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From: faigin@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Daniel P Faigin)
Newsgroups: net.rumor
Subject: Re: Computer Horror Stories
Message-ID: <2641@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Feb-86 20:05:25 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.2641
Posted: Fri Feb 21 20:05:25 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Feb-86 21:08:05 EST
References: <14700001@hplabsb.UUCP> <476@mmm.UUCP> <9345@ritcv.UUCP> <1335@osu-eddie.UUCP>
Reply-To: faigin@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Daniel P Faigin)
Organization: System Development Corporation R&D, Santa Monica
Lines: 39

My wife has these stories to tell:

1.  We were in the process of installing  3  new  Cybers  in  our
machine room, and had to install umpteen tons of air conditioning
to handle the additional load.  One  fine  Friday,  the  building
engineer  decided to check unit capacity, and cranked all the air
to "FULL ON", locked the controls, and left for a weekend in  San
Diego  (without  his  beeper,  carrying  the only key).  About 30
minutes later, our senior operator came flying out of the machine
room,  in his parka, screaming "It's 50 degrees and DROPPING FAST
in the machine room!" Al and Al (our matched set of system  P/As)
went flying into the machine room and started excercising *every*
drive, trying to generate heat (CDC drives used to crap out at 48
degrees F).  No good -- the room temperature kept dropping.  They
had to send out a 2 minute message, checkpoint,  and  bring  down
the  network  (200+  on-line,  19 RJE stations).  You should have
heard the uses howl!! (I wonder what ever happened to  that  poor
slob of a facility engineer).

2.  Satellite site, running CDC 3170  with  16  30-Mbyte  drives.
Some  operator  on  the  graveyard shift dropped a pack.  Scared,
he/she/it didn't red-tag the thing.  Sometime later, (inevitably)
someone  mounted the bad pack. 1 pack, 1 drive down.  Not knowing
whether it was the pack or the drive,  an  operator  swapped  the
pack  with  another  one,  on  another drive.  By the time it was
over, 30 packs and 14 drives have been trashed  (Only  the  "non-
removable"  system  drives/packs  were  safe).  CDC warranty only
covered repairs to 1 drive  and  1  pack.  The  whole  shift  was
canned...  It  took  $$$  and  approx.  a  week to restore/repair
everything.


Daniel Faigin
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