Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2002-12-09 07:34 am
azurelunatic) wrote2002-12-09 07:34 am
Uninterruptable Power Supply
Since I'm in the mood for telling the technical stories...
Once upon a time, I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, with my family: Mama, FatherSir, Narcissa, me, the critters, and assorted computers. When I was a teenager, and alone in the house on a cloudy summer day, perhaps in 1998, a storm rolled in while I was on the computer: working on my novel on Guardian, the not-quite-yet venerable 1995 Gateway 2000, hooked up to Cassandra, the uninterruptable power supply that screamed at us every time we turned on the microwave or started the printer. This wasn't much of a storm, so not much of a big deal: it was just rain. I headed for the bathroom, as Nature was talking to me too.
There was thunder, while I was in there, and then, much to my surprise and dismay, I saw a bright blue flash coming from the electrical outlets in the bathroom, at the same time as I heard a great clap of thunder.
Cassandra started screaming, and this time she didn't stop. Pants came back up, and I raced out into the main room, shut down Guardian fast and switched off Cassandra on my way past her to the breaker box, and shut down power to the whole house.
That was the way it remained until FatherSir came home. He heard my accounting of events, praised me for doing the right thing, saw that everything looked all right, hypothesized that since none of the breakers had tripped, especially not the main one, it must have hit the well controller, travelled up the wires and in through the bathroom circuit, there to alarm Cassandra and the rest of the household, which would explain the blue sparks I saw while attempting to sit peacefully in the one room in the house with a semblance of a door.
Power was restored to the house, and all was good. Guardian was in perfect working order.
All was good... until I smelled that telltale scent of scorched electronics. That put me into high alert, and my nose narrowed it down to Cassandra just as the small plume of white smoke became visible. Another dive for power switches and cords, and as soon as Cassandra cooled down, FatherSir had her opened up. One component had been completely fragged, but the rest of her looked just fine.
A few days and a trip to an electronics store later, FatherSir replaced the component, and Cassandra once again worked correctly. As far as I know, she's still sitting there under the computer shelf, with Guardian and the printer hooked into her, screeching every time the printer boots up, or someone turns on the microwave.
Once upon a time, I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, with my family: Mama, FatherSir, Narcissa, me, the critters, and assorted computers. When I was a teenager, and alone in the house on a cloudy summer day, perhaps in 1998, a storm rolled in while I was on the computer: working on my novel on Guardian, the not-quite-yet venerable 1995 Gateway 2000, hooked up to Cassandra, the uninterruptable power supply that screamed at us every time we turned on the microwave or started the printer. This wasn't much of a storm, so not much of a big deal: it was just rain. I headed for the bathroom, as Nature was talking to me too.
There was thunder, while I was in there, and then, much to my surprise and dismay, I saw a bright blue flash coming from the electrical outlets in the bathroom, at the same time as I heard a great clap of thunder.
Cassandra started screaming, and this time she didn't stop. Pants came back up, and I raced out into the main room, shut down Guardian fast and switched off Cassandra on my way past her to the breaker box, and shut down power to the whole house.
That was the way it remained until FatherSir came home. He heard my accounting of events, praised me for doing the right thing, saw that everything looked all right, hypothesized that since none of the breakers had tripped, especially not the main one, it must have hit the well controller, travelled up the wires and in through the bathroom circuit, there to alarm Cassandra and the rest of the household, which would explain the blue sparks I saw while attempting to sit peacefully in the one room in the house with a semblance of a door.
Power was restored to the house, and all was good. Guardian was in perfect working order.
All was good... until I smelled that telltale scent of scorched electronics. That put me into high alert, and my nose narrowed it down to Cassandra just as the small plume of white smoke became visible. Another dive for power switches and cords, and as soon as Cassandra cooled down, FatherSir had her opened up. One component had been completely fragged, but the rest of her looked just fine.
A few days and a trip to an electronics store later, FatherSir replaced the component, and Cassandra once again worked correctly. As far as I know, she's still sitting there under the computer shelf, with Guardian and the printer hooked into her, screeching every time the printer boots up, or someone turns on the microwave.
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