How does all this relate to computers you may be wondering. My 4 month old HP desktop computer was also in the shipment. Because I hadn't seen if for a month, I was pretty excited to get it set-up and have a home PC again.
Before going on I need to mention that the outlets & plugs here are much different than in the US and the electricity supply is 240 volts vs 120 in the US. This basically means that anything electrical needs two things: an adapter for the plug so it fits the Indian socket and a voltage converter. Without a voltage converter, in technical terms, you will fry whatever you plug in. Unless...unless the device has been built to take both 120 & 240 volt inputs. Computer manufacturers have gotten pretty smart, particularly with laptops since people tend to take them all over the world, and build them to do just that.
So before plugging anything in I checked to ensure all my components accepted 240v input:
Computer - 240 check
Monitor - 240 check
Printer - 240 check
External Hard Drive - 240 check
Camera Power Cord - 240 check
New Computer Speakers - 240 not check
Excellent, 5 out of 6 devices don't need a converter. This is good news since I only brought one with me.
All cables connected - check... power switches: printer on - looks good check, monitor, external hard drive, camera all on and looking good check. Hard drive on - a loud Snap, Crackle, and Pop and things are no longer looking good. Evidently after ensuring the computer was capable of accepting 240v I didn't actually flip the little switch on the back to let it know 240 volts would soon be coming right at it. This was bad.
Fortunately my neighbor, who also works for Target, knows quite a bit about computers. Todd, I've got a little problem with my computer, here's what I did...how bad is that? It took Todd 5-6 seconds to say "You blew out your power supply." Now this is sounding really bad. I don't know about a computer but I know if I blew out my personal "power supply" I wouldn't be happy. "Don't worry, in the US you can get a new one at any computer supply store for $30-$40." Things are looking up. If I was 12,000 miles away I could have this fixed in no time.
If it would take just a few hours in the US, it couldn't take more that 4-8 weeks here. So my computer went into surgery. 15 minutes later (with Todd's help) and I was holding a metal box about 3"x3"x1" with approximately 150 wires coming out of it. HP was kind enough to put a warning label on it saying that if it was removed the warranty would be void but I wasn't about the let The Man stop me at this point.
"So all I need to do is find one of these, huh?" So I got out the Bangalore Bible also known as the Overseas Women's Club Guide to Bangalore (don't laugh, those overseas women are a tough crowd and more importantly they really know what they are talking about). The OWC recommended a place called Excel Traders for electronics. If it is good enough for the OWC it is good enough for me.
Excel Traders is on Dispesery Road, a typical street near the heart of Bangalore.
Dispensery Rd on a Sat. Morning
Excel Traders
I brought my electrical octopus inside. The inside of Excel Traders is like a mini-Home Depot for electronics.
A gentlman name Sayid asked if he could help me. I held up the power supply as if it had deliberately tricked me into burning it out. "I need a new one of these," I said. "Do you have anything like this?" Of course being a good Mid-Westerner I was thinking, 'There is no way he is going to have this. I'll end up paying $100 and waiting 8 weeks before finding out I they can't find one'. Instead he said "Come back in one hour." Hmm, now this is interesting. If he has one, why do I have to wait an hour? Are they that busy? Will it take that long to find it in the aisles of components? If they don't have it in the shop how can they possibly find one in an hour? All good questions that I didn't ask or care how they were answered.
One hour and about $35 later, I had a new, living, electical octopus for my computer. I am firmly convinced Excel is the greatest electronics store in the world.
Now it was only a simple matter of reinstalling it.
"So Todd, how do I do this?" "Well, that wire goes there. That one powers the hard drive so it goes there. Those three are for the USB ports, they go like this." "Cool" I said. "How about this last one?" The perplexed look on Todd's face told me the computer repair express was close to jumping the tracks. "Hmm" he said. "It really looks like it should connect to somthing doesn't it. Well, not connecting it won't hurt anything. Something just won't work when you turn it on so you'll know where it should go then. That's a much better option than connecting it to the wrong thing and hearing Snap, Crackle, Pop again." This seemed like a reasonable deduction to me so with just a bit of hesitation I reassembled the patient, reconnected it, plugged it in, and turned on the power with a very quick jab of the power button. No explosions, smoke, or burning plastic. The computer was alive again.
You would think this experiece taught me a valuable lesson but later in the day I plugged my new speakers in to 240v. The still aren't working.
No comments:
Post a Comment