Magitronic Pentium of unknown age running Windows 98.  Fairly stable,
although I have been having keyboard freezeups, solvable by unplugging
keyboard and plugging it back in.  Otherwise, it has been pretty reliable, if
slow.

When I turned it on today, it said something about Primary Hard Drive,
followed by something ominous like it was the end of the world.  Couldn't
even get that far after turning it off and back on.  During various efforts
to restart, speakers would make sound kinda like the pop      pop       pop
   pop      you would hear on a phonograph when you reach the end of a
record.  (Am I dating myself?)  Another time, it sounded like the
interference you get on your car radio when you're in an underground garage,
(instead of your radio station) with the frequency increasing as the engine
revs up.  Needless to say, hard drive failure came to mind.

What makes me question that diagnosis, though, is that the fan stopped, too.
I can't believe the fan would be dependent on the hard drive working.  So,
I'm thinking power supply failure.  Does that sound like a reasonable
diagnosis?  (Quick offlist replies would be appreciated.)  Again, any words
of wisdom on replacing the power supply?

One other thing, which may or may not be related.  You may recall that I
recently inquired about replacing the battery on this computer, because it
was losing time faster than an Internet addict.  Could it have just been that
the power supply was on the way out.

Thanks, as always.  Happy New Year!

William Closure

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