Funk Babblings

Late last night I was relaxing comfortably in bed, listening to the storm, when the power went out. And unlike most such times, it didn't come right back. So the house was quiet.... except for the incessant beeping of two uninterruptible power supplies that were still ready to power computers. (A third remained silent for reasons I have not yet cared to investigate.) I figured it would probably be a good idea to turn off the computers and then turn off the UPSs. I did so and went back to bed.

I got up today and saw that the power had come back after being out for about four and a half hours. Definitely longer than the UPS would have been able to keep a computer running. The main computer I turned off last night was my primary desktop computer that I almost never turn off (the last time was probably sometime last fall), so I started that up.

After about 20 minutes catching up on the day's news, I suddenly heard a loud two-tone beeping alarm. But this time it wasn't the UPS yelling at me; I'd never heard this sound before, and I soon realized it was the computer itself. Why? Heat was the only explanation. I glanced at the CPU temperature display on my screen - 58 degrees C, about 6-8 higher than usual, though the house air conditioning was keeping the room cool enough.

As I started to pull the side cover off the machine to investigate, I noticed that the power supply and the case around it were quite hot. So this was the culprit. The power supply I'd bought with a special extra-large fan to be quieter about keeping things cool was now no longer fanning at all. I shut down the machine again, blew some dust off the inside, and decided I was not feeling like taking out the power supply yet. I hope I have a spare lying around somewhere.

Lesson: Don't turn off the computer. It only breaks when you turn it off.

Luckily the laptop and the network still work.