It Smells Like Burning...

I promised more work stuff, and here we go.

In my years as a wannabe IT guy, I've learned a lot. One of the more important lessons is that when you encounter a burning smell and see smoke coming from a computer, it's always bad. It's also always the result of either something bad, something stupid or something stupid that causes something bad. I've had a few "smoke issues" over the years, but one really stands out...

I was at my desk, doing some work when a colleague ran in and told me she was having a computer emergency and really needed my help. I was busy, but out IT guy had been out drinking the night before and had "called in sick," so I was semi-obligated. Asked her what the problem was and she responded that it "smelled like burning" (not sure if she was intentionally quoting Ralph Wiggum, but it was funny for about 6 seconds). I walked back to her desk with her and started smelling the "burning" from about 20 feet away.

Realizing that everything was still plugged in and on, with smoke starting to come from the back of her computer, I yanked the power strip from the wall. This was something that really seemed to upset her, as she was now going to have to "re-program" the clock radio on her desk. I told her that if everything was plugged in, it was dangerous, and that I'd re-program the clock for her once I fixed the major problem.

Reached under the desk to pull the computer out, but it was too hot to touch. Not wanting to waste any more time, I started to slide it out with my feet. Didn't even need to pull it all the way out to realize what had caused the problem. My lovely, well intentioned colleague had jammed a pen into the back of her case, in between the blades on the fan, stopping it and causing the power supply to overheat. I asked if she had done this and she explained that she had, because there was an annoying noise coming from the back of the computer, and that when she put the pen in, it stopped making the noise.

As I was waiting for the machine to cool off enough that I could pull out the pen, I tried explaining that the noise was coming from the computer's fan. She very calmly told me that the fan must not have been working, because it was making all that noise, but not cooling her off at all. Thinking it would be rude to bang my head on her desk while she's there, I tried to control my rage and started explaining that computers have "stuff" inside them that gets hot when it runs, and that you needed to have a fan to help circulate the air and keep this "stuff" from overheating. Her blank stare told me I had just introduced concepts that were way over her head, but I had to try. I pulled out the pen, which had half melted and was leaking ink all over the place. Since our IT guy was out, I couldn't get a new power supply, so I set up an old machine from an empty office to keep her operational until we could get the new part, re-programmed the clock and got back to work.

When the IT guy returned to work (3 days later), I explained the situation to him and he ordered the PS with overnight shipping. He was out again the next day (either strung out or hung over), but when it came, I installed it, cleaned everything else up and got her up and running. Tested everything and went back to my actual job, but not before taking every pen, pencil and other object small enough to stick inside the power supply away from her. Despite what had just gone on, I had little faith that she wouldn't try it again. She also leaves her computer on all night...can only imagine what would have happened if it had started to "smell like burning" after hours.

My desk was around the corner and probably 50 feet down the hall from her. As I was sitting back down, I heard her turn the radio back on and started to wonder how she was annoyed by the fan when she's listening the Backstreet Boys at maximum volume.