few months prior .... the result of a dead PSU.

I pulled out my tester and plugged my PSU into the unit. I plugged the PSU up to a power source ... and sure enough, it was dead. I was concerned that I had lost another power supply after such a short period of time. I began to investigate the motherboard, looking for any weird things that might explain for this continued issue.

I discovered, much to my displeasure, that the capacitors on the board had begun to go bad. Capacitors, when they're working properly, should be flat on top and straight up and down from the board. The ones on my motherboard, I discovered, were leaning heavily and one was in a significant state of disarray. When these things start to go, you can experience all kinds of different problems.

Well, this motherboard is pretty old by today's standards. I purchased it several years back. It has a Socket A processor ... ancient by today's standards, so getting a replacement board is just a bit of a hassle. I'm looking to just upgrade the board and processor together and purchasing a new power supply as well. Of course, if I purchase a new board, odds are that I'm going to have to purchase a new stick of RAM as well. This sucks because I just purchased the current stick about 6 months ago.

I gues I could just eBay the darn thing and get back some cash off of it ...

I've also been contemplating replacing the whole computer as well. Instead of spending a small fortune on the components mentioned above, maybe buying a new computer would make more sense. I've been wanting an Intel-based Mac Mini for a while now. I've been wanting a computer with OS X on it for ages ... and it would give me my third operating system here at home (Windows and Linux being the other two). Or perhaps I can just get another Wintel-based box for my gaming needs?

I'm very indecisive at this point in time. Maybe by the end of the weekend I will have thought about it some more and will have a clear vision of what I want to do.

~out...

Posted by ed at 08:44 PM | Comments (6)