Good luck in getting it published. And when it is, would you please come back and submit it here? [eyeing your other interesting posts] I'm sure it'll contain much good fodder for discussion.
I think you are completely correct in many cases the BoD knows damn well that the upshot of hiring Famous ex-CEO of Formerly Wonderful Company will indeed damage or even kill their company -- and it gives them someone expendable to blame for any "blunders", whilst padding their own pockets. I expect if one examines the BoD of companies repeatedly so-afflicted, one might discover a good many such former CEOs among said BoD members (in fact, notice how many people are on the BoD for several different companies). I'm sure they've developed one hell of an old-boy network.
Change of CEO immediately after a merger has become, in my mind, suspect for this very thing: someone's REAL plans are to get theirs and get out, before the company goes to hell.
But with companies that have never suffered from this "career CEO" greed, but that are presently hoping for "growth opportunities", I think there is indeed a fatal naivete at work. Of course, after the first go-round, folks wise up and join the treadmill...
These MBA types (who've never BUILT a company, see my rant upstream a bit) come in, implement tons of cost-cutting measures (never mind customers, so long as the bottom line "improves"!), and skip out with a glowing tale of how they reduced costs, raised stock values, and improved profits. A year or two later, the company they gutted finally goes under, but meanwhile these MBA types have yet another kudo on their resume. And that gets them hired by the next sucker, who somehow failed to research far enough to realise that this MBA type actually KILLED their previous company, even tho it didn't actually die until the MBA was long gone. Rinse and repeat, until there are no sound businesses left.
That points out what I contend is THE biggest problem with managers (which includes most CEOs and BoDs) today: hardly any have actually BUILT a business themselves. Instead they come in and take over an existing business, but that just is not the same as building it yourself.
In the olden days, companies promoted people to management positions almost entirely from within -- from people who had grown up with the company and had a stake in its continued success. Now, everyone goes out and buys a fresh-faced new MBA, then everyone wonders why all they know is stock market values and cost-cutting on the bottom line. Customers? Employees?? Who needs 'em!!
Strange... if it were all one machine I'd point at the PSU, but... Maybe the power coming in is bad in some way that the UPSs don't correct? When you see a LOT of HD failures (including too many random bad sectors on an otherwise-healthy, non-crashed drive), it's usually something to do with bad power from *somewhere*.
I would have the power company test your lines. A while back I was seeing momentary brown-downs (like when an appliance first comes on), complained to Edison, and turns out one of the wires on the drop to my house was bad and was occasionally shorting against a nearby tree. They fixed that, and the brown-downs went away.
If it's not in the lines, have an electrician check your house wiring and fuse panel.
Actually, it's pretty common in older houses that originally only had two-prong outlets (even if they've been replaced with 3-prong outlets). Frex, I have two houses built in the 1950s -- one with new wiring (it was vacant for years and mice ate the wiring, so it got totally replaced in 2000) and one with the original wiring from 1958 -- done with a permit, and installed to code at the time.
The new wiring (with all new 3-prong outlets) has proper grounds, and it TESTS as having proper grounds.
The old wiring TESTS as "no ground". I'm not an electrician and don't know the proper terms, but there are only the two minimum wires as required to make the juice flow. Some prior owner has replaced the old two-prong outlets with 3-prong outlets (so modern plugs can be used without cutting off the ground plug) but that doesn't make it magically have a proper ground circuit.
The 300W PSU in this machine will be eleven years old, come May....
At the time, 300W was unheard-of outside of servers, and such a unit was very hard to find. But I'd added one too many gadgets in this case, and the original 200W PSU refused to power on (tho it still works, when not overloaded).
Whoops, I forgot the Yamaha CDRW, dead at 9 months, and its warranty replacement, dead at 6 months. I've never seen a Yamaha CDRW that lasted past 2 yrs for 4x, or 9 months for 6x or above. (20 tracked, 20 prematurely dead.)
"The worst part is that I only upgrade when I get a failure or when the parts are horribly antiquated. (My last upgrade was in 2002.)"
LOL! Are you sure you aren't me?:)
Between the three computers here that run 24/7, the two major upgrades one of 'em has had over the years (it still has some original parts, from 1994), and the 286 that also formerly ran 24/7 (and was finally retired in 2001!), the dead components total up thus:
Panasonic 2x CDROM drive, at 6 years old; actually the drive itself still worked fine, but the rubber belt that makes it "go" finally broke, and I never got around to replacing it. (I swear Panasonic stuff is all too dumb to know when it's dead; I've had all sorts of ancient, regularly-abused, still-working Panasonic electronics.)
