Recently, my computer has been acting up on me a little bit. Five or six times in the past two weeks, it's spontaneously turned itself off.

The first time it happened I thought it was a power surge. After that I started thinking it was a failing power supply, or maybe a dying cooling fan.

I figured it out just a bit ago. The problem is both simple and stupid.

I have feet, and apparently I use them badly.

So my computer has a great rats nest of wires, right? And everything's plugged into a surge arrestor, right? And that surge arrestor has one master switch, right? Can you see where I'm going here?

My house has an old school hydronic heating system. A boiler in the basement feeds hot water and steam through pipes all over the house. Nearly every room has at least one wall with that long, low "mini-radiator" running its length.

Well, that mini-radiator is a very cozy place to put my feet. But the part of the surge arrestor with the switch had wiggled under the edge of the radiator's cover. So every time I put my feet up, my computer would shut off.

And I didn't figure this out until the fifth or sixth time it happened.

I know, I know. I'm a super detective. The real-life CSI people have been calling and everything.