Record of last Saturday night’s events
On Saturday night, I started researching why the computer would black out and automatically restart. The restart was quite interesting, like a car stalling and starting again; the power light would blink twice, I could hear the case fan hum, then it would stall again, and the power light would blink again, followed by the fan humming, then stalling again, with the hard drive light staying on. At this point, it was highly likely to boot up (though I complicated things later). At this moment, it was probably a power capacitor issue, caused by charging and discharging, with the capacitor leaking. But I was too lazy to buy a capacitor to fix it (if it wasn't a capacitor issue but a power transistor issue, that would be troublesome and hard to deal with). I have four or five of these 300-watt power supplies, and I've been too lazy to fix them; even if I did, they wouldn't be worth much and wouldn't be used. Quite a hassle.
Not playing games, the problem wasn't too big, so I started testing the memory. I used a tool from 图吧 toolbox, which has a comprehensive set of tools that can be used with just a double-click, or at most, extracting a file. I randomly wrote the word memorytest; I’m not sure if I remembered it correctly. One x86 and one x64; I used the x64 version, and when the program started, the mouse could still be seen moving for about 3.4 seconds. Later, it just stopped moving. After more than ten minutes, I directly restarted the computer to change the testing software. I switched to the x86 version, but there was no response. I changed to another one, TestMem5, which could run. After running it once, there were no errors.
I used hdtune to test the hard drive; for a slow scan of the hard drive, I didn't check the quick option. Halfway through the scan, everything was green, and while waiting, I remembered the Terraria save file where my child and I teamed up, thinking that genius also has data recovery, so I tried scanning, and it was the save file from Saturday morning. I tried magic cube recovery and finaldata data recovery, all of them, but during the process, I found that the progress bar had stopped moving. I checked hdtune, and the speed dropped from over 100M to 4.8M/s. Looking at hdtune, the sectors at the front were fine. It was okay not to scan the back. Generally, when restarting, reading the boot sector usually involves more sectors at the front. I started focusing on data recovery; during the recovery process, I used another computer to look for solutions and found that bilibili had a BIOS update to solve the problem. I went to the Gigabyte motherboard official website to download the latest BIOS. The F6 from 2021, while the motherboard came with F4. The installation method requires a USB drive. The USB drive wasn't around; I only had an SD card in hand. SD cards are generally not used as USB drives because they are unstable, as the card reader is unstable.
I thought it was too troublesome to go out in such cold weather, and I found an app called @bios. After downloading, I discovered it was a compressed file that couldn't be used directly; it needed Gigabyte app support. So, I downloaded the Gigabyte app, and then loaded this package, successfully upgrading the BIOS. I also foolishly updated the system patches. Fortunately, there was no freeze or restart during the BIOS update; that was a stroke of luck. Otherwise, it could have been a big problem, especially if it didn't recognize the USB drive.
When updating the Windows system patches, it prompted a percentage, warning not to lose power or restart, with a blue screen saying so. I kept my eyes on the screen, silently praying that nothing would go wrong. At 78%, suddenly, the screen went black. I gave up praying and muttered, "Damn it!"
Then the power light and hard drive light blinked, indicating the computer was updating, then blacked out, repeating this four times. I silently thought I would have to reinstall the system again. But this time, I decided not to install it right away. I thought if the power went out during the reinstallation process, it would loop infinitely. I decided to check for a second-hand power supply on Xianyu.
Not having money to buy things is just a waste of time; time is also money.
I first looked at Antec power supplies. The one I could use and that worked well was from 2010; I replaced the fan, and everything else is fine for now. I saw a few that were around 450W for about 50 yuan, but they were all professional resellers of second-hand items. I thought I would look for sellers who used them personally; they might be slightly better. When I looked at the clock, it was almost 2:00 AM. I decided to sleep first. I still had to cook tomorrow. Otherwise, if I woke up, it would be noon, and everyone would be hungry, which wouldn’t be good.
On Sunday morning, I got up thinking about borrowing a friend's power supply to test, but then I thought better of it; the back-and-forth disassembly would cost more than 50 yuan. I owed someone a favor. I decided to buy a second-hand power supply directly. I checked some information. I had used Full Han, Sea Hawk, and Antec, and they were all pretty good. Durable. The ones that broke were the Great Water Buffalo, Hanjia Xingu (some say they are good), and Big Windmill. I looked at a few posts about disassembling power supplies on the Digital Home Appliances forum. Full Han has shrunk, and Antec is about the same. But I still have faith, stubbornly sticking to Full Han and Antec. I found a Full Han Blue Storm 400W for 43 yuan with free shipping; it looked good, but I didn't buy it, as it was from around 2018. There was an Antec VP450P; I saw the date stamp was from 2016, and the seller said it was from 2018 for 45 yuan with free shipping. Later, I found out it was a reseller, but I saw the fragile sticker was intact, with no disassembly or repairs, but there was no specific year. I didn't prioritize it. There was a seller who bought it in October 2018 and used it for a year before replacing it with a larger one due to insufficient power. She (the avatar was a cartoon girl, so I really didn't know the gender, but it didn't matter) had a 550W one. I thought it was a treasure, and I asked her if it was free shipping; she said no, it had a 12 yuan shipping fee. A total of 67 yuan. I thought it was good, so I placed the order directly. She said the shipping fee was to be paid on delivery; I said that was too expensive, just send the cheapest express delivery, and it would be fine. She agreed, and after a while, she told me that it would be 31 yuan for Shunfeng from Hubei and 16+6 for JD. I said one was the most expensive, and the other was the second most expensive; just send it via ordinary delivery. She said Zhongtong wouldn't deliver; I said there were other options. After saying that, I remembered the Kuaidi 100 and Baige Huide mini-program, and I told her. I was afraid she would find it troublesome, and I would have to pay more for shipping, so I quickly went to the mini-program to simulate the shipping fee from Shandong to Hubei. I saw that the first order was 9.6 yuan for YTO. I took a screenshot and sent it to her. She said Yunda was 18, and I said to place the order online; they all have good service as they connect with the headquarters. Later, she said she learned something, and she probably got a discounted price.
Then she found a computer technician who tested it with a short circuit method, getting a 5A output, proving there was no problem. I didn't know; I said I didn't understand, but it should be fine.
After placing the order, I remembered something; capacitors can easily break when not in use, so I checked the information. Indeed, it can be as short as a few months or as long as two years. This one hadn't been used for four years. But it had already been shipped, so I thought I would wait until it arrived. If it didn't work, I could buy a capacitor to replace it; the lifespan of other electronic components should still be good, as they probably hadn't been used much.
Next time I buy a power supply, I will prioritize those that are newer and have been used for a long time. Previously, when I fixed power supplies for others, whether new or second-hand, I didn't think so much; as long as they worked, that was enough. Now that I'm saving money and being more considerate, I think more about it. In fact, whether it's a brand or not, all the processes I mentioned earlier are not that useful; I have a brandless motherboard with a network card that is still 100M, a brandless power supply, and brandless memory that have all been used for many years without any problems. It still relies a bit on luck.
I haven't sold my old broken computer; now that laptop is for the kids to watch bilibili, to ease the situation.
Update: The second-hand Full Han 550 Blue Storm classic power supply I bought yesterday arrived; it’s not heavy. Looking inside the power supply, the components all look new, and the power supply fan has a bit of dust, but I’m too lazy to clean it; if it doesn’t work, I’ll have to take it apart to fix it, and I can clean it then. I originally planned to unplug all the power cables from the motherboard to test this power supply without installing it, but I found the table was too small, and the operating space was limited. If the power supply accidentally fell from the edge of the case and hit other components on the motherboard, that would be a big loss, so I decided to directly remove the old power supply and install this second-hand one for testing.
After a flurry of operations, it lit up on the first try, booted normally, and during the self-check, the CPU fan even stopped for a few seconds. I was a bit nervous. Fortunately, everything went smoothly; the computer patch progress rolled back and updated the patches again. I entered the system, and there were no abnormalities.
I tested the computer by playing a game of Warcraft III on the Lost Temple map. I forgot to block this map, which usually takes a lot of time. The opponent said he was a newbie. I said I was too. I randomly got the Undead faction, and he was Night Elf. At the start, the opponent's Moon Priestess used the Searing Arrow skill to harass my Acolyte. My Death Knight generally uses Death Coil to heal the Acolyte while directing the Ghouls to maneuver, eventually surrounding the Moon Priestess. Just as she was about to run out of health, she used a Town Portal scroll, which clearly showed she wasn't a newbie; harassment is a basic skill for experts. As expected, it became painful later; the opponent used Huntresses to open expansions at the 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 7 o'clock positions on the map. Some expansions were destroyed by me three times. I was using a spider build, with heroes being the Death Knight, Lich, and Crypt Lord. The opponent had the Moon Priestess, Fire Lord, and Naga; the opponent's strategy was to take out my Death Knight. Several times, I escaped with single-digit health. After more than half an hour, after I destroyed his expansions, I established my own expansions. I opened three expansions. Feeling good about the situation, suddenly I lost connection; the network was disconnected. I looked up at the three parrots standing on the monitor and understood. They were pecking at the network cable, power cable, and fiber optic cable of the router placed next to the case. I didn't know which connection was loose. The last time the network was disconnected, it was also because of them.
I continued to observe the computer for about two hours, and everything was stable and normal.
This morning, I continued to boot up and test for a while, and there were no issues.
It can be considered repaired. Thankfully, it wasn't a motherboard issue.