My sympathies go out to....

[Covenant]

Will you all join me in a a minutes silence for my friend Alan's 166mmx TXPro machine.
He switched it on Saturday morning and immediately smelt burning electronics. Upon noticing the smoke issuing from the CD Rom he switched off and bought it round to me.
Together we marvelled at the pretty flashes from the power supply, and the many strange noises from deep inside the case. To cut a sad story short (sorry about the pun), the psu had gone into overdrive and had subsequently blown the hard drive, memory, graphics card, cd, modem, motherboard, and actually cracked the 166 chip.
His machine is now RIP (resting in pieces)

Covenant.

[thekingofpain]

Too bad he couldnt have timed the excitement to occur on the 4th of July, would have sorta made the event more memorable... http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[danb4]

That's why I don't use a power supply, I find flashlight batteries to be much more reliable.

Anybody got a few D cells I can borrow? I better finish this post, the screen is starting to flicker.

Seriously though, sorry to hear about it, sounds like it was quite a meltdown.

[jadinolf]

You need a solar powered power supply.

Save the ecology. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Brydon]

A good UPS springs to mind..prevention is better than cure http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif. I wish I could afford one http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif.

[Covenant]

Brydon
Ah, but would a ups have saved anything in this case because it was the computer psu at fault and not the supply to the machine assuming the job of a ups is to stop spikes before they reach the computer.
Anyway, a note of congratulations goes to the supplier 'cause even tho' the computer is a year out of warranty he told Alan to take it back for them to examine after we phoned them with the sorry tale on Monday.

Covenant.

Talking of changing power sources, I found with my Athelon I had to change to a guinea-pig and bigger wheel - the hamster just wasn't man enough!