EDIT 2: YAY! I HAS MY WINTER BACK! She's up and running and happy now. ^-^

EDIT: So...yeah...more fuck. We replaced the power source...now she'll turn on...but refuses to recognize the hard drive right now. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. *is getting REALLY upset now* I'll update again when there's more news.

So...the hubby and I needed to move our computers to the other end of the house, so my dad can finally get around to finishing the re-wiring that's been needed since Christmas...we shut off the computers and disconnected them yesterday, started moving them and the furniture to the other end of the house, and then had to run to a b-day dinner. We wound up getting home late, and I'm still thinking every thing's fine. We'll finish getting everything moved and set back up in the morning, and all will be well.

The this morning roles around, and there is much moving of furniture to make everything fit into the room it all has to be in for now. During this, the computers are tucked out of the way on the other side of the room, so as to not get damaged, or tripped over. We finally get all the furniture to places where everything works, there's still room for Nicolai to play, and all that, and Bran has to run off to an appointment, leaving me to re-set up and connect the computers, and make sure they're running properly. Well, I decide to get them hooked up, plugged in and all, and test his first. Runs beautifully. The internet connection is working, all is happy and good. I go to the other side of the desk (it's meant to sit in the corner, but we reversed a piece so he's on the 'inside' and I'm around the corner, at the reversed piece on the 'outside'

and power up my monitor and speakers, and when I hit the power button on my tower...nothing. It doesn't respond at ALL. So I figure, ok, maybe it's the power cord, or the surge protector or something...I move the cord from one slot on the surge protector to another...still nothing. I move it to the slot my monitor was plugged into, as I KNOW that slot works fine, since the monitor turned on and all...and still nothing. OK...try BOTH the other surge protectors, try them plugged into a different outlet...still nothing. So I trade out my power cord for Bran's after turning his comp back off...and still nothing. I turn his back ON with my power cord plugged into it...no problem. His turns on fine. At this point, I'm getting REALLY upset. I love my comp...and even if I didn't, I've got a TON of crap on her that I need to get OFF before replacing her...now I KNOW I can just take the hard drive said crap is on and have it installed in a new computer if I have to to get at the stuff on it. NOT the issue. Even if I WANTED to replace my comp, Winter, right now, there's no way in HELL I can afford to.

So. I get on Bran's comp to do a few things online. Take the baby and lay down with him for his nap, on the verge of tears. Bran gets back, and tries to help me figure out what's wrong. We think, well, maybe some of the cords inside came loose! Seems reasonable, so we take off the side panels of the tower...though there ARE 3 sets of cords not plugged into anything (No WONDER my DVD drive doesn't work! It's cords are there, but it's not actually connected!) nothing that SHOULD be plugged in, that WAS plugged in when I bought it is loose. OK. I'm not going to fiddle with plugging in those 3 that aren't connected, as I don't want to mess anything up. Instead, I make SURE none of the others that ARE connected are loose. Nope.

So, we're looking at the open tower...and the inside is FILTHY. I mean, yeesh. Dust, and cat hair, huge dust bunnies...even a LIVE spider inside. So, we clean it all out, careful not to damage anything, or make anything come loose. So...now all hair and dust possible has been removed. We re-attach the power cord (hey, I am NOT about to go poking about INSIDE an electronic device while it's CONNECTED to a power source!) and try again...still nothing. There IS a green light in the back blinking and making the most ANNOYING ticking sound in the world...but I don't know what it's for, or why it does that, and am not about to try and figure it out myself. Like I said...I don't want to make things worse, if you can GET worse than not powering on at all.

So, Bran calls some friends who are really good with computers. One is still at work, so we have to wait for him to get off to ask him to come over and take a look...One live in Georgia...for those not familiar...we're in Utah...west side of the country (though 2 states away from being coastal), Georgia is on the EAST side, and on the coast. Several days drive from there to here...so all HE can do is hear what's going on over the phone and make suggestions. He suggests possible loose wires/cords (again, something we already checked) a possible circuit breaker like thing inside (only SOME PCs have them) that could have been tripped/flipped on the power source inside the comp, or that the power supply itself has killed over. So again, we take the side panels off, and look, and can see NOTHING like that at all...and don't dare try to take the supply OUT to check the side we can't see...again, because we don't want to damage anything ourselves. Bran talks to another friend online whose fiance is really good with computers, and we get the same suggestions, with the addition that given we have cats and what not, if there's a lot of dust and hair inside, we should clean it out and try again...which...we already did...

So basically...My computer will NOT turn on, does NOT react to being plugged in (outside of the annoying, ticking light in the back) and we don't know why...I can't afford to get this one FIXED if it's something fixable, and I REALLY can't afford to get a NEW one. Great. Just fucking great. All our family photos are on that computer, and nowhere else as I hadn't finished organizing them to burn them off yet...all my latest works in progress are on it and nowhere else...all my references for images I owe out are on it...Seriously, outside of the generic, I can access it anywhere online stuff...EVERYTHING of MINE is on that computer that is now not working. If it's not the power supply, I pray that the hard drive, and the visual card are still good...at least then I might be able to have this friend of Bran's help me by taking the parts from my old comp that still work, and the parts from Bran's old comp that still work, to rig together something that will work until we can afford to replace it. I just hope he can come over tonight and give me SOME form of good news about it. I mean...if it's something small, and 'cheap' to fix, Bran's dad said that we can get the money from him to GET it fixed...and if it's not...then I hope that between 2 computers we've got enough parts to make one that actually works even half decently for the time being.

Anyway...until I either get mine working again...or get something worked out to have a working comp...I'll only be checking in when I can borrow Bran's computer...and there will be no more art from me as everything I need for my art is on my comp (including BOTH printer scanners...so I can't even scan in my art to his comp to post traditional works unless we manage to find the install discs for one or the other of them). What else could go wrong right now? Please...don't actually answer that...I can think of at least a dozen other things that COULD go wrong right now, and I don't want to encourage them to happen. I think...I will go and cry now for a little before I go back to cleaning and laundry. I'll update when I have news to update with.