It's dead, Jim.

[Kyrieath]

Comp's dead, details will be given when I can use something other than a PSP to post with.

[awdz]

aww crumblies, hope you make it back sooner rather than later!

[LOVWYRM]

oh-too bad

wish you luck to get it going again!
Had that too-twice the last months.
(But I was lucky: A friendly Istarian (Guathale) drove a long way to come
to my home and fix it.)

But thy Kyrieath- for a smile in the early morning- caused by your headline

Will miss you at the forum untill you`re back.

[Finkledbody]

Doh! Is this the computer you were doing ur temp checks with?
If it is. Sorry to hear it died Kyrieath.

If it's at all valid to the temp control: I live in a hot and humid environment, but we try to keep the house at 77 F both to keep it cool and to dry the air. The case is one manufactured by Dell for the XPS studio PC series.

[Veruliyam]

Damnit! I'm a slacker, not a technician!! :P

[Kyrieath]

Sorry for the slow response folks, but now I've got something other than a PSP to post with courtesy of a very good friend.

Awdz: Thank you; but I'm afraid it's going to be another long wait before I can come back to Istaria again.

Lovwyrm: haha, happy to have amused. And always good to have friends who are there when you need them. forum wise, at least, I'm back- but I wouldn't try Istaria on this laptop. ^^;

Finkledbody: Unfortunately yes. I still don't know what happened to it- the temps may have looked fine but it seems something, somewhere, was very wrong with it. Just a day or two after my last post in the temp check thread, the computer simply refused to boot up anymore.

Veruliyam: Then roll a naka and start multiclassing, Bones!

But now for the promised details: on the 18th or so, my computer simply decided it was done with Windows. I turned it on, it made like it was booting while I went to get my coffee and...firmly did nothing more. Startup repair couldn't even figure the problem out and it smelt pretty strongly of hot plastics.

With the aid of the same friend who sent me this laptop I'm now using, I will have another PC eventually- a home built one put together by someone who knows what he's about. Never shall another Dell be in this house. But as said PC will need to be paid for- well. Let's just say Istaria is on the very cold backburner for now. ^^; Games will have to wait.

But for the time being, I'm at least back to pester folks on the forums~ Maybe I'll just bury all ya in Istaria related poetry or something.

[Kyrieath]

Just a date correction: it was the 15th; 18th is when I finally resorted to using my PSP to try to let folks know what was up.

[Steelclaw]

Ever figure out where the cooking plastic smell was coming from?

[Kyrieath]

'Fraid not, Steelclaw. I couldn't see anything actively damaged but I also didn't have the tools or means to disassemble it to actually look at the connection points properly.

My family's taking the computer to have it looked it to see if it can at least be revived enough for light use, but I'm pretty sure the original hard drive's shot from that heat spike, if not from one before. And personally, I wouldn't trust anything that heat stressed again for anything demanding.

[Steelclaw]

You're probably looking at very localized heating -- otherwise you would have had a fire. Barring any other information, I'd guess something in the power supply or a connector at a high-current (low voltage) area, such as the graphics card or cpu voltage converter. As long as there's no burnt circuit board and there was no voltage spike, the computer will probably be fine once the offending part has been replaced and the circumstances leading to its failure corrected.

I hope your family is taking the computer to a reputable mom & pop shop, and especially not a big-box electronics store (nor a mom & pop shop trying to copy a particular big-box store that is known for driving around black-and-white VW Beetles).

[Kyrieath]

Here's hoping so; though won't know for sure until it's looked at. Certainly doesn't make me inclined to want to try turning it on again though. o_o;

As to who they're taking it to-there's a guy they work with who fixes computers on the side for a little extra income. We already had our run in some time ago courtesy of an aunt's problem with certain bug driving types, so we don't even go into their store anymore.

My main concern with a lot of the local mom and pops is they aren't trustworthy. Last one we went to that was supposedly reputable stole the brand new part that was supplied, put in a piece of junk that wasn't even for that model of computer, and swapped out a few other parts. He was using the mechanic trick of putting in similar but inferior parts to make his customers have to keep coming back to him. Hopefully the fact he has to see members of my family every day will keep this one honest.

[R`aven Sky`Dash]

Very sad to hear Kyrieath =( a yr or so ago I had the capacitors on my MB fry. Could barely tell until it was pointed out to me...they looked slightly expanded. Anyway...hope you get something worked out sooner than later. In the meantime I'll keep six on yer lair for ya!

On a side note, I just got back from a week at a mountain lodge...rented a lil cabin there on the lake. Very nice and quiet =) PM me yer email and I'll send ya some pics once they're all sorted through. Some stellar close ups of moose, bears and such =0)

[Kyrieath]

@R`aven: Huh..I wonder if that's what happened to mine. I couldn't see anything wrong but well.as long as it's not outright charcoaled, I wouldn't really know what I was looking at. ^^; 'fraid the lair is probably going to be left to the mercies of repossession; there's no way I'm getting back to Istaria in time to prevent it. Gonna be a very long time before I can get back here again on anything but the forums.

PM'ed ya the email address. I look forward to seeing the photos! I miss seeing wildlife other than squirrels and various kinds of reptiles. >.>