What a weekend. So a fan in the computer has been noisy for awhile, and finally started rattling too much to deal with.
Quick examination proved it to be the fan contained within the power supply. No problem: we run to Fry's, get a little $15 fan, and put it in. It does not spin. During the process of trying to figure out if it could really be dead right out of the box, we start moving bits and pieces about, connecting and disconnecting--and suddenly there's a little arc, and the computer goes off.
Turns out this is a rare breed of
AC-powered fan, that looks exactly like its DC counterparts and is not clearly designated as such on the box at all. (When we eventually went back to Fry's to get the right fan, the salesguy argued with us that there was no such thing as an AC internal-component computer fan until we showed him the product right on his shelf.) Long story short, we fried the motherboard, and possibly more. We have now replaced it--hell of an expensive fan repair--but we can still only boot up into safemode, and our next move is to reinstall Windows. There's no reason to think this won't be the end of our problems, but cynicism has me by the throat at this point. (Did I mention the minivan's back in the shop? They
really think they've figured it out for sure, this time.) Everything important is backed up--but it's backed up to a second drive within the same machine, so for all we know it got fried by Mr. Tiny Electrical Arc too. That'll teach me to procrastinate about getting the family photos printed for two years...