1.6GB W.D. HD, at 5 years old; it got head-crashed when I moved, but was still in use for another 3 years afterward (it finally succumbed to the Creeping Crud).
USR 56k PCI modem, at 4 yrs
One 486 motherboard, killed by a keyboard short (see "Keyboard BIOS" post, above)
Several PSU fans and CPU fans, mainly of old age
Several keyboards and mice, mainly of old age
On top of that, my machines are largely built from salvage... let me guess, you do that too, right?:)
Of course, I've found lots of dead stuff in salvaged PCs, but I don't count that since it didn't die in my service. (No pension for them!:)
Have you tried plugging the CPU fan into some other place, not into the usual motherboard plug? I'm wondering if it's drawing too much power at startup, leaving the RAM gasping for power.
(Typing this from behind an almost 11 year old PSU:)
Eeeep... so, wanna help me whine at APC again about keyboard port protectors?:)
And considering that USB issues accounted for 6% of the list (or so someone pasted here; I couldn't get at the article or the mirror) one wonders if a USB protector might be in order too!!
Some people use panty hose for that, and you can buy foam-type filters made as PC fan covers, but ISTM that you're better off to let the very finest dust float on through and out the PSU fan, rather than forgetting to occasionally clean such a fine-grained filter.
I assume you got something like swamp cooler filters, or force-air heater filters? either should work well -- not so fine-grained as to get clogged with microdust, but sufficient to catch any lint, cat hair, etc.
However, I've never bothered adding a filter, and thanks to the intake fan, my machines stay very clean inside.
The PSU fan is normally an exhaust fan. However, it has to pull air thru all the junk inside the PSU == not very efficient, so really doesn't move much air.
Hence adding even ONE intake fan, with a clear airflow path, is enough to result in positive pressure inside the case, as well as much improved total airflow. (Sufficient to keep my P3-550 from overheating even when the CPU fan has failed.)
In my experience, when there is only an exhaust fan, dust (and especially cat hair) enters the case primarily via the front vents and the front drive bays. You can see this by where the majority winds up stuck -- usually between the plastic case front and the metal frame, and inside the floppy drive. I've pulled some seriously amazing dust bunnies out of floppy drives.
Add an intake fan, resulting in positive air pressure, and there will also be airflow OUT through the case vents and the drive bays. You may see a little fine dust right next to the intake fan, but there will be far less coating the various components, and you won't see any lint or cat hair at all.
Of course, you don't want to put an intake fan right next to the floor, where it would naturally suck in whatever is in reach. But even halfway up a midtower case (8 inches or so) is sufficient distance from the usual floor-level detritus. Also, an intake fan seems to change the typical airflow pattern around the case, so you get less dust accumulating around its base in the first place.
Better AT cases had a second fan hole right below the PSU; newer ATX cases usually have one dead-center opposite the motherboard. In my experience, both are excellent places for the intake fan.
If you have more than two fans, just make sure there are always the same number or one more intake than exhaust (counting the PSU fan), and it should maintain positive pressure and best airflow.
It's the same here in the US, why I don't know. Frex, I can buy one of those RaidMax cases (which I like for many bays and easy to work inside) with PSU for about $30, or the PSU alone for about $35. Huh???
Oh, I meant helps against the standard ring voltage. I've always run my modem line thru a surge unit -- actually, it winds up going thru several, since I use surge units as splitters too (they have one in-port and two out-ports), which may help explain why I'm speaking to you on a modem of 1996ish vintage. (Of course, it IS a USR, but even so...)
As to lightning strikes, yeah, I'm sure a piddly-assed surge unit isn't going to do much against several gazillion volts!!
However, some years ago, my surge units (I buy pretty decent ones) actively prevented damage when some moron screwed up the wiring upstream from me, so I was getting 220v in my trailer (apparently with no ground -- the trailer's aluminum skin was "hot" too). Light bulbs exploded outright, but the computers and transformers, all on surge units, survived intact.
I also have UPSs between surge unit and computers. BTW, never ever not EVER do it the other way around -- plugging *surge unit into UPS* can lead to a feedback situation and consequent fire. Ooops!
If I were building a new house, methings an integrated surge panel like APC markets might be a Good Investment. Well, if they don't cost more than the whole rest of the house!
