OT: Living in the twightlight zone - 02/08/05 05:52 PM
Hey so, a comment about computer addiction propted me to share this very strange experience I had on Friday... I'll give you fair warning, it's not the most terribly interesting read, just wierd.
I got home from the gym after work at about 7:00, parked my car and went into my house. When I walked in, I distinctly felt like the place was a bit dark. I mean, the lights were on, but it just felt as though they had all been replaced with 40 watt bulbs while I was at work that day. I went up to my room to change out of my gym clothes, and I saw that my clock was flashing 6:30am. Great...power went out around noon I figured. My computer (which I had left on that morning) was off, so I turned it on. Fans spin up, light goes on, hard drive starts turning... No display on the monitor. Nothing, no bios info, just black, and then the monitor switched over to the "no input signal" display. At this point, I very rapidly got annoyed. When something messes up my computer I am not a happy camper.
So, I go downstairs to make some food (being ravenous from the gym.) I had some chili that needed reheating, so I put it in a bowl, tossed it in the microwave, and set it for 2 minutes. Two minutes go by, me thinking the whole while about how I'm going to go about diagnosing my computer, and the microwave dings at me. I go over, take out my chili, and immediately notice that the bowl is as cold as it was when I put it in. So I tossed it in for 2 more minutes, but watched it this time. Bowl goes in, time set for 2 minutes, press start, light comes on, fans start spinning, timer ticks down, ding, cold food.
Fine then, looks like the microwave is all screwed up too. Lets try the old fashioned way. I get a pot and dump my chili into it, toss it on the stove, and turn the burner to "lite". Gas comes out... but no spark. I try it again... no spark. Ok, matches it is then. Fortunately for me, the matches worked, and I ate some food.
So, thinking a bit better for having my food, I went upstairs and started dismantling my computer. First thing to check was the diagnostic LED on the motherboard. It went immediately to "FF" when the power came on, which is what it normally does when it hands control from the bios to the OS, so that wasn't good, but I couldn't find the manual. So then I figured, if I have no output on my screen, I should check the video card. I replaced it with an older card I had lying around. Didn't work. Then I pulled one of the sticks of ram... still nothing. Tried only the other stick of ram to no avail as well.
So then I thought, if my pc is screwed, I wonder about my roomate's pc. He just bought a new dell, a nice one too. So I went in and checked it, and was rather unsurprised to find that it did nothing when you hit the power button. Light came on, although there were no fans, and still no video output.
So I called him up and told him the bad news. He was glad to know, but obviously anything but glad. At this point it's around 8:30, and I say to myself essentially: screw it, drink whiskey.
Hour and a half later, right around 10, a few glasses of whiskey down, the whole house suddenly gets brighter. I mean like, wake up in the morning and turn on the lights brighter. It was very strange. I thought for a moment that I had gotten so drunk I passed out, and then woke up to find that even the dim lighting now looked bright. But in fact, the house had gotten brighter. So I rechecked all the devices that were giving me problems, and they all worked.
That's pretty much it.
Have you ever lived through a sustained 4 hour brown-out? I had never experienced anything like it in my life...
Edit: I then called my roomate, only to find out that he too had decided to get very drunk upon hearing about his computer.
I got home from the gym after work at about 7:00, parked my car and went into my house. When I walked in, I distinctly felt like the place was a bit dark. I mean, the lights were on, but it just felt as though they had all been replaced with 40 watt bulbs while I was at work that day. I went up to my room to change out of my gym clothes, and I saw that my clock was flashing 6:30am. Great...power went out around noon I figured. My computer (which I had left on that morning) was off, so I turned it on. Fans spin up, light goes on, hard drive starts turning... No display on the monitor. Nothing, no bios info, just black, and then the monitor switched over to the "no input signal" display. At this point, I very rapidly got annoyed. When something messes up my computer I am not a happy camper.
So, I go downstairs to make some food (being ravenous from the gym.) I had some chili that needed reheating, so I put it in a bowl, tossed it in the microwave, and set it for 2 minutes. Two minutes go by, me thinking the whole while about how I'm going to go about diagnosing my computer, and the microwave dings at me. I go over, take out my chili, and immediately notice that the bowl is as cold as it was when I put it in. So I tossed it in for 2 more minutes, but watched it this time. Bowl goes in, time set for 2 minutes, press start, light comes on, fans start spinning, timer ticks down, ding, cold food.
Fine then, looks like the microwave is all screwed up too. Lets try the old fashioned way. I get a pot and dump my chili into it, toss it on the stove, and turn the burner to "lite". Gas comes out... but no spark. I try it again... no spark. Ok, matches it is then. Fortunately for me, the matches worked, and I ate some food.
So, thinking a bit better for having my food, I went upstairs and started dismantling my computer. First thing to check was the diagnostic LED on the motherboard. It went immediately to "FF" when the power came on, which is what it normally does when it hands control from the bios to the OS, so that wasn't good, but I couldn't find the manual. So then I figured, if I have no output on my screen, I should check the video card. I replaced it with an older card I had lying around. Didn't work. Then I pulled one of the sticks of ram... still nothing. Tried only the other stick of ram to no avail as well.
So then I thought, if my pc is screwed, I wonder about my roomate's pc. He just bought a new dell, a nice one too. So I went in and checked it, and was rather unsurprised to find that it did nothing when you hit the power button. Light came on, although there were no fans, and still no video output.
So I called him up and told him the bad news. He was glad to know, but obviously anything but glad. At this point it's around 8:30, and I say to myself essentially: screw it, drink whiskey.
Hour and a half later, right around 10, a few glasses of whiskey down, the whole house suddenly gets brighter. I mean like, wake up in the morning and turn on the lights brighter. It was very strange. I thought for a moment that I had gotten so drunk I passed out, and then woke up to find that even the dim lighting now looked bright. But in fact, the house had gotten brighter. So I rechecked all the devices that were giving me problems, and they all worked.
That's pretty much it.
Have you ever lived through a sustained 4 hour brown-out? I had never experienced anything like it in my life...
Edit: I then called my roomate, only to find out that he too had decided to get very drunk upon hearing about his computer.
