Her cousin had ensured her that the problem with her laptop not starting up was due to a fried power supply due to a severe lightning and thunderstorm that knocked out the electricity to the house.

It makes obvious sense. Occam’s razor theory would suggest that the most logical and simple cause is more than likely the one you’re looking for as a solution. The only problem this time though is that it didn’t work. I replaced the power supply as suggested and still no power to the machine.

I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to hardware on a computer, the power supply is an area I have the least amount of experience. But I followed the instructions as suggested and made sure all wires were reconnected as needed from the original power supply.

No power though.

That leads me to the remaining question then for this person’s desktop and my own. Why won’t it power up? How do you go about troubleshooting an issue like this? Is there some easier way to narrow down where the problem might be coming from?

I’d really like to not have to replace the desktop if it’s something simple, but I’d also like to not waste a bunch of time trying to diagnose and issue that will end up costing more to fix than the $300-400 to replace the entire unit.

Image: knowprose on flickr

Post from: EveryJoe

Diagnosing Power Problems on Desktop PC

Taking a break for a few days from being plugged in. It’s a battle for me. Most of the time when I’m “attached” to the network I’m in the process of making money for my family. I think I do a good job of balancing work and play/family, but I do work a lot. For me I usually try to get it done after hours when the kids are in bed. In the summer that’s a little more difficult since the kids are up later and there seems to be more activity going on.

The best way for me to unplug is to get away and go somewhere where being connected to the machine is challenging. For me, that’s camping. Electricity and wi-fi are hard to come by when you’re out in the woods. Cell phones are frequently in roam which doesn’t allow me to connect for data transfer.

What do you do? Do you call “technology free” days or nights? How do you get away? Do you get away? Do you think it’s important? Let me know your thoughts.

Image: Modified flickr photo by Pulpolux

Post from: EveryJoe

Going Offline – Unplug from Your Tech Addictions

I’ve found that my major challenge when working remotely though is finding power outlets that are available. I had an idea the other day for a new iPhone app that would let you search for a business establishment and then see a floor diagram of the tables and wall layout. You could then see what tables had power outlets available to them.

I’m not an iPhone user but an application like that would make me think twice about owning one. Of course, I could also just ask someone to make the same application available for Windows Mobile.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Challenge of Power Access

For some reason the other day I hovered my mouse over the battery meter in my taskbar and noticed the little power bubble pop-up and show the information shown above.

Do you see that?

101% battery power remaining. 101%!

That’s nice to know isn’t it? The only problem is I know better. If you’ve ever seen me at a conference you know I’m now the guy carrying around the power strip so I can hopefully plug-in anywhere I go (or sit to be more exact). The reason is that my battery gives me about 15 minutes of power tops.

That fact was only made that much more known recently as I’m sitting in a client’s office trying to take notes on my laptop. There’s no plugs on any walls. No plugs! Who makes a room today without putting a stupid outlet on at least one wall. One on each wall would be even better.

Anyway, for that meeting I had to put my laptop in standby between each little note I typed. That gave me about 45 minutes of time to enjoy that wild and crazy little thing called electricity!

Man I love the idea of electrons flowing back and forth through wires keeping me connected.

Post from: EveryJoe

Amazing Battery Power – I Have More Than Enough

Also, yesterday evening as I was assisting one of my clients with some of their computer needs, his wife had recently purchased a new laptop and it had Vista installed on it as well. I only needed to setup her machine to connect to his office’s wi-fi network so nothing in depth there. I did feel it was fairly easy to connect the machine though.

One thing I immediately noticed on her machine that I’d be changing in a heartbeat is the size of the icons. Those suckers are HUGE! I feel like we were accidentally shipped the Reader’s Digest Large Print Edition instead of the normal size.

One of the specific items my colleague stated about his experience so far was the super fast start-up and shut-down time. He also mentioned that power use is one of the areas he’s noticed numerous comments on from the internet and users not being used to.

With Windows 95 and XP, we all got introduced and used to the idea of just putting our machines in Sleep or Hibernate mode to conserve power. Do you all do that? I pretty much leave my machine on all day, and only shut it off in the evenings. I think I may stop doing that though after reading some of the information recently about power use.

Microsoft stated that the most power consumption for the machine really occurs at start-up and shut-down. They’ve combined the Sleep/Hibernate into a single command, which I think makes sense because I never did really understand the complete difference between the two different settings, or at least the need for the separation.

Windows Vista has been developed to remain on constantly and it appears many users aren’t used to that. How do you feel?

Visit this link for a nice overview of how to customize and change your power options in Vista

Post from: EveryJoe

More People Migrating to Vista