Where there's smoke there's fire

I've been building PC's since 1985, or should I say assembling PC's. Building often implies that your create something from scratch which, in this case, would take much more knowledge than I have. Assembling a computer takes a screwdriver and the ability to read or interpret pictures. Long and short, it's a piece of cake that can save you a couple hundred bucks.

Recently I wanted a computer of my own to play on. Everyone else in the family has one and I've been using the one issue me from my work, but due to other recent events (more on that in another blog) I've decided to stop using the issue machine except for work-related activities. Back to my machine - it's going to be a fast beast, capable of everything and as you'll read later one, it would do a few things I hadn't counted on.

I carefully selected the appropriate parts from Newegg and placed the order. Three days later, they all showed up and that weekend I assembled the beast. You need to understand that one of the first rules of assembly is that you don't put the case back together until you've turned it on to make sure it works otherwise you'll be angry when you realize you forgot something very small and you have to take the case apart to fix a three second issue. So the case is on it's side, cover off, and I plug it in. BOOM - the damn thing sparked, cracked, popped, and smoked. I unplugged it long enough to take a peek at the damage and there was none. Guess what I did - plugged it back in but this time no noise - just that smell of O3. It ran for about 3 hours and then died. I was disappointed but knew that things do fail. I submitted the online form to return the case and power supply for replacement.

A couple of days later I began thinking - I should just run up the street to our local reseller and buy a new case and PS - heck, they're only $50 bucks or so. I don't need a fancy one. Did that, went home put it together (2 hours) and turn it on. Wow, no pop, boom or smell. I was in luck.

Remember the rule about not assembling completely before testing? I did it - the computer lay at my feet without the side cover just in case I needed to fix something. I played on the machine for a few hours before the most amazing thing in world happened.

You will recall that I've built 100's of these things, rather assembled 100's of these thing. I'm not an amateur at this. As I sit there browsing blogs and reading email, I smell smoke. As my thoughts went to review the prior events, I was yanked back to reality when I saw smoke billowing - not a delicate drift, a full blow billow wafting from vicinity of my feet. No sooner had I looked and saw the source of the smoke coming from a wire bundle in the beast than it burst into flames! Did you hear that? A PC is burning at my feet in my den!

At this point, I have officially declared this project a fiasco, but having the tenacity of a wolverine, I march on over to the store and purchased the failed part.

Now I have a nice, fast, almost saved a couple of hundred bucks, beast of a machine that I'll enjoy for years. I also need to add the cost of a fire extinguisher to this project.

The moral of the story: Buy a Dell.