computer go bang

So I was sedately working this morning when I suddenly noticed an odour, the kind that reminds you of soldering or electrical fires. I got up from my desk to wander away from the computer in the hope that the smell would get stronger the further I got. No such luck. I was just on my feet when my computer decided to shut down... after emitting a popping/electrocuting noise and a pretty plume of smoke from the back.

Those are not fun moments.

Yes I may have lost 10 minutes' worth of work. (I had the good sense just three days ago to do my first real backup in weeks; this good sense led me to back up on the same computer, but due to various redundancies three particular hard drives within would have to be fried for me to actually lose any work-related stuff.)

And yes, now the room stank like a recently passed circuit board, but that would clear eventually.

The real conundrum is to how to decide what parts have died and thus what to replace. Perhaps some handy folks can figure stuff out with a multimeter, but not I; if you see me using one it's because mine is analog and I am entertained watching the needle jump around.

I assumed (and desperately hoped) that only the power supply (PSU) was toast, although past experience (of mine and countless others) says that's not the case nearly often enough. (I knew my PSU was dead because it was the only thing that smelled and upon opening it up I saw scorch marks. Plus that's where that mushroom cloud had emanated from.)

Ideally I would find another PSU to see if that's all that failed, but since we're living nomadically the scraps I have with me don't include one of those. The next best option: drive to the store, buy a PSU, drive back home, test it and hope everything works; and if not, drive back to the store, buy the next likely victim (motherboard), drive back, test, and so on.

So I carried out that next best option, going to TigerDirect and buying a shiny new 50%-higher-wattage PSU for way too much money. Installed it and... tada!! thankfully it works like a charm. No worries of overloading this baby... yet.

Back to work... now that I can.