“Mark! Mark! Quick, come here! Help!” Now that could mean lots of things, but it did seem that something was seriously wrong. Turned out it was. Debs had been working on the PC for a few minutes when it shut down, then tried to restart whilie the case filled with acrid smoke.
They’re not really supposed to do that are they! Unplug, disconnect everything and carry the stinking case out to the garden. Brown liquid sprayed around the place seemed to emanate from the area of the power supply. Further investigation with a torch seemed to finger the big electrolytic in there.
It’s those times when you wonder just what sort of warranty was it that you signed up for. We’d gone for more than 12 months, so a call to the supplier. Sadly we had, but on labour not parts. Ho hum.
Dismantling confirmed the diagnosis. So a new power supply was required with fingers firmly crossed and a focus on the customer services executive’s statement that consequential damage would be ‘highly unlikely’.
And, it was, highly unlikely. Phew.
Never had a PC supply go wrong, nor seen one do it ever. Thankfully, repair was £40 and not getting on for £1,000. Phew.