This isn't good.

My daughter called to me from the office/school room. "Dad! The computer stopped. It just shut off."

The pump on the water cooler died and the CPU overheated. Fortunately, the safeguards kicked in and shut everything down before any serious damage occurred. But for some strange reason the PSU no longer works. I tested the motherboard and CPU against the other machine and all those components work. The power supply, however, is dead.

The dead pump bothers me only a little. It's been running well for two years and I have no idea how long they're supposed to last. It's my first attempt at water cooling and I didn't buy the top of the line.

But I'm kicking myself because just a month or two ago I tossed all the invoices and packing slips for the computer parts. I forgot that the PSU has a 3 year warranty and didn't think I'd need that anymore.

I doubt I'll be able to swap it under warranty without the proof-of-purchase of an invoice. 

Time to go shopping!

 

I almost wish the CPU had burned up so I could have an excuse to purchase a new - and faster - one. They're really cheap now but for the modest increase in power over my current one I can't justify the cash.

In the meantime I've moved the hard drive over to the other PC so I can boot off it when I need something. This is the reason I went with two identical PCs of modest performance instead of one maxed out machine. Disaster recovery and multiple users make me think I was clever when I built them this way.

Now if only I were more clever about keeping track of warranties and the associated paperwork!