While I've never seen a *decent-quality* PSU fail (tho I've seen plenty of dead CHEAP ones) I can't begin to count all the times someone has come to me with a "dead power supply" when in fact all that died was the PSU fan. And the fans are easy to replace, and cost a lot less. Most PSUs take a standard case fan. Do be careful not to touch the capacators while you're inside, or you'll get a Rude Surprise[tm].
As to the problem of PSU fans being hardwired in or having some weird plug, I hit on a simple (if recursive:) solution: cut and tape off the old wires, then replace the fan with a standard case fan, run its wire out the same hole as the PSU's own power cables, and plug the fan into one of said cables. Add splitters as needed, and try not to put the fan on the same cable as a hard disk. (Sharing a cable with the floppy drive is a good option.)
The PSU in the machine I'm using as we speak is almost 11 years old; it was a high-end unit in its day. I've replaced its fan 3 or 4 times now.
That icky crud (sortof like globs of greasy spiderwebs) is why I charge extra when I work on smokers' computers. They're just TOO gross inside!!
I've seen cig smoke residue clog up a CPU fan to where it was one solid lump (I think the fan motor was still running, but the blades couldn't turn). It had been so hot that the fanblades shattered at a touch, the motherboard was scorched, and the CPU slot was so warped that I had to use Vise-Grips to pull the CPU out of the slot. Damn wonder it didn't catch fire. It DID let the magic smoke out of the onboard video circuit.
I stuck the CPU (P3-500) in another system, and at first it played dead, but after a couple power cycles and false starts, it came back to life, and three years later is still running 24/7 with complete reliability.
Believe it or not, the former owner's tech dude "couldn't" figure out why her system would only run a few minutes before locking up. Since even the most cursory glance inside the case made the problem painfully obvious, I concluded that this guy was ripping her off (tho I was unable to convince her of that... I swear, some people...)
BTW, to keep dust OUT of a computer, install an INTAKE fan (or more than one, as needed) to ensure positive air pressure inside the case. This is why my systems stay so clean inside, even tho I live in the dusty desert with several cats.
In the murky past, some corporate IT departments always made everyone shut down their PCs when they left for the night, because of the risk of the PSU catching fire.
I know someone whose old Mac's PSU caught fire -- flames shot out the back and caught the curtains and wall behind it on fire too! Fortunately she had a kitchen-sized fire extinguisher that got it under control before the fire department arrived, tho a chunk of the wall had to be replaced. Amazingly, the hard disk survived this abuse, with no data lost.
I'd heard about that issue but never experienced it. However, it makes perfect sense -- that metal keyboard lock is connected DIRECTLY to the motherboard.
And that's why on any machine I built, I never connected the wires to the keyboard lock.
I once had a motherboard killed by a keyboard short -- or to be accurate, what died was apparently the keyboard BIOS. (This was back in the 486 era, when such things still had their own chips.) I accidentally hit the F6 and F7 keys at the same time, the nasty Focus keyboard objected by going PHZZT, and sent its protests off down the cable. ALL the lights on the main box came on, and stayed on until I jerked the cord out of the UPS.
Much testing later (involving a POST card and some mix-and-match with an identical system), I determined that the PSU was still good, the motherboard was still getting power and passing it along to the components in the usual way, all the components were still fine, and the CPU and system BIOS were still alive and well. That left only the keyboard BIOS as suspect. Guess which chip was SOLDERED onto the motherboard??!
After that I started looking more closely at "dead" motherboards, and discovered that nearly ALL of them had evidently died of a fried keyboard BIOS.
About this time, APC started marketing surge-and-noise protectors for NICs, because they'd found that there was significant incidence of system-frying shocks (and plain old electrical noise causing packet corruption) coming over network cables. Thus inspired, for several years I whined at APC about making keyboard protectors, but nothing ever came of it.
So... I find it perfectly believeable that a mouse could commit similar mayhem.
Oh, the 486 in question started life as a $2000 box, but by then was (fortunately!) overdue to be upgraded anyway.
As to modems, I've wondered about that... My modem cables all run thru a heavy-duty surge unit; one hopes that helps. -- I personally know two people who had PCs fried by lightning strikes coming down the phone cable; in one incident, it set the internal modem on fire and melted a hole in the motherboard. Miraculously, the HD survived this abuse, all data intact.
Slashdot Mirror
Really? Hmm. Maybe my brain just needed repartitioning, or a data refresh. I did try eating an Apple, but it just gave me indigestion. ;)
When people ask me why I left college when I did, my response has always been, "My brain had a disk-full error". :)
[blink] That's it! I need to reformat my brain!!
[thinking] Maybe I should start by writing zeros to its boot sector...
