So, decided to check my email one last time before being mugged by the rack monster last night. Mistake. Hit the desktop in my Junk Room (also laughingly referred to in some quarters as my “home office” *heh*).
Nothing. No, not “It wouldn’t wake up.” Nothing. A power cycle didn’t even bring it to life. No video; no beep codes. Nothing.
Left it and let the rack monster have its way with me.
Today, tracked down the faulty component. Finally able to boot and access the CMOS setup screen using only one well-cleaned (with DeoxIt Gold contact cleaner and conditioner) DIMM installed in memory sockets after removing and replacing the memory modules produced a beep code for memory errors.
CMOS battery dead.
Ha! Replaced CMOS battery and cleaned/conditioned all other memory modules. Running fine, now.
Went back and treated all accessible electrical connections (peripheral cards, drive cables, power cables, etc.) with DeoxIt–either gold or regular, depending on the contacts–just for good measure. Hadn’t done that on this machine in two years, I realized later. Blew out dust bunnies while I was at it and just did some general housekeeping.
Oh, heck, while I was at it, a little rationalization of cables, re-tasking of onboard USB connections, and even dusting of the desk seemed in order, so there I was.
Nice, fun Sunday afternoon.