Comments for Hardware Can Break

Comment from John Ellerington on 2007-04-19

2007-04-19T11:34:07Z

Recently had a PSU failure - symptoms quite obvious, PC totally dead! Replaced PSU, all seemed fine - except that computer then started to reboot at random. Eventually tracked problem to bad memory chip (replaced foc under 5-year warranty!) - memory problem was probably caused by power 'spike' when PSU died - seems it's quite common for PSU failure to kill other components as well.

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Comment from Terry Hollett on 2007-04-15

2007-04-16T01:50:24Z

My first computer was a 486sx which crapped out on me after only 6 months. Major hardware failure. (it was second hand).

My second computer, 486Dx2. Just shortly after getting it, I thought it was possessed, turned out to be a bad keyboard.

Then I had a second problem. I kept getting a hard drive controller error and my computer would not boot with a CD in the drive. This turned out to be a misplaced jumper on my hard drive, that should of been set to 'master' rather than 'cable select'.

I also almost lost a keyboard when a nephew wasted a glass of juice on my keyboard. I ended up taking all the screws out the back and discovered the plastic circuit 'board' was all gumed up. So I cleaned it with a paper towel and alcohol rub. Worked just fine after that.

On my first Pentium (P166), my motherboard went bad. One of the memory slots stopped working. I was able to confirm it was not the chips.

And yet dispite all of this, I plead guilty of always assuming its a software problem. Maybe because its usually cheaper and easier to replace??

www.geocities.com/terryhollett2003/

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Comment from Charlie Griffith on 2007-04-14

2007-04-14T14:39:26Z

My Logitech brand optical wireless mouse cursor is jumping erratically. I've read internet (and your) comments, but still can't eliminate this. No pattern is apparent. Toshiba Satellite laptop works fine, etc. I've blown on the opening, no dust apparent....what to do?

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Comment from Dave B on 2007-04-09

2007-04-09T15:26:11Z

I can think of one hardware failure that many users began to recognize correctly - the Iomega "click of death". The old ZIP drives would commit suicide and take all of the user's data with them.

Other joys included the RLL drive grind, the Seagate click, and the magic smoke smell.

My favorite recovering was a keyboard incident. Someone accidentally poured a full cup of heavily sugared coffee into an IBM terminal keyboard - one of the super-expensive units with a jillion function keys. It immediately began to "type" crazy text... the user was petrified. I took the keyboard home, popped off all of the keycaps, and soaked it in the bathtub (NOT A RECOMMENDED PROCEDURE!). After giving it a few minutes to soak, I rinsed it off and blew out the water with a hair drier. The next day we plugged it in - success!

Favorite hardware error - the jumping mouse cursor. It just takes a tiny bit of lint, in the sensor hole on the bottom of the mouse, to drive a user crazy. The mouse pointer will jump erratically around the screen. This is fun to fix for co-workers, who think there is something wrong with their Windows installation - flip the mouse over, pull out the offending bit of fuzz, and ta-da!

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Comment from Greg on 2007-04-07

2007-04-08T06:07:06Z

If the Q key stops working, the obvious thing to do is hook up another keyboard. If the Q key works on the other keyboard, then it's not the software.

Sadly, that's obvious to some, but not to others.

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