Good luck in getting it published. And when it is, would you please come back and submit it here? [eyeing your other interesting posts] I'm sure it'll contain much good fodder for discussion.
Now we know the capacity on your UPS :)
Of course, it could just be gremlins!
I think you are completely correct in many cases the BoD knows damn well that the upshot of hiring Famous ex-CEO of Formerly Wonderful Company will indeed damage or even kill their company -- and it gives them someone expendable to blame for any "blunders", whilst padding their own pockets. I expect if one examines the BoD of companies repeatedly so-afflicted, one might discover a good many such former CEOs among said BoD members (in fact, notice how many people are on the BoD for several different companies). I'm sure they've developed one hell of an old-boy network.
Change of CEO immediately after a merger has become, in my mind, suspect for this very thing: someone's REAL plans are to get theirs and get out, before the company goes to hell.
But with companies that have never suffered from this "career CEO" greed, but that are presently hoping for "growth opportunities", I think there is indeed a fatal naivete at work. Of course, after the first go-round, folks wise up and join the treadmill...
Stranger and stranger... what happens if you just totally unplug the offending fan?
These MBA types (who've never BUILT a company, see my rant upstream a bit) come in, implement tons of cost-cutting measures (never mind customers, so long as the bottom line "improves"!), and skip out with a glowing tale of how they reduced costs, raised stock values, and improved profits. A year or two later, the company they gutted finally goes under, but meanwhile these MBA types have yet another kudo on their resume. And that gets them hired by the next sucker, who somehow failed to research far enough to realise that this MBA type actually KILLED their previous company, even tho it didn't actually die until the MBA was long gone. Rinse and repeat, until there are no sound businesses left.
That points out what I contend is THE biggest problem with managers (which includes most CEOs and BoDs) today: hardly any have actually BUILT a business themselves. Instead they come in and take over an existing business, but that just is not the same as building it yourself.
In the olden days, companies promoted people to management positions almost entirely from within -- from people who had grown up with the company and had a stake in its continued success. Now, everyone goes out and buys a fresh-faced new MBA, then everyone wonders why all they know is stock market values and cost-cutting on the bottom line. Customers? Employees?? Who needs 'em!!
Don't know for sure... but when you've got strange stuff happening, it may call for strange answers! :)
Strange... if it were all one machine I'd point at the PSU, but... Maybe the power coming in is bad in some way that the UPSs don't correct? When you see a LOT of HD failures (including too many random bad sectors on an otherwise-healthy, non-crashed drive), it's usually something to do with bad power from *somewhere*.
I would have the power company test your lines. A while back I was seeing momentary brown-downs (like when an appliance first comes on), complained to Edison, and turns out one of the wires on the drop to my house was bad and was occasionally shorting against a nearby tree. They fixed that, and the brown-downs went away.
If it's not in the lines, have an electrician check your house wiring and fuse panel.
Actually, it's pretty common in older houses that originally only had two-prong outlets (even if they've been replaced with 3-prong outlets). Frex, I have two houses built in the 1950s -- one with new wiring (it was vacant for years and mice ate the wiring, so it got totally replaced in 2000) and one with the original wiring from 1958 -- done with a permit, and installed to code at the time.
The new wiring (with all new 3-prong outlets) has proper grounds, and it TESTS as having proper grounds.
The old wiring TESTS as "no ground". I'm not an electrician and don't know the proper terms, but there are only the two minimum wires as required to make the juice flow. Some prior owner has replaced the old two-prong outlets with 3-prong outlets (so modern plugs can be used without cutting off the ground plug) but that doesn't make it magically have a proper ground circuit.
The 300W PSU in this machine will be eleven years old, come May....
At the time, 300W was unheard-of outside of servers, and such a unit was very hard to find. But I'd added one too many gadgets in this case, and the original 200W PSU refused to power on (tho it still works, when not overloaded).
Whoops, I forgot the Yamaha CDRW, dead at 9 months, and its warranty replacement, dead at 6 months. I've never seen a Yamaha CDRW that lasted past 2 yrs for 4x, or 9 months for 6x or above. (20 tracked, 20 prematurely dead.)
"The worst part is that I only upgrade when I get a failure or when the parts are horribly antiquated. (My last upgrade was in 2002.)"
:)
:)
:)
LOL! Are you sure you aren't me?
