Don’t try this, but I did.
Yesterday morning, I went in to the home office and found my three-year-old desktop computer’s CPU power button blinking orange. In order to turn it off, I had to press and hold it for several seconds. When I turned it back on, it was blinking again. The screen was blank and there was no sound of a motor or fan. Nothing. Dead.
I turned on my netbook and did a search on what could be wrong. The first few pages were heavily into it being the power cord and me needing a new one. I really didn’t want to be bothered with that, and didn’t think that was the problem. I went deeper into the search and came up with lightning and power surges.
Bingo. We had a bad storm the previous night. I unplugged the CPU and plugged it back in. Nothing. I followed more directions, like when to press the power button. Still nothing. An hour had lapsed and I hardly even had my first cup of coffee. My nerves were frayed.
I did what I do best when I’m frustrated. I whacked the CPU with my hand and whacked the modem. Hard.
It came to life.
I doubt this is what did it; maybe my hand hit a hidden restart button somewhere. Or maybe it was just being ornery and behaving badly, like an over-tired preschooler.
Everything’s fine now. I put it in sleep mode and am using my netbook until tomorrow, after the desktop computer gets a good night’s sleep.
We’ve all had these moments. My current technique is to open the CPU and dust. I find it less nerve-wracking.
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