Hair dryer to the rescue

[Tortuga]

Friday night we had a short power outage due to high winds and everything was fine except my PC. It wouldn't start. I fussed with it for a while and I could get the CPU fan to run for a second or two, then it would stop.

 

While I was troubleshooting I noticed that the power supply green LED would sometimes stay off, sometimes it would flicker and sometimes be solid green. It sounded like a PSU (power supply unit) problem.

 

While I was researching that, I came across an odd suggestion to use a hair dryer to blow warm air into the PSU from the back of the computer.

 

It worked!

 

After about 30 seconds of blowing warm air, the green LED light was solid and the computer started.

[hatcheckgirl]

Weird!  Another hairdryer - tech story.  My daughter's ipencil wouldn't work, and google search recommended heating it with a hairdryer for a few minutes (as well as rebooting, and re-pairing). Worked

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252896240

[coolbrz731]

1 hour ago, Tortuga said:

Friday night we had a short power outage due to high winds and everything was fine except my PC. It wouldn't start. I fussed with it for a while and I could get the CPU fan to run for a second or two, then it would stop.

 

While I was troubleshooting I noticed that the power supply green LED would sometimes stay off, sometimes it would flicker and sometimes be solid green. It sounded like a PSU (power supply unit) problem.

 

While I was researching that, I came across an odd suggestion to use a hair dryer to blow warm air into the PSU from the back of the computer.

 

It worked!

 

After about 30 seconds of blowing warm air, the green LED light was solid and the computer started.

I would still replace your power supply asap.  As my kids would say, that thing is now "sus"

[Tortuga]

Just now, coolbrz731 said:

I would still replace your power supply asap.  As my kids would say, that thing is now "sus"

We had planned to buy a new desktop PC anyway, so this motivated us to expedite that decision..🤣

 

In the meantime, I can use this computer and transfer everything to the new computer when it arrives.

[carlos]

On 1/23/2022 at 4:04 PM, Tortuga said:

While I was researching that, I came across an odd suggestion to use a hair dryer to blow warm air into the PSU from the back of the computer.

It worked!

Yes, this makes sense.

 

PSU have fans to expel hot air. With time, dust settles on the fan and makes it go more slowly or not go at all. When the fan is not working, the PSU will switch off automatically to prevent its components from overheating and burning. The hair dryer cleans the dust and allows the fan to work again.

 

This happens more often with CPU fans. The computer works for a few seconds, then switches itself off to prevent the processor from burning. Just use a hair dryer to remove the dust, or replace the fan, and it will work fine.

[Tortuga]

2 minutes ago, carlos said:

Yes, this makes sense.

 

PSU have fans to expel hot air. With time, dust settles on the fan and makes it go more slowly or not go at all. When the fan is not working, the PSU will switch off automatically to prevent its components from overheating and burning. The hair dryer cleans the dust and allows the fan to work again.

 

This happens more often with CPU fans. The computer works for a few seconds, then switches itself off to prevent the processor from burning. Just use a hair dryer to remove the dust, or replace the fan, and it will work fine.

That may be the answer, but I think it is more than that. I regularly clean the computer with canned air so there wasn't any debris on any of the fans. The information that I read specifically said to use a hair dryer set on warm. If all the fan needed was to be cleaned, then it seems the instructions would say to use canned air.

[Mykyl]

With the ps3 games console it had what was called the yellow light of death. One fix was blowing hot air from a hair dryer into it at certain points on the motherboard. It heated it and from some info out there it can fix some broken solder joints. 
I know this as it fixed my old ps3 years ago doing exactly that after some research. Mind you It was a very hot hairdryer I used. Not just warm. Nothing else worked so it did something. 😊

[Mykyl]

Thought I should add that this 'fix' was a last resort fix. Bit like the put your Hard drive in a bag in the freezer for a short time if its completely dead. Did that trick also back in the 90s and got all my data off it before it died forever. (You only get one chance so if it works you must be ready to get what you can from the drive.) I don't recommend either. They are both heart in mouth situations if you have stuff you want. 😉

[Tortuga]

On 1/23/2022 at 8:32 AM, coolbrz731 said:

I would still replace your power supply asap.  As my kids would say, that thing is now "sus"

After I replaced the computer I decided to see if I could fix it. I found a power supply on Amazon and installed it today. 

I have renamed the computer "Son of Windows of Nain" because I was able to resurrect it while drinking my beer...

Luke 7:11-14 

[Floyd]

I fixed the video chip on a motherboard with the hair dryer since I didn't have a heat gun. 

[New World Explorer]

On 2/1/2022 at 4:12 AM, Tortuga said:

That may be the answer, but I think it is more than that. I regularly clean the computer with canned air so there wasn't any debris on any of the fans. The information that I read specifically said to use a hair dryer set on warm. If all the fan needed was to be cleaned, then it seems the instructions would say to use canned air.

I use mini blower to flush out any dust from my computer. (Yep )

I have this saying .."if the computer cannot withhold bit of blowing than it's not worthy of the place in my home" LOL 🤣

[New World Explorer]

Why "blowing" my computer does not worry me?

Well, this Saturday I was doing regular maintenance  on my computer ....and..it slipped from my hands and crushed on the floor.

I have "collected all the bones" put him back together, blew it with my blower and here we go...Lazarus is doing well and steady. 

 

It's shaken not stirred.🤣

[.Ivan.]

Why "blowing" my computer does not worry me?
Well, this Saturday I was doing regular maintenance  on my computer ....and..it slipped from my hands and crushed :facepalmpo2:on the floor.
I have "collected all the bones" put him back together, blew it with my blower and here we go...Lazarus is doing well and steady. 
 
It's shaken not stirred.

Nice machine

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Don't forget to make a backup asap. Always good to have a recent copy just in case some intermittent fault shows itself for good...

Old (Downunder) Tone

[New World Explorer]

9 hours ago, ➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone said:

Don't forget to make a backup asap. Always good to have a recent copy just in case some intermittent fault shows itself for good...

Old (Downunder) Tone
 

Silly question: How do you proceed with back up? What is the best way? 

[Tortuga]

2 hours ago, New World Explorer said:

Silly question: How do you proceed with back up? What is the best way? 

Check your mirror before you put it in reverse...😁

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

I bought a plugin HDD with a Backup Routine. But if you type in 'Backup' after you press Windows 🪟 button, it can do it on-line for you...

Old (Downunder) Tone

[Tortuga]

37 minutes ago, ➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone said:

I bought a plugin HDD with a Backup Routine. But if you type in 'Backup' after you press Windows 🪟 button, it can do it on-line for you...

Old (Downunder) Tone
 

I have a Microsoft 365 account with 1TB of cloud storage, all of the important stuff gets backed up automatically continuously. I also have a portable hard drive and I use a program to back up everything monthly, then the drive goes into the safe and is part of our Emergency kit. 

[New World Explorer]

So what really gets backed up, because all my photos and important documents “sleep” on external drives already? 

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

So what really gets backed up, because all my photos and important documents “sleep” on external drives already? 

On my program (and I expect the standard MS one to be the same...) you tick/select the folders you want to back-up. It could be your 'Doc' folder, it could be your pic/videos etc. If you have the pics elsewhere, then there us no need to triplicate them. However, if a random virus or malware locks you out of your system, it is good to have an independent copy not connected to your system.

Old (Downunder) Tone