Computer Repair, 12/27

M__ hollered at me Christmas day; her computer was broken. With the power problems we had that morning, I really wasn't surprised: surge protectors aren't foolproof.
So I run over and take a look. Sure enough; it was just as she described it to me: press the power button, the light would come on, but nothing happened. Great. Best case, the power supply's borked; worst case, the whole box is fried. I brace her for the worst, and told her I'd take a look at it Saturday morning. To tide her over; I hooked her up with a replacement rig: my new laptop won't win any speed awards, but hook her monitor and mouse up and it's a serviceable email kiosk. No, this isn't something I'd normally do, but M__ is a good customer.
I get this thing to my makeshift workshop and hook it up to a spare mouse and monitor (and power cord, just in case) of mine. No surprise, still didn't work. Was worth a shot, though; a power cord is a lot less expensive than a new computer.
I shut'er down, crack open the case, and get to troubleshooting. All the connections are good, and nothing looks scorched off hand. Power supply is cheaper than a new box, so I hit the test button. Nothing. Now, this power supply is supposed to spin the case fans when you hit the test; but all I get is a twitch and a green LED.
I don't have any spare power supplies on hand, but I had just replaced the power supply in my own desktop. Normally, no problem; hop on New Egg, pick up the part, wait a couple days. I give M__ a call, see what she wants to do. And for some reason, I offered to just leave in my power supply at replacement cost. Normally, I wouldn't have even thought about putting parts from my own PC in a customer's computer, but like I said, M__ is a good customer: she's already shopping for a new computer with me. And since I have the laptop, there's nothing on the desktop I actually need for a while. So, she's up and running, I've got my laptop back. And I've got a customer who knows I'll go the extra mile.