Randy, your computer's on fire!

Not exactly the most wonderful way to wake up in the morning. Yet several days ago, that is exactly what came bellowing from the kitchen as I was still trying to fully awaken - a process that normally takes me about a half an hour, but that morning only took seconds. I rushed to my computer (which is not in the kitchen, but adjacent to it) and heard several loud pops and smelled the telltale smoke of frying electronics. I've been down this road before with poor quality power supplies, and I simultaneously cringed both on the inside and outwardly.

I quickly yanked the power cord, disconnected the signal cable, powered down my computer, and unplugged it too, just for good measure. I've been running dual monitors for nearly 8 years now, and I don't know how I'd keep my sanity without them. I can have music players, browsers, email, and photos all open at the same time without interfering with each other. I loooove it. The last couple of days have been rough. Today, I had finally had enough of the lonely, blank screen on the right side of my desk. It was toast, out of warranty, and doing nothing helpful. I had three options.

1. I could simply toss it and accept that I would have to shell out a couple hundred dollars for a new monitor that wouldn't match the existing one - naaaa!
2. I could buy two new monitors that matched for closer to $500 - Hell no.
3. I could tinker

Oh yes, let the tinkering begin! Now I do have experience with electricity, electronics, and mechanics in general, so it wasn't just a shot in the dark, but I didn't have high expectations. Usually, when sensitive electronics go south, they do so in style by frying the tiny transistors that you cannot see or possibly hope to repair. I was hoping for a blown capacitor. That, with a little work, I could probably fix. What I found was a traditional Hawaiian electrical short-circuit.

A gecko.

Fried.

On the circuit board.

After removing said charred reptile (he was tiny, at about 1 inch long), and cleaning the traces the best I could, I reassembled the monitor and crossed my fingers. Success! Dual 19 inch LCD web-browsing bliss!

This goes to prove that when you have little to lose, it doesn't hurt to try to repair stuff, and that Geico will be recieving a strongly-worded letter from me about the practices of their spokesanimals.

I wish I had taken pictures. Sorry. I say this is common because in Hawaii, these little bastards get into everything. I love them. They're cute, and they eat insects, but they have the two undesireable traits of getting into everything and pooping all over the place. I find gecko bodies in the bussing of old electrical panels all the time. "Oooh, this is nice and warm. and. tingly..." 240 Volts across the bussing does them in every time.