My computer died today. I fixed it (because I’m great, obviously) but it was the strangest thing.
I’d nudged the base unit with my knee after I pulled my chair under the desk and there came a little strangling noise from the PC. I don’t wish to mock the sound of an actual strangling where a person may really die, but if I had to illustrate the sound in a comic book, it would look something like this.
ZWIP-EEEE-GLUCK-EEEE-CLAK-CLAK-EEEE-VZZZZ-VZZZZ-THWUP-THWUUUUZWUP
On second thoughts, perhaps I’d hire a professional to do the sound effects.
Abruptly, the sound ceased. I thought no more of it until a couple of minutes later when everything went black. The PC powered down, and only then did I begin to notice the rather nasty cooking smell.
Out came the screwdriver. I wanted to find out exactly what was burning, but almost everything was hot and it took me a few really sensible attempts at powering the machine on and letting it die several painful deaths before I noticed the CPU fan was not spinning. Then I noticed the reason why.
Out came the camera. The loose green cable in the picture below is looking a little mangled, but in remarkable condition considering it’s fate. It had somehow managed to wrap itself around the fins of the fan.
So how does this happen? I have no idea. Effectively, someone shoved a stick through the spokes on my bicycle, except the fan spins a lot faster than a bike wheel – 3600 RPM, so the PC says. I can’t even imagine trying to doing this by hand even if I wanted to. It’d just be a painful way to trim your fingernails.
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