** snort **

Congratulate me -- I am officially a Help Desk Tale of Stupidity, right up there with the guy who called field support because he couldn't find the "any" key.

Does it count if you don't actually call anyone for advice?

The Beast wasn't dead, after all.

Nothing misplugged, nothing fried.

Last week I had two towers open, facing each other, and crosswired. I can't remember why -- this is just the sort of thing that goes on in my house on a regular basis.

I went off to work or bed or something, and The Husband separated them and tossed the case cover next to The Beast.

The Beast's on/off switch's wire was caught, and popped off the board.

He plugged it back in.

Everything lit up and hummed, but nothing happened.

Obviously it was the board.

Or maybe the video card.

Or the processor.

Something was fried.

I finally had time to dig out my meters and tools, and put The Beast up on the operating table.

I turned it on.

Lights and hums, and nothing more.

Cables all secure.

Everything appeared to be getting power.

And then, while moving it so I could really start digging around in its guts, I accidentally pressed a small, grey button on the front, so small and so grey that I had never really noticed it before (you may recall a friend of The Husband's took The Beast away once to swap out the boards, and brought back a completely different tower).

That small, grey, unobtrusive button was . . . the fuse reset.

And it roared into life.

I nearly dropped it and I feel like an idiot.

I'm trying to decide whether to tell The Husband what was actually wrong . . .

Update: He kindly pointed out that he missed the same tiny grey button when he went over it, and that it really does only count if you called someone. I don't know who we would call -- Fry's, for prices on a new board?

We believe in violating our warranty during the first twenty-four hours of owning a new machine. : )