Multiple hardware problems
Its rare to find a PC with multiple hardware problems, but this one is probably the worst I’ve seen.
Since the PC was kept in an air conditioned office, it was probably kept at a constant temperature, which helped mask many problems.
At first, the PC just wouldn’t start.
Push the power button, and nothing happened.
I replace the power supply, but while I’m changing the PSU, I notice that the video card has got some strange black marks on it…
It turns out that the video card had a burned out fan… literally burned! I don’t know if the burn marks are from friction, or from a short within the motor itself, but it might have been the cause of the power supply failure.
Anyway, I replace the video card, and then go to start the PC.
This time, it springs into life, and after the BIOS screen, It starts to load Windows XP…
And then I get a blue screen of death (BSOD). the error is stop 0x0000007b INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
This means that there is a hardware problem with the hard drive!
I then take it back to the office, and a SMART test shows that it doesn’t have much life left.
I quickly decide to mirror it to a new Seagate SATA drive.
Luckily, the drive is not badly damaged, so the mirror process works correctly.
Now, I just let the system install the hard drive and video drivers, and its finally back to normal.
I’ve seen PCs with multiple failures after power surges. Maybe the Mboard and CPU, for example.
Good job actually testing the hard drive – too many people would just assume it was corrupt due to the power outage and repair Windows, leaving the hard drive to fail in the near future…
I have seen failed power supplies take out the motherboard – not necessarily at the time but within a few days the motherboard failed too (probably weakened by a surge as the PSU blew).
If it was my PC I would be backing it up every day, at least until the risk of motherboard failure had decreased.
Thank You for informing about these H/W related issues.