the fallout: on the other side

Although spyware is by far and away the most common computer issue, the most frustrating problems all relate to power. Power problems are indicated by symptoms such as units rebooting automatically out of thin air (also indicitive of the condition known as Mac), extremely slow processes, or times of not booting. The easiest to remedy is what I call the "homebuilt virus" – incorrectly configured wiring. Power being the blood of your unit, it's important to get good, strong, and clean power and direct its flow correctly.

The first thing you can do is buy a decent power supply. Reading a few reviews on Mvave or Newegg will give you a good idea what's good and what's just cheap. My mother used to tell me that horses will eat whatever you give them without stopping, even eating themselves to death. Thankfully, computers know when to stop: there is therefore no such thing as "too much power." More components demand more power, video cards specifically pull a large amount. Make sure you order a supply that will do the job! PC World has a good chart to estimate needed power.

If you order a good power supply, you'll have plenty of connectors to do the job properly. Plug your fans and case accessories on one connector line, your optical drives on another, and your hard drives on their own line. This will insure proper flow of good, clean, strong power to your hard drives. Connecting hard drives in line with case fans (which turn on first) will result in poor performance.

Once you're running well setup system, the first thing to check for when experiencing slowness or rebooting is bulged capacitors on the motherboard. Capacitors condition DC voltage, providing a clean and constant supply of power to components by absorbing spikes and supplementing lows. The stored electronic charge in a capacitor can be discharged as needed, supplying power as your system demands.

Bad capacitors look like frozen soda cans or exploded batteries: noticibly bad!

Bulged or exploded capacitors are caused by a bad PSU or a short on the motherboard. It's important to note that bulged capacitors don't always cause issues, however if you keep running your system, it's reasonable to expect things will get worse, and you may cause damage to other components. If you see bulged capacitors in your system, start looking into things. If you see leaked electrolyte (usually a brownish deposit on the top or side of the capacitor), pull all power and replace that board!

It is possible to replace the bad capacitors or have them replaced by the manufacturer or a repair centre, but in this age of disposable technology, it's often preferred to just replace the board. Of course, if it's going to cost you $300 plus to do that, go out to the garage, unsolder those ugly things, and replace them! (With care and proper knowledge, of course, the author of this article not to be held responsible.)

And one more thing: don't put a screwdriver across the terminals.

I've moved over to wordpress. If it doesn't have an RSS feed, it's just not right. Not sure if the grass is really greener… but here I am. Go download a decent reader, add this blog, and join the club. -jr