with a bright orange flash & bang it died . . .

[4madcats]

my desktop that is. Basically I've had the same desktop for about the last 7yrs, then 2/3 yrs ago, maybe longer, had to do a clean install as OH managed to download something that killed it. Now as this was the time of Vista I decided to go back to XP, thought I'd bought a genuine copy, did the install & everything was sweet again . . . it's had all the microsoft downloads as & when with no problems until about 1mth ago, got a premanant message on the desktop screen telling me microsoft could no longer verify my copy of windows & to check it was genuine. Did a bit of research & think it was down to an engineers disc thingy, DS had the same thing with windows 7.

Well time to upgrade again but because the PC was so old had to upgrade the memory first. Off I trots & buys 4gb of ram which DS was going to install for me then hello windows 8. Went to start yesterday, pressed the power button, loud bang & the main fuse tripped. 1st thought was that it was the router that had gone. Unplugged everything took the side panel off the PC, turned power back on  . . . & this time nice orange flash another big bang & the PC has died   DS had a good look around inside & thought it was the power unit which had gone, there was a rather suspect smoke stain on the case & it was rather dusty in there.

So £260 quid later I'm now getting a nice custom built job, but it was money I'd much rather not have had to spend, oh & I forgot the ram I'd just bought for the old one which is now surplus cos it's DDRM 2  . . . whatever. There were also some files I needed to get off the old one. DS has tried plugging the old hard drive into his PC but it ain't playing. His PC will recognise it but it just won't boot, blue screen of death, bugga.

So I guess the moral of the story is don't just dust the outside of the PC when you can no longer see the screen properly . . . . think I need to work on my housekeeping skills a little more 

[kibbster]

PSUs (Power supply units) can go at any time.
A power supply would generally cost about £20-£80 to replace but as it went with a bang there is a potential that it took the motherboard or sensitive components out with it (should be protected but sods law and all that.)

Makes you jump though doesn't it?

I plugged a US 110v development Xbox into 240 UK mains in my first day at a new job once, that was one hell of a bang and puff of smoke.
I never lived that one down in the 10 years in the games industry and it followed me from company to company lol

[mybad]

Do you not have a back up of all your files via a antivirus provider i.e. Norton etc.

[chykensa]

I am seriously considering backing up my 200GB of music files (I am a professional musician and teacher) onto a cloud storage. I already carry them on a portable drive, as well as back them up on a little-used desktop.
This is a lesson to us all - always assume that today is the day that your files will become inaccessible due to some technical failure. Could you manage without them right now?
Mind you, I should practice what I preach a bit more - I know there are files on my work laptop which this is being typed on that I really need to save somewhere else too . . .
Andy

[4madcats]

Mar 4, 2013 15:20:52 GMT kibbster said:

PSUs (Power supply units) can go at any time.
A power supply would generally cost about £20-£80 to replace but as it went with a bang there is a potential that it took the motherboard or sensitive components out with it (should be protected but sods law and all that.)

Makes you jump though doesn't it?

I plugged a US 110v development Xbox into 240 UK mains in my first day at a new job once, that was one hell of a bang and puff of smoke.
I never lived that one down in the 10 years in the games industry and it followed me from company to company lol

That was the problem there were 2 little explosions, 1st one we didn't see cos the case was still on & the second on looked like it came from somewhere other then the PSU, but it could just have been venting from the fan, so it looks like it's damaged the old hard drive . . & since we're not absolutey certain if anything else has been damaged it's not worth the risk to try & repair.

Re the backups I've got most of the stuff I need elsewere on the e-reader & MP3 player etc but if either of those goes while I'm waiting for the new one to be built, hopefully tomorrow, I'll be scuppered. There were some files that I normally copy to a memory stick, but cos I didn't have it to hand when I created them just thought I'd do it later , another lesson learned.

[Ron]

Can you not buy an external drive enclosure and download any files off the old disc drive.That way you are not trying to load an old windows

[vereybowring]

I got one of these a few years back and have saved many a friends files from old/broken computers -
USB-To-SATA-IDE-3-5-2-5-Hard-Drive-Disk-Converter-Cable-Adaptor-UK-Power-Cord

[ChillerVapes]

I remember once I was building a PC for a mate and he was chatting my head off as well as in a rush to get it up and running.

I accentually didn't insert one of the memory strips fully and when I switched it on, there was a really loud electronic buzzing noise, followed by a blue flash, a huge bang and finally the sweet smell of ozone and toasted circuity!

I filled my pants because everything happened before I had managed to remove my finger from the power switch and I have always had a phobia of electronics going boom ever since I plugged in an old double adaptor which rattled when I was about 3 which went with a right boom!

[Mev]

if you plug the drive into another pc it should show as a 2nd drive, you'll be able to copy the files you need onto the other PC. Then I'd format the drive while at it.
If you can't do this and getting blue screens it's probably trying to boot into this hard drive so go into bios and make sure the proper drive is select in boot priority.

[kibbster]

If it's an IDE drive you'll have to set slave and master as well.

[farzooks]

Mar 4, 2013 15:20:52 GMT kibbster said:

I plugged a US 110v development Xbox into 240 UK mains in my first day at a new job once, that was one hell of a bang and puff of smoke.

Back when PCs were still expensive I built a machine for a friend who lived a fair bit off. It was constructed of good quality bits that were surplus from my eternal upgrading at the time, so was still a fairly decent machine.
I got a plaintive phone call telling me it had fried itself as soon as it was plugged in.
Guess what?
The numpty boyfriend of the friend had been fiddling with it and slid the voltage selector over to 110V.
The winker had the cheek to suggest it was my fault, in some way.
I gave up on him after that - guy was an utter loser and waste of oxygen.

[kibbster]

Mar 5, 2013 1:14:46 GMT farzooks said:

Mar 4, 2013 15:20:52 GMT kibbster said:

I plugged a US 110v development Xbox into 240 UK mains in my first day at a new job once, that was one hell of a bang and puff of smoke.

Back when PCs were still expensive I built a machine for a friend who lived a fair bit off. It was constructed of good quality bits that were surplus from my eternal upgrading at the time, so was still a fairly decent machine.
I got a plaintive phone call telling me it had fried itself as soon as it was plugged in.
Guess what?
The numpty boyfriend of the friend had been fiddling with it and slid the voltage selector over to 110V.
The winker had the cheek to suggest it was my fault, in some way.
I gave up on him after that - guy was an utter loser and waste of oxygen.

When we got taken over in a hostile take over and all made redundant the new company were taking all our equipment.
What we didn't steal on our last day we switched all the PSUs on the PCs to 110v after turning them off for the last time 
Hehe