Between the three computers here that run 24/7, the two major upgrades one of 'em has had over the years (it still has some original parts, from 1994), and the 286 that also formerly ran 24/7 (and was finally retired in 2001!), the dead components total up thus:
Panasonic 2x CDROM drive, at 6 years old; actually the drive itself still worked fine, but the rubber belt that makes it "go" finally broke, and I never got around to replacing it. (I swear Panasonic stuff is all too dumb to know when it's dead; I've had all sorts of ancient, regularly-abused, still-working Panasonic electronics.)
1.6GB W.D. HD, at 5 years old; it got head-crashed when I moved, but was still in use for another 3 years afterward (it finally succumbed to the Creeping Crud).
USR 56k PCI modem, at 4 yrs
One 486 motherboard, killed by a keyboard short (see "Keyboard BIOS" post, above)
Several PSU fans and CPU fans, mainly of old age
Several keyboards and mice, mainly of old age
On top of that, my machines are largely built from salvage... let me guess, you do that too, right?
Of course, I've found lots of dead stuff in salvaged PCs, but I don't count that since it didn't die in my service. (No pension for them!
Have you tried plugging the CPU fan into some other place, not into the usual motherboard plug? I'm wondering if it's drawing too much power at startup, leaving the RAM gasping for power.
:)
(Typing this from behind an almost 11 year old PSU
Eeeep... so, wanna help me whine at APC again about keyboard port protectors? :)
And considering that USB issues accounted for 6% of the list (or so someone pasted here; I couldn't get at the article or the mirror) one wonders if a USB protector might be in order too!!
Some people use panty hose for that, and you can buy foam-type filters made as PC fan covers, but ISTM that you're better off to let the very finest dust float on through and out the PSU fan, rather than forgetting to occasionally clean such a fine-grained filter.
I assume you got something like swamp cooler filters, or force-air heater filters? either should work well -- not so fine-grained as to get clogged with microdust, but sufficient to catch any lint, cat hair, etc.
However, I've never bothered adding a filter, and thanks to the intake fan, my machines stay very clean inside.
So it would appear on the face of it, but:
The PSU fan is normally an exhaust fan. However, it has to pull air thru all the junk inside the PSU == not very efficient, so really doesn't move much air.
Hence adding even ONE intake fan, with a clear airflow path, is enough to result in positive pressure inside the case, as well as much improved total airflow. (Sufficient to keep my P3-550 from overheating even when the CPU fan has failed.)
In my experience, when there is only an exhaust fan, dust (and especially cat hair) enters the case primarily via the front vents and the front drive bays. You can see this by where the majority winds up stuck -- usually between the plastic case front and the metal frame, and inside the floppy drive. I've pulled some seriously amazing dust bunnies out of floppy drives.
Add an intake fan, resulting in positive air pressure, and there will also be airflow OUT through the case vents and the drive bays. You may see a little fine dust right next to the intake fan, but there will be far less coating the various components, and you won't see any lint or cat hair at all.
Of course, you don't want to put an intake fan right next to the floor, where it would naturally suck in whatever is in reach. But even halfway up a midtower case (8 inches or so) is sufficient distance from the usual floor-level detritus. Also, an intake fan seems to change the typical airflow pattern around the case, so you get less dust accumulating around its base in the first place.
Better AT cases had a second fan hole right below the PSU; newer ATX cases usually have one dead-center opposite the motherboard. In my experience, both are excellent places for the intake fan.
If you have more than two fans, just make sure there are always the same number or one more intake than exhaust (counting the PSU fan), and it should maintain positive pressure and best airflow.
It's the same here in the US, why I don't know. Frex, I can buy one of those RaidMax cases (which I like for many bays and easy to work inside) with PSU for about $30, or the PSU alone for about $35. Huh???
Oh, I meant helps against the standard ring voltage. I've always run my modem line thru a surge unit -- actually, it winds up going thru several, since I use surge units as splitters too (they have one in-port and two out-ports), which may help explain why I'm speaking to you on a modem of 1996ish vintage. (Of course, it IS a USR, but even so...)
As to lightning strikes, yeah, I'm sure a piddly-assed surge unit isn't going to do much against several gazillion volts!!
However, some years ago, my surge units (I buy pretty decent ones) actively prevented damage when some moron screwed up the wiring upstream from me, so I was getting 220v in my trailer (apparently with no ground -- the trailer's aluminum skin was "hot" too). Light bulbs exploded outright, but the computers and transformers, all on surge units, survived intact.
I also have UPSs between surge unit and computers. BTW, never ever not EVER do it the other way around -- plugging *surge unit into UPS* can lead to a feedback situation and consequent fire. Ooops!
