Broke all of my computers

Well, kinda.

Have two computers - my main one which has a failing internal drive (doesn't contain crucial stuff) and an old Linux machine which...has a failing internal drive.

Took them both out of their corners and blew the dust out - so much dust! Reseated the cables, moved some things around, and plugged 'em back in.

The main computer has the same problem as before, so I'm recovering as much data as I can before swapping out the dead drive.

The Linux computer won't even power on now. Gonna have to look at that this weekend.

EDIT: The Linux machine is back. Turns out the power plug I used for the internal drive is...questionable. Grabbed a different one and it came up fine. Well, fine to the point of recovery at least.

30 points · 3 comments · view on lemmy.world

3 Comments

PriorityMotif@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Depending on the age you should look at the capacitors on the one that won't power on.

SpikesOtherDog@ani.social · 5 pts · 1y

If it was manufactured any time before 2009, probably. I haven't seen many leaky caps on devices made since then.

OP should look for the capacitor bulging, mostly from the top, or for oily fluid leaking from the bottom.

SpikesOtherDog@ani.social · 4 pts · 1y

No power probably means a missed connection. Check the SWI PSU switch, check your front headers, make sure you remembered the 12v CPU 4-pin power, check for loose screws.