Today, I had my Avid fired up for all of about 20 minutes. I was going to throw together a little funny that I’d had an idea for. I didn’t get that far.
The 20 minute mark isn’t where I lost inspiration – it’s where I damn near lost the machine. A big whiff of ozone and a bunch of snap, crackle, pop inside the casing is just bad news. Older Avids are kind of notorious about the order in which you shut down the outboard gear such as the Meridian box, the SCSI drives, etc. etc., but on this occasion I didn’t bother with Correct Shutdown Procedure, because it was officially time for Oh Shit, Save The Machine Because I Can’t Afford To Replace It! Procedure: i.e. yank the power cord out of the back of the machine.
The power cord was awfully hot. I think this had something to do with it:
There doesn’t appear to be any damage beyond the power supply. Obviously, though, until I get a new power supply, there’s no way of knowing for sure.
If anyone in the immediate vicinity has a 500 watt 120V ATX power supply they don’t have a use for, I’ll be happy to trade DVDs, CDs, any just about anything short of sexual favors, or at least an understanding that I may not have cash for a few weeks. (Keep in mind, this caps a 7-day period that’s also seen the death of our central heat/air system in a completely different alarming electrical fire, a mystery leak that’s forcing us to tear up all the carpet in the house with no budget for replacing it with tile or anything like that, and me being sick as a dog.) Antec would be great since it has a big honking fan on the bottom of the unit as well as on the back, but obviously beggars can’t be choosers.
I only like to see that kind of melty on grilled cheese sammiches, you know? It looks like the prong corresponding to the melting on the cord melted its way back into the guts of the power supply. To use two words I never, ever thought I’d use in my blog… “that’s hot.”
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