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From: jans@tekecs.UUCP (Jan Steinman)
Newsgroups: net.rumor
Subject: Re: Computer Horror Stories
Message-ID: <5968@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Feb-86 13:41:33 EST
Article-I.D.: tekecs.5968
Posted: Fri Feb 21 13:41:33 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Feb-86 08:38:15 EST
References: <14700001@hplabsb.UUCP> <476@mmm.UUCP> <672@amiga.amiga.UUCP> <404@ccivax.UUCP> <389@watdragon.UUCP> <1036@burl.UUCP>
Reply-To: jans@tekecs.UUCP (Jan Steinman)
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 24

When I worked for a transaction-processing computer company as a Customer
Engineer, there was another CE there who was a real screw-up.  He was on
probation at the time he had to do a head alignment on a 300Mb "washing
machine" type drive.  Somehow, the drive (and alignment pack) sufferred a head
crash during the operation.

Later, he indiscreetly told me that he had finished aligning the drive, and
had started a format, when he discovered he had forgotten to swap the CE pack
with the customer's pack.  Knowing he was on probation, he said, "I thought
quick, and crashed head zero on the pack!", easily accomplished by poking at
head mount with a screwdriver.  Little pieces of head zero crashed 12 of the
19 other heads, and destroyed the CE pack.

CE pack:		$5000
13 heads @ $150 each:	$1950
9 hours labor:		 $900
			-----
			$7850 vs Cost of re-certifying CE pack:	$350.

Not really a horror story, but there's a moral there somewhere.

:::::: Artificial   Intelligence   Machines   ---   Smalltalk   Project ::::::
:::::: Jan Steinman		Box 1000, MS 60-405	(w)503/685-2956 ::::::
:::::: tektronix!tekecs!jans	Wilsonville, OR 97070	(h)503/657-7703 ::::::