Today was my lazy day. I don’t take them too often these days, but Katie was kind enough to drive herself to work this morning and let me sleep in late. So I finally drug myself out of bed at about a quarter to eleven, and commenced with my saturday routine of reading blogs and news, looking up a few things that I’ll need for work next week, and generally getting nothing too productive done. After taking a shower and grabbing a snack, it was time for some Counter Strike, and I settled down for an afternoon of rest and relaxation.

A few hours into the fun, my computer unexpectedly froze. CS has done this before, so I tried the normal means of ending the program and getting on with my day. This time, however, it was different. For a second, the program came back to life, only to freeze again. I hit ctrl-alt-del a few times to try to reboot, and suddenly the computer powered down. As I reached to turn it back on, I noticed a strange aroma in the air – that aroma of burning solder flux and melting plastics so familiar to anyone who has spent a few moments in an electronics lab.

Quickly I realized that the smell was coming from inide the computer, and I began ripping every cord out of the back. The monitor cables were screwed down, and after what felt like weeks I yanked them free and grabbed the entire pc. Afraid that the whole machine was on the verge of flames, I burst through the kitchen and onto the balcony. I resisted throwing the whole thing 3 floors to its utter demise, hoping that some peices would be salvagable. A few minutes later, the smoke was dying down, and I took apart the case to see what damage had been done.

The motherboard was gone. Some components had heated to the point of melting the solder, and had slid down into the components below them. The connector between the motherboard and power supply was meleted and charred at each of the +5V wires. Apparently, something on the 5V rail of the motherboard had shorted to ground, causing current to surge throughout the motherboard and fry anthing that got in its way.

My hope is that the peripheral components are unscathed, but the motherboard is shot for sure. If I can save the Video Card and memory, I’ll be very happy, but we’ll see what comes of the rest of it.

I’ve been wanting a new motherboard and processor since Half Life 2 came out, but this wasn’t quite the method by which I hoped to convince my wife that I needed it. Fry’s, here I come.