techrecovery | Apr. 10th, 2008

For most of the academic year my workplace has been having trouble with a batch of computers we ordered this summer from a major PC manufacturer whose name rhymes with the exact place where you'd like to see them burn. About twice a week, one or another power supply would blow. It doesn't cost us anything much except aggravation since we have a contract for techs to come out with spare parts, work their mojo, and leave our labs for the next machine to blow out (which usually happens about three hours before they show up, but of course by then they're already on their way and it's silly (though becoming less so) to ask them to just bring a second set of parts "just in case"). Since about December, we've been calling the manufacturer about twice a month to say "you know, we had another four power supplies blow out since we called you last time. Don't you think it would be more expedient to just replace the rest of them in one go, since we're pretty much looking at lemons here anyway?" Of course, we've been getting more and more insistent with this as time grinds on.

Well, today we received a shipment of 99 power supplies. 99! We don't even have a third that many bum computers left in our labs!

On top of which, the 99 power supplies? They don't even appear to be for the right type of computer, or at least they're rated substantially lower than the other ones.

Thanks, guys. We love you too.