I spent a couple of hours this afternoon walking my new brother-in-law through the diagnosis and repair of the damage done to his computer by a freak moving accident that occurred yesterday. Somehow, relocating the thing between outlets killed its power supply. Don’t ask me to explain how that’s supposed to work, but at least the power supply, an Enermax, did its job by dying without taking any of the more delicate components with it.

The recovery process involved recommending a good power-supply tester, and a good power supply. (He decided to get both at once, figuring that if the problem was his old power supply, he’d save himself a second trip, while if it wasn’t, he could always return the new power supply later.)

Fortunately, it was, the new Antec NeoPower 480 he bought seems to fit the bill perfectly, his machine is once more chugging along, and my sister doesn’t have to cede back the box he handed down to her so that he can play World of WarCraft.

I think this makes the third weekend in a row that I’ve been on the phone doing technical support for members of my extended family. On the one hand, it’s satisfying to help folks get their stuff working again; on the other, I can’t help but feel the occasional temptation to fake a learning disability.

(Then again, it marks one of my few positive accomplishments this weekend, so perhaps I shouldn’t knock it.)