I've got the power

When it comes to electricity and computers, I’m certainly not at the top of the class. While I do understand how the components work together (from 2 years of Comp Sci at university), I couldn’t currently trace the pathways and check the chip sets to see where the problem lies.
That said, I am able to crack open the case and swap out some basic components. If they don’t work though, I am back to relying on percussive maintenance. Besides the basics like keyboards and changing out the nasty mouse for a trackball, I have added a video card, dvd drive, and changed out the power supply.

That’s what I had to do last night. The home computer had been freezing up occasionally and finally wouldn’t start at all this week. Since the wife confirms that this isn’t really something that can wait, I went out to get a new one.
We got the last one at Computer Avenue but, from the website, I figured I’d give Computer Boulevard a try this time. Like most computer parts, power supplies seem to range from about $40 up to about $200. Since this computer will likely be replaced in the new year, I didn’t need anything too fancy. I found a nice one that looked basically similar to the old one and that also happened to be on sale for about $30.

At home, I cracked open the case and blew out much of the dust that had collected inside the bowels of our tower. We should probably do that more often. I took out the old power supply and put in the new one. I carefully removed each set of the old wires and quickly replaced them with the new ones before I could forget where they went.
I had to power it up three times before it finally caught and loaded into the system. This caused be a bit of concern at first but everything seems fine now.

Of course, I have to keep the old supply. It goes on the pile with its predecessor waiting to one day be opened and gutted for parts for scenery.