Customer dropped off her PC, saying it will suddenly shutdown, and then has problems starting again. And when it did run, it was very slow

She was really worried about losing her MYOB accounting data. So the first thing I did was to backup her data… the hard drive seemed to work perfectly…

I put the HDD back into her PC, and the PC started perfectly.

I ran it for 2 hours (I intermittently did some tuning, ms updates, spyware scans (found 2 nasties), and also gave the PC a clean (lots of dust inside).

After 2 hours (about 20 seconds after I finished removing the spyware), the PC suddenly stopped. I was about to say I couldn’t find any fault…

I had the PC open at that point, so I looked around (and touched a few heatsinks, video cards, etc)… and I noticed the PSU was very warm. Not hot, but close.

After that, the PC wouldn’t start.

OK, I try a new power supply, and the PC starts correctly.

I run a few more tests, and everything is fine.

After about 20 minutes, I notice that the (unplugged from the mains) failed power supply was still warmer that the new power supply (that had been running for the last 20 minutes)… I’m not sure what went wrong with the PSU, but I was strange.

Anyway, I ran the PC for about 4 hours (thats how long it took to defragment!!!), and it didn’t fail.

After that, it was ready to be returned to its owner.