And just like that, the computer is dead. It turns on for about 10 secs, and then kaputski. The only thing that remains working is things connected by USB and a single fan, the main fan for the PSU, quite happily whirring away. I had a look at what goes on inside, and the main CPU fan seems to slow down about a second before everything dies. I'm guessing it has something to do with lack of power, and then it just cascades downward to everything else.

Anyway, this is just wonderful. Financially it couldn't have happened at a better time. Thankfully a good friend in America says he'll order me a new PSU, and all i have to do is pay him back $5 a week over paypal. But for now, i'm stuck on the family laptop, a crappy machine if i ever saw one.