After putting together my new computer, I plugged in the power cord and pressed the power button and heard…
Nothing.
Nothing whatsoever was happening.
Except that I smelled something burning.
I suspected the power supply, since it had smelled awful from the moment I took it out of the box (Can you tell I’m a food person? My first guess of something gone wrong is an off odor!)
So I tested the power supply, using the directions given–“shorting” the system with a paper clip.
That wasn’t it.
I reconnected the power supply to the mainboard, turned the power on again, and discovered my problem.
A circuit in the upper right corner of the board was glowing and stinking.
A short, this one decidedly undesirable.
I couldn’t do anything about it just then and it was late and I was already exhausted, so I turned off the light and went down to bed feeling rather sorry for myself.
Then I began to think of how a friend’s troubles far outweigh mine, and how I’d been contemplating her struggles earlier and internally urging her to trust God–
Benedick’s words from “Much Ado About Nothing” popped into my head:
“There was never yet a philosopher
that could endure the toothache patiently.”