If I were building a new house, methings an integrated surge panel like APC markets might be a Good Investment. Well, if they don't cost more than the whole rest of the house!
While I've never seen a *decent-quality* PSU fail (tho I've seen plenty of dead CHEAP ones) I can't begin to count all the times someone has come to me with a "dead power supply" when in fact all that died was the PSU fan. And the fans are easy to replace, and cost a lot less. Most PSUs take a standard case fan. Do be careful not to touch the capacators while you're inside, or you'll get a Rude Surprise[tm].
:) solution: cut and tape off the old wires, then replace the fan with a standard case fan, run its wire out the same hole as the PSU's own power cables, and plug the fan into one of said cables. Add splitters as needed, and try not to put the fan on the same cable as a hard disk. (Sharing a cable with the floppy drive is a good option.)
As to the problem of PSU fans being hardwired in or having some weird plug, I hit on a simple (if recursive
The PSU in the machine I'm using as we speak is almost 11 years old; it was a high-end unit in its day. I've replaced its fan 3 or 4 times now.
Orange? What the hell do your clients smoke??
That icky crud (sortof like globs of greasy spiderwebs) is why I charge extra when I work on smokers' computers. They're just TOO gross inside!!
I've seen cig smoke residue clog up a CPU fan to where it was one solid lump (I think the fan motor was still running, but the blades couldn't turn). It had been so hot that the fanblades shattered at a touch, the motherboard was scorched, and the CPU slot was so warped that I had to use Vise-Grips to pull the CPU out of the slot. Damn wonder it didn't catch fire. It DID let the magic smoke out of the onboard video circuit.
I stuck the CPU (P3-500) in another system, and at first it played dead, but after a couple power cycles and false starts, it came back to life, and three years later is still running 24/7 with complete reliability.
Believe it or not, the former owner's tech dude "couldn't" figure out why her system would only run a few minutes before locking up. Since even the most cursory glance inside the case made the problem painfully obvious, I concluded that this guy was ripping her off (tho I was unable to convince her of that... I swear, some people...)
BTW, to keep dust OUT of a computer, install an INTAKE fan (or more than one, as needed) to ensure positive air pressure inside the case. This is why my systems stay so clean inside, even tho I live in the dusty desert with several cats.
In the murky past, some corporate IT departments always made everyone shut down their PCs when they left for the night, because of the risk of the PSU catching fire.
I know someone whose old Mac's PSU caught fire -- flames shot out the back and caught the curtains and wall behind it on fire too! Fortunately she had a kitchen-sized fire extinguisher that got it under control before the fire department arrived, tho a chunk of the wall had to be replaced. Amazingly, the hard disk survived this abuse, with no data lost.
I'd heard about that issue but never experienced it. However, it makes perfect sense -- that metal keyboard lock is connected DIRECTLY to the motherboard.
And that's why on any machine I built, I never connected the wires to the keyboard lock.
I once had a motherboard killed by a keyboard short -- or to be accurate, what died was apparently the keyboard BIOS. (This was back in the 486 era, when such things still had their own chips.) I accidentally hit the F6 and F7 keys at the same time, the nasty Focus keyboard objected by going PHZZT, and sent its protests off down the cable. ALL the lights on the main box came on, and stayed on until I jerked the cord out of the UPS.
Much testing later (involving a POST card and some mix-and-match with an identical system), I determined that the PSU was still good, the motherboard was still getting power and passing it along to the components in the usual way, all the components were still fine, and the CPU and system BIOS were still alive and well. That left only the keyboard BIOS as suspect. Guess which chip was SOLDERED onto the motherboard??!
After that I started looking more closely at "dead" motherboards, and discovered that nearly ALL of them had evidently died of a fried keyboard BIOS.
About this time, APC started marketing surge-and-noise protectors for NICs, because they'd found that there was significant incidence of system-frying shocks (and plain old electrical noise causing packet corruption) coming over network cables. Thus inspired, for several years I whined at APC about making keyboard protectors, but nothing ever came of it.
So... I find it perfectly believeable that a mouse could commit similar mayhem.
Oh, the 486 in question started life as a $2000 box, but by then was (fortunately!) overdue to be upgraded anyway.
As to modems, I've wondered about that... My modem cables all run thru a heavy-duty surge unit; one hopes that helps. -- I personally know two people who had PCs fried by lightning strikes coming down the phone cable; in one incident, it set the internal modem on fire and melted a hole in the motherboard. Miraculously, the HD survived this abuse, all data intact.