I was at work until around 6:20 on Tuesday. Everything was pretty much wrapped up at that point, so it was a natural point to leave. Besides which, the power had gone out.
My PC has a battery backup so I don’t lose my work every time the lights flicker and it’s paid for itself several times over. Tuesday was another such time with the battery giving me enough time to finish the email I was writing and then shutdown my PC in a controlled manner. Almost.
The computer shutdown OK, but something must have got through to affect the power supply. When I tried to boot up on Wednesday, the only thing that happened was the lights on the front flashed endlessly.
I called the helpdesk and eventually someone came to look at my computer. The final conclusion was that my computer needs a new power supply. Evidently the Dell Optiflex systems the company bought a few years ago had some problems across the entire model line. In addition to my problems, the fellow across the aisle needs both a power supply and a new motherboard, a fellow in the next aisle just had his power supply and motherboard replaced two weeks ago, one of the project managers wasn’t able to get her system running for nearly two hours and a number of other people have reported similar problems over the past six months.
My computer is due back on Thursday. For Wednesday, I got some reading done. 🙂