in which the DIY spirit gets me in trouble ...

[aballen]

I hate saying this man but computers are not meant to live that long.  MTBF on things like consumer grade hard drives is just a few years.  It's pretty amazing it lasted as long as it did. 

Hopefully you can pull out the disk and back up the files you need.  The hardware itself probably not worth saving.

[midwayfair]

Disaster averted! Ironically, taking voltages would have helped. After I pulled out a bunch of the hardware, I figured out that the extention power cable I was using on the hard drive and video card ... er ... wasn't actually plugged in.

I do need a new power supply, though. This one whines when the computer's turned off. I took it apart and narrowed it down to the big transformer inside. AND I'm still alive! Maybe now I can build an amp without fear!

[RobA]

Ah cool, glad you got it working. Although it's true that it's put in its years of service, some of the older components are just built better. The big problem I've had when older computers die is that the replacement parts are usually expensive because they aren't common anymore.

First thing, back up that important doc.

[billstein]

That's great. I love it when it's simple.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

[jimilee]

Smart, Jon.  I recently had a total hard drive loss and it was terrible.  Far worse than any hardware loss.

Suffice to say I do nightly backups now.

The sad thing is, the only thing I really really cared about was a single word perfect document. I could back that up a thousand ways and just never have done so.

Go ahead and back that file up now,just store it on your website but don't post a link to it.

[aballen]

Before you repair it check out the prices for new stuff online.  You can get a low end laptop from Dell for $3-400 and the lowest end production laptop is going to run circles around any 10 year old.  I have and old xps17 which was really high end when I got it maybe six years ago, it's pretty much a paperweight now.

Anyway, whatever you decide I'm glad to hear you figured it out and backed up your docs, now  go debug that aquaboy

[GermanCdn]

Disaster averted! Ironically, taking voltages would have helped. After I pulled out a bunch of the hardware, I figured out that the extention power cable I was using on the hard drive and video card ... er ... wasn't actually plugged in.

This made my morning.  Apparently the curse of the disconnected power supplies runs beyond the 2.1 mm connections.

Glad to hear everything is OK.  I just backed up all my build documents onto my phone last night.  Why I am not sure, it's not like I can read a schematic off a three inch screen, but for some reason it gives me a little reassurance.

[RobA]

Disaster averted! Ironically, taking voltages would have helped. After I pulled out a bunch of the hardware, I figured out that the extention power cable I was using on the hard drive and video card ... er ... wasn't actually plugged in.

This made my morning.  Apparently the curse of the disconnected power supplies runs beyond the 2.1 mm connections.

Glad to hear everything is OK.  I just backed up all my build documents onto my phone last night.  Why I am not sure, it's not like I can read a schematic off a three inch screen, but for some reason it gives me a little reassurance.

If you had to you could find a projector and use your phone to project them on to the big screen to read them.

I do what Jimi suggested and put files in the non-public area of my website. Pretty convenient  and it get's backed up to industrial backup services every night.