Fresh after a hardware disaster, I decided to list a few frequently-overlooked hardware failures. In no particular order:
- Fluctuating power supply - 5v is supposed to be 5v. 12v is supposed to be 12v. And so on. If your power supply isn’t outputting the right amount of power, weird things will happen. If your system is acting strangely, such as the hard drive not being recognized or spontaneously restarting, this is something you should look at. I’ve been hit with this at least twice, and I may be being hit with it yet again.
- Fans - Amazingly, it seems the computer industry has not figured this one out yet: Things with moving parts fail. Either the moving parts move too far or they stop moving entirely. I’ve been hit with this one three times so far.
- Loose stuff - Yes, it matters if that screw falls on your motherboard. Unfortunately, there isn’t really a quick fix for this one. Luckily, this hasn’t hit me in a while… but it hit my brother’s amplifier a few months ago.