This Feels More Like Home
By AnjaP
@Rollo1 (16676)
Boston, Massachusetts
December 31, 2015 4:51am CST
As I wrote previously, my computer declined to power up several days ago. Having considered the situation, I determined it was most likely the power supply and went scavenging amongst my collection of old PC towers for something serviceable.
Unfortunately, they all had smaller power supplies. I needed a 375W and my selection included nothing that powerful. Still, I figured that if I plugged in the 250W, it would power it up and I would know if that was the real problem. The real problem turned out to be Dell with their complexity of design so that the power supply could not be released from the tower without a complete disassembly of everything contained therein.
Here is where I give full credit to The Boy for thinking outside the computer case. While I was focussed on the power supply, I thought of nothing but the problem of removing it. He suggested I switch out the hard drive.
It turned out to be sheer brilliance, for the good computer with the bad hard drive was close enough in year of manufacture to be compatible with the bad computer with the good hard drive. The CPUs are comparable, but I lose a bit of RAM. However, they both use SATA hard drives ( I have some old IDE HDs in other machines) and the switch was made. Luckily, the specs on this older tower are good enough to run Windows 7, though it was an XP machine originally.
It's nice to be home again. This is my computer, my hard drive, just a slightly smaller (and thankfully quieter) tower.
And now I have days and days of myLot to catch up on.
I knew these children would come in handy one day, but I didn't think it would be until I needed to be put in a home.
Do you ever find that you get focused on one solution to a problem and cannot see the easier solution because of it?
34 people like this
34 responses
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@kevin1877uk (36987)
•
31 Dec 15
Sometimes i do, I'm glad you got to the bottom of it in the end.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
31 Dec 15
@kevin1877uk It would have been nice if my myLot earnings would have paid for more memory, but alas, I have been absent much of this month. However, in a week or two I will buy a whole new set of memory, and replace it all because matched sets function better than mixed memory. Cheaper than the power supply, though.
2 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
31 Dec 15
This is a logical solution and does eliminate a lot of hassle. It is always a laborious job fitting a new PSU because you need clear access to the motherboard, which really necessitates removing many cables and a few components.
It is also better to swap the hard drive rather than install a lower rated PSU, which could too easily overheat and cause other problems.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
31 Dec 15
I wouldn't have kept the PSU in it for long, just to ascertain that it was the source of the problem. I didn't want to shell out $55 for a new one if it turned out to be something else. I had no trouble getting the 250W PSU out of the tower it was in, but Dell loves to make life complicated for the user - mainly to make it necessary for users to buy service and parts from them. I am seriously slogging slowly though, and a RAM upgrade is essential. Of course, the memory is not compatible from machine to machine, that would make life too easy.
1 person likes this
@norcal (4889)
• Franklinton, North Carolina
31 Dec 15
I am surprised that a bad hard drive would prevent your computer from powering on. I've had them go bad, but usually the computer will power up, and then not be able to access the hard drive.
I'm glad that you were able to solve your problem though.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
31 Dec 15
No, other way round. The computer wouldn't power up, but there was nothing wrong with the hard drive, so I took the hard drive and put it in a computer that would power up. The other computer had been crashed big time by one of the kids, and I hadn't bothered with it since they both got laptops. But the tower itself was alright.
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61463)
• United States
9 Jan 16
I hope you are okay, you have not been around for 9 days and I can only assume that you are either deathly sick or I can't even think of another reason. I am concerned since we have never exchanged email addresses.
@PatZAnthony (14749)
• Charlotte, North Carolina
9 Jan 16
Things just seem to happen without reason.
@ria1606roy (2797)
• Kolkata, India
8 Jan 16
We have a preponderance to something once that idea gets stuck in our heads, and yes it has happened to me many times. I've sometimes refused to listen to other options in the complete overconfidence that mine would work, but then I learnt my lesson.
@jillybean1222 (6406)
•
5 Jan 16
I kind of did something resourceful like this yesterday too. Our old laptop has been beat up a bit by a couple times the kids knocking it around. Sigh. anyway, the other day, my 5 year old was using it and the 9 year old walked by & pulled on the cord charging it. it pulled the charger thing out. so it could no longer charge! argh!!!! i got to thinking. my other old laptop (which no longer will boot up) does still take a charge AND it turns out, uses the same size battery! so i can charge the battery in the non-working laptop. then put it in the other beat up one that still works.
@righttotheheart (226)
• Delhi, India
31 Dec 15
yes this happens with me often lol..
1 person likes this
@fawkes62 (1276)
• United States
1 Jan 16
It's great that you were able to get your computer working with your son's help. I don't know much at all about computers, so when I have problems I have to ask my husband and if he can't figure it out we have to ask someone else, usually his sister as she's a computer tech.
@JudyEv (382104)
• Rockingham, Australia
4 Jan 16
Glad the kids were able to help. Vince and I do most things together but with mechanical stuff I'm really just tagging along but when he gets stuck with a problem I often say 'what's the simplest thing it could be' and it often helps him find a solution.
