Something very scary just happened.

On Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:19:52 +0200, "Skybuck Flying"
wrote:

Hello,

I was trying to find some source codes, I could have sworn I made them
somewhere.

I was starting vmware to see if it was maybe in a virtual environment.

Then I wondered, hmmm: maybe it's on my old pentium III.

I tried to power up the pentium III but the cable wasn't plugged in, so it
was probably now on on, but no power.

I plugged in the power cable and then it happened:

1. Zaap, BAM.... all lights went out, my dreampc 2006 went out.... total
darkness... I sweared... I thought I just blew up all my computers.

I smelled a burning smoke.

Then I went to bed and took a few minutes to relax because it was quite
scaring.

I suspected the circuit breaker or something like went off... and so I did.

I just re-enabled it (after unplugging all cables)... and then went back
into apperement and flipped switches and all lights came back on again.

Then I went to my dreampc 2006 to see if it was dead or alive.

Fortunately it seems to be still alive, since I am writing this message on
it.

So I had quite a scare... now the question is what happened ?!?

I have two possible explanations:

1. The watt/power load on the rails became to big and it exceeded 3600 watts
and the power blew... though this seems somewhat unlikely since dreampc2006
is 700 watts... the receiver is 700 watts, so that's only 1400 watts, plus
some lightbulb at 60 watts is about 1500 watts or so...

But maybe the rail needs to be divided by 2 so maybe only 1800 watts allowed
or so ?!? Still this number does not seem to reach.

So second possible explanation:

2. I once fixed the power supply of the old pentium III, it's fan was making
a ****ty noise, so I had to clean the fan, I had to cut cables... because it
was unpluggable.

Later I attached the cables again by "cross the wires" "crossing streams"
never cross the streams ! LOL....

No seriously... I had to tie the copper-wires together again... but leaving
them exposed to each other in the power supply.

I wrapped some plastic sticker tape around the copper wires to prevent them
from short circuiting.

I kinda new because of all the dust it would be a matter of time before it
would let loose...

I wondered about that not so long ago like a year ago... the fix was done
like 12 years ago or so...

So my second explanation is: somehow a short circuit existed in the old
pentium III, perhaps it could have even electrocuted it me if it wasn;'t for
the circuit breakers or if was touching it at the same time of plugging in
or something... fortunately the power wall socket was a meter away.

Or something totally different happened. (I will have to check pentium iii
power supply)

Possible explanation 3:

3. Or something totally different happened... perhaps there was a power
differential/difference, potential difference... between pentium III and the
dreampc+receiver...

And suddenly this potential difference leaked into the ground and cause the
circuit breaker to flip.

I actually think explanation 2 is the less likely one, since I have
experienced other weird electrical problems... (wall sockets are still just
the 2 plug versions).

To an electrician explanation 2 might seem most likely, but not to me...

I wouldn't be surprised if it was something freaky and it was actually 3.

Explanantion 1 seems next likely...

Or perhaps it was something even more freaky:

4. Some kind of weird slow electrical/drain/hole/non-existing power in
cable, leading to some strange surge...

There is a point to the story:

Suppose it's explanantion 2: a short circuit in the power supply.

Then there is a lesson to be learned from that: never ever buy second hand
equipment...

If I sold my pentium III with that sloppy fix it might have killed somebody
! =D

Another lesson:

Fans and dust suck and lead to these kinds of problems and issues.

Bye,
Skybuck.


Take up gardening or something. Electricity doesn't like you.

John

Skybuck Flying wrote:

I plugged in the power cable and then it happened:

1. Zaap, BAM.... all lights went out, my dreampc 2006 went out.... total
darkness... I sweared... I thought I just blew up all my computers.

So I had quite a scare... now the question is what happened ?!?

I had seen this happen at a place I used to work at some years back.

One of the guys (there were three in the end) come in to me to ask
about CDROM drivers in their config.sys (this was back in the DOS/Win95
days).

I offered to do it, it would only take several minutes.

They said they were happy to do it anyway, so I let them.

I shouldn't have.
Three guys, a large part of afternoon and some smoke later, they were
finally done.

I never did find out where the smoke came from, or why everything
still worked (still working some four years later when I left the
company) but I put it down to Idiots Incorporated playing with things
they probably shouldn't have.
--
Never hit a man with glasses. Use your fist!

On Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:46:41 +0200 "Skybuck Flying"
wrote in Message id:
e.nl:

my mind

huh?

In article me.nl, "Skybuck Flying" wrote:
Hello,

I was trying to find some source codes, I could have sworn I made them
somewhere.

I was starting vmware to see if it was maybe in a virtual environment.

Then I wondered, hmmm: maybe it's on my old pentium III.

I tried to power up the pentium III but the cable wasn't plugged in, so it
was probably now on on, but no power.

I plugged in the power cable and then it happened:

1. Zaap, BAM.... all lights went out, my dreampc 2006 went out.... total
darkness... I sweared... I thought I just blew up all my computers.

I smelled a burning smoke.

Then I went to bed and took a few minutes to relax because it was quite
scaring.

I suspected the circuit breaker or something like went off... and so I did.

I just re-enabled it (after unplugging all cables)... and then went back
into apperement and flipped switches and all lights came back on again.

Then I went to my dreampc 2006 to see if it was dead or alive.

Fortunately it seems to be still alive, since I am writing this message on
it.

So I had quite a scare... now the question is what happened ?!?

I have two possible explanations:

1. The watt/power load on the rails became to big and it exceeded 3600 watts
and the power blew... though this seems somewhat unlikely since dreampc2006
is 700 watts... the receiver is 700 watts, so that's only 1400 watts, plus
some lightbulb at 60 watts is about 1500 watts or so...

But maybe the rail needs to be divided by 2 so maybe only 1800 watts allowed
or so ?!? Still this number does not seem to reach.

So second possible explanation:

2. I once fixed the power supply of the old pentium III, it's fan was making
a ****ty noise, so I had to clean the fan, I had to cut cables... because it
was unpluggable.

Later I attached the cables again by "cross the wires" "crossing streams"
never cross the streams ! LOL....





3rd explanation:

GOD HATES YOU?

JW wrote:
On Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:46:41 +0200 "Skybuck Flying"
wrote in Message id:
e.nl:

my mind

huh?
A mind is a mind, even if it contains only two working neurons........

Ok,

I just took a risk and decided to plug in the power cable again of the
extension box which has the pentium III computer and monitor connected to
power.

I touched plastic part of power plug only, not the screws or anything and
plugged it in, then nothing happened.

So then I tried to turn on the pentium III and it remained dead.

So possible conclusions:

1. The pentium III power supply is now dead and blew up.

or

2. Some resistor in the power cable blew up and the power cable is now bad.

But first I will describe one more time what I saw happen during the
incident:

1. I saw a spark flying over the power cable metal points/plugs that go into
the power wall socket.

So possible explanations of what happened:

1. The flow of electricity was so powerfull that it jumped across the metal
pins and somehow caused damage to the power supply.

I have seen this happen before when I plugged in my dream pc fortunately it
didn't die... so that is somewhat inconsistent... but perhaps the dreampc
has a power supply of higher quality then the pentium iii.

Another explanation:

2. The pentium iii power extension cable has been lieing on the ground for a
long time now... I once unplugged it because of a thunder storm... perhaps
the power cable sucked up a lot of "ground electricity" into it's cables.
Then as I tried to plug it in it somehow cause an electrical spark... and
somehow damage power supply or power cable.

Last explanation which does start to make some sense:

3. A short circuit in the power supply of the pentium 3:

The plastic sticky tape came off and the electrical wires crossed and damage
it.

Another explanantion:

4. The little fly which I saw flying around enter the pentium III power
supply and caused it to short circuit.

Last explanations:

5. Dust build in pentium III power supply (or very maybe monitor but I dont
think so, monitor was probably off during the incident).

6. Simply old age of electrical components in power supply, maybe they
evaporated or so.

Or perhaps the power supply is not dead and a safety switch flipped it
off... but I don't think it has a safety switch but I could be wrong...
there is no switch on the back/outside that's for sure.

So my main backup system is now dead, this leaves the pentium 166 as a
backup system but it's probably to slow to surf webstores for new computer
supplies in case my dreampc also dies... which it should not because heat
issues pretty much solved, but could also have more dust build up... will
see how that goes.

I kinda way overspent money on dreampc so according to budget I should only
buy a new computer in the year 2016 or so... however I do plan on buying a
cheaper one then and low power and low heat.

I am currently not too happy with the main system but it's not hardware
wise, hardware wise it's ok, except that it has multiple harddisk, and one
harddisk has a bad sector, having multiple harddisks is a bit annoying
especially with the old crap which is great too, but ok.

It's mainly software wise that I am not very happy... Windows 7 is a mess,
and I now have my applications fragmented across old Windows XP
installation/harddisk and Windows 7/new harddisk... This kinda sucks... I
blame this partially on Microsoft and mostly on application developers
themselfes. They should not integrate applications with windows and if they
do they should make sure that it's easy to "de-integrate" and "re-integrate"
into windows so applications can easily be installed on filedisk images and
then re-integrated into windows.. unfortunately this idea will probably not
completely work because of microsoft and the changing of windows registry
entries, so that's why Microsoft is partly to blame as well... windows 7
would require a new "re-integrate.exe" executable for each application to
successfully reintegrate it.

So in the future applications should have:
1. Install.exe
2. Deintegrate.exe
3. Reintegrate.exe
4. UpdateIntegrationExecutables.exe

The 4th one is funny, this should contact application developers websites
and update the deintegrate and especially reintegrate executables so
applications can easily be moved to new windows installations and
reintegrated.

Another alternative is maybe updating windows to new versions but I don't
like doing that... it might also not work for applications.

Finally my old XP system did have some "bit rott" because of a corrupted
memory bit, probably because of heat, so also hardware and hardware
decisions are partially to blame for this mess and the requirement of having
to reinstall an operating system, also new hardware requires new windows
7/operating system or so... and also cuda support for windows 7 or so...
which kinda sux that it might not work on xp... but that might be because of
new windows driver system.

Hopefully the trouble of re-installing a new windows system will be worth
it... hopefully windows 8 will be better... hopefully my windows 8 computer
in the future will last longer...

The time to buy a new windows 8 computer is not yet... first more graphics
power for the same power/watt budget should come to market, preferably so
all games can be played at 1920x1200 again Either better gpu or better
cpu+integrated gpu.

^ These are new chips, so it will take a while to see how that "plays out"
and what these chips can do... also nvidia might be working on
integrating an arm chip into their gpu's or perhaps something else, so time
will tell

My DreamPC2006 will have to hold out and work for some time/years to come


If it does fail then a tablet might be a nice and easy replacement... no big
component decisions to make... just an integrated decision, but by that time
there will probably be some many versions, that choosing one might just be
as difficult as choosing pc components though perhaps a bit less, since
less tablets on market but maybe that will change...

I am not sure if tablets work well for "webstore surfing" but I would hope
so... and then there is mam's computer... but not really an option to go
there everyday that would kinda suck... I would