:: jotting the lines ::

My PC has been bugging me lately, it kept rebooting on its own for the past month. This happened right after the installation of an extra PATA HD. Due to the old age of my computer, the existing power supply unit only has 3 power sockets to connect 1 optical drive and 2 hard drives. I had to sacrifice another optical drive, my friend was joking to me why I need two writers for. Pirating uh?

It seemed to me that my computer underwent insufficient power supply. Otherwise I couldn’t have a clue what’s up with it. I checked with some IT expert, they said it’s either overheat, underpower or BIOS attacked by virus. The only apparent reason I would agree is underpower since the rebooting rate was higher when the computer detected a DVD running on the drive.  That’s when I decided to take a small risk, just go get new power supply unit in Low Yat and hope it would solve the problem.

There were still ample of parking lots available in a Sunday morning when I reached there. As usual Compuzone has always been my favourite first checking point. I consulted the sales assistant and asked him (in Cantonese) to show and recommend me which power supply unit that I may need to resolve the trouble. This handsome good looking young chap didn’t answer me back in my dialect but started talking to me with fluent Engrish. He was being helpful and suggested me to bring in the computer for a chec-up. I don’t think it would help and heck, especially I believe very much that the power is the whole culprit. So I insisted no. Handsome looking chap had then recommended me to get a ACBEL 350watt unit that costs RM130. Price is certainly an issue since it is above my budget and what if my computer still plays monkey with me after installing the power unit. Nobody likes the word No, but I just had to thank him politely for teaching me what is Volt and Watt.

Then I found myself no luck getting a decent power supply unit in Sri Computer. Lo and behold, I bumped into this scary-and not-friendly looking (pardon my language) guy in IT Hypermarket who suggested me to get a power unit by SonicGear. It’s packed in a black & white glossy box with decription stating clearly of the Volt and Watt and price labelled as RM45 . I did not hesitate on his suggestion though I should possibly need to think twice since every answers he replied had 5 seconds of delay. Before I decided to take one from the shelve, I prayed it will boot up the computer without anymore failures.

Next is another scary step I had to take with a leap of faith. As I reached home by noon, quickly got myself change and got myself ready with screwdriver! Yes, I was all ready and packed up to un-screw the casing as well as the old current unit. Unscrewing, unplugging are both easy! I just had to remember which sources to get connect. Frankly speaking I was quite nervous when I fastened the last screw, ‘cuz I was thinking what if my assumption was all wrong and worse,I connected the cables wrongly? Would it explode? I had encountered explosion of power supply unit before. The once bit and twice shy experience which burned also the motherboard! Gosh, this freaked me out. So I said a prayer before I plug the power cable on the extension cord.  Prayed there is no explosion, prayed there is no more rebooting of the computer and I can continue to use this old pc until one day I decided to change a new system entirely.

So you see I’m blogging now, that shall answer if my DIY is successful! Being Jack of all trades, and now I had a great sense of accomplishment by fixing my own computer! Thank God ah!