Dodging a bullet

[unixronin]

I just almost killed my primary machine.

I'd opened up the case to look up the serial number on my tape drive, since the in-silicon serial number that the diagnostic tool reports is of no use in determining whether the drive is still in warranty or not.  While moving cables to see the serial number, I managed to short a power cable down to the case of the tape drive.  There was a big fat blue spark, and all the sounds of happy computer slowed down and stopped.

"Oh, fuck," I thought.  I noticed the power LED was still on.  I hit the front-panel power switch.  Nothing happened.  I switched off the power supply.  Nothing happened.  I physically unplugged the power cord.  Nothing happened.

Finally, after about a minute, all the remaining LEDs went out.  I waited another thirty seconds, then plugged the power cable back in, switched the power supply back on, and pushed the power button, expecting nothing but an accusing silence.  To my incredible relief, the machine proceeded to execute a perfectly normal cold start, apparently none the worse for wear, with no signs of anything wrong except for all the disk mirrors churning away in resync.

Comments

[docwebster.livejournal.com]

You silly, twisted boy.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

That's whatcha call *close*.

BTW, you know that on any M/B made after about 2000, the motherboard itself is hot *all the time* unless the power supply is physically turned off? This is a Microsoftism. I've fried a number of DIMM's not knowing or forgetting this...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think you'll find that's not Microsoft to blame, it's Intel and the ATX motherboard specification, which implemented soft-power (meaning, SOME power on at all times) to allow for wake-on-LAN.

[robbat2.livejournal.com]

you need to take more care with power cables...
i've zapped myself a few times really badly. (on one occasion, the medical person said I should have lost my hand for what I did).

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this was only TTL voltages, but it was plenty worrisome, because if I'd fried something I'd have absolutely no way to replace it. I'm still fighting the tape drive; updating the firmware per Exabyte's instructions seems to have totally, absolutely, irretrievably, irreversably frelled the drive.