My computer was dead!

Thank goodness I am back up and running! On Tuesday, before work, I had checked my email and peeked at the fashion feeds for a few. When I got home, Tuesday evening, my computer was off. Knowing that I'd left it on, the first thing I did was check the clock on the microwave (my computer is near the kitchen) to see if there'd been some sort of power outage. Nope...the clock was still on and showing the correct time. I tried to turn on the computer, but to no avail. I checked all plugs, checked the power strip, etc. I couldn't figure out what in the world was wrong. The monitor, the internet modem, and the wireless router all had power! The mouse and keyboard, however, did not. I had a suspicion it might be the power supply, but you can never be sure unless you have all the diagnostic equipment available at your fingertips! I took it to the local computer superstore, but they wanted $69.99USD just to find out what was wrong with it! No way was I gonna pay that!

I posted a plea for help on Facebook, and luckily one of my friends replied telling me to call her fiancee, that he could help. I took it over to their house, but he found that the power supply was in fact good. The next concern was the motherboard. I allowed him to keep the computer so he could take it to work and fully check it out. Guess what he found wrong with it?! The graphics card!! For some reason the fan had stopped working on the graphics card, and it caused an early demise for the graphics card. Very interesting that a dead graphics card could cause my computer to completely shut down! So, I got a new card...a slightly better one at that, and he fixed it for me for $20!! What a nice guy! Now where can I find one of those...