The year is 2004.. The date, November 16th. At 11:30pm Nick sits at his computer. Half-Life 2 in hand, he goes through the installation process. Around midnight, the installation is done. But instead of playing, he decides to go to bed, due to the 6am wakeup the next morning.
He resets his BIOS alarm clock to 6am and then launches winAMP and hybernates his system. As the system powers down, the whirling noise of the fans stops, the bright blue CCFL light dies out and the monitor goes to stand-by. The only sign the computer still lives comes from the red glow of the optical mouse, which illuminates partly the dark room. And a red LED light on the motherboard that indicates it is receiving power from the powersupply.
The 3-disk stereo powers down saying its usual "GOOD-BYE" and then shuts off. Nick then heads off for bed. Sleep finds him quickly.
The next morning at exactly 6am, the stereo turns itself on and switches to the auxilery function to act as PC speakers. A noise can be heard as the CD tray goes through a quick self test. At this point, Nick wakes up and hears the noise. He thinks to himself 'oh no... I have to get up.' As he waits for the usual sounds of the computer powering up, - case fans whirling, clicking of the monitor comming online - he figures, I'll wait for the music before getting out of bed. Nick waits and waits. But no music comes, and Nick unwillingly falls back asleep. 45 minutes pass until Nick once again wake up. Still, no sound. He rolls over and looks at the clock: 06:49 is displayed. Within seconds of seeing this, Nick's brain kicks in and he tosses the covers away: "s**t! Im late!" Are the words that can be heard thoughout the house.
After getting dressed and cleanning up. Nick pauses, and looks at his computer. "Thats odd" he says. Its not on. Closer inspection revealed the red LED light on the motherboard is off. 'Dad must have turned off my computer again' Nick thinks to himself. He goes downstairs for a quick breakfeast. Back upstairs as he's brushing his teeth, he stops and looks in the mirror: "Dad didnt turn off my computer last night! I did!"
Nick walks back to the computer reaches behind to flip the power switch on his Thermaltake 480Watt Butterfly PSU. Then, like a subconsience act, he opens the front case door and pushes the power supply... But nothing happens. Inspection of the side window again reveals no red LED light on the motherboard. 'Oh, I must have turned off the power supply... duh' Nick thinks. So again back and flip the switch. "Strange, no light." crawl in behind and visually confirm the power switch is on. But no power. And no computer turning on when the button is pressed.
No more time to question this problem, time for school. Upon return home. Closer inspection revealed no apparent damage to the power supply unit. So lets change the power cable. No luck. Change wall plug. Again, no luck. Un-plug the motherboard power and plug in a 235Watt to the motherboard power. Switch on, plug in. And the computer boots up, case fans spinning fast, cathode light burning bright. Panic, shock, Nick turns off the computer. How can the case fans and cathode light be turned on if they are still pluged into the thermaltake PSU? How can this be when the only power comes from a PowerMan 235Watt PSU that is only pluged into the mobo. Lets try again. The thermaltake PSU fans are spinning. What the heck is going on here?
Picks up the phone... dials... "Hello tech support?" "One moment please." Ok, so I just have to bring in my PSU back in for a new one, free of charge. But how does a PSU die when the computer is turned off? And why does this have to happend the night for which I told myself "I'll play Half-Life 2 in the morning" Now it wont be t'ill tomorow when I get the new PSU. Why oh why?
