Last night, as I clicked and typed,
Lost in a video game’s delight,
I heard strange, unsettling sounds
From somewhere in the nether grounds,
Where the monstruous computer
Struggled to process the shooter.

Suddenly the screen went black,
Nearly had a heart attack,
Though the music carried on
For a tale long foregone.
‘Tis not good’ I whispered
‘Why is my adventure hindered?’

I pressed the reset button,
Hoping the incident forgotten.
The computer seemed okay,
Although, much to my dismay,
It presented an encore
And shut down once more.

This time, everything succumbed,
Leaving me thoroughly numbed.
No sounds, no lights, no beeps,
Merely my hopeless weeps.
I just swallowed my poor heart
And prepared to take the case apart.

I peeked around on the inside,
Looking for that which had died.
Everything was way too warm -
Possibly something was burned.
‘What could it be?’ I said,
Sweat dripping down my forehead.

The PSU seemed content
The CPU had no lament
The motherboard did not comment
Nor did the hard drives repent.
The graphics card, on the other hand
Fell in battle, did not stand.

As I touched it, I nearly shrieked
The heat got me really freaked.
‘This cannot be, my friend!
This cannot be your end!’
But I knew, I knew that this
Was the thing that went amiss.

I needed a cigarette to settle down
Before I too had a breakdown.
The computer needed its own rest
For too much it had been pressed.
Once again, I gave it light,
Ready to resume my fight.

Nothing’s ever easy, this I knew
But I’d found the problem true -
The fan on the graphics card
Lay there with great disregard.
It was dead, refused to move
Something I did not approve.

I turned the power off, with dread,
And looked for my tools instead.
I carefully removed the GPU
And thought of things that I could do
The fan was stubbornly stuck
And it seemed I was out of luck.

For, as I would later find,
The world is never very kind
My graphics card’s an old design
And this was the end of the line.
I stared in the abyss, disgraced
For the fan needs to be replaced.

As the dark went and day came by,
I sobbed quietly, I sighed,
I smoked, I drank, I cried,
With my gaming night denied,
My computer would no longer soar
And I’d never play again – nevermore.

Note: I got it working again by taking the original fan out and putting one of my auxiliaries in. Naturally, it didn’t fit. So I taped the fan to the heatsink. Yes, tape. Temporary fix, I think, though it’s a lot more silent and doesn’t exceed 45 degrees (as opposed to 55-60 with the old fan). Redneck solutions ftw!