Dateline: Yesterday
Place: Cambridge University Department of Engineering
Working late I hear a sound like a hand clap. ‘What was that,’ says I, ‘it sounded like a capacitor blowing.’ With the help of my office mate we determined that there wasn’t any obvious smoke, smells or black screens to indicate where the problem was.
Coming in this morning, I’m greeted with a blank screen and hung computer. With a degree of trepidation, I removed the side covers of my box and, lo and behold, two caps on the graphics card had blown. Quite how it continued to function long enough for me to finish work and go home, goodness knows.
Luckily, after hastily cannibalising another machine in the lab, the machine is back up but I can add this event to the long list of annoyances which have plagued me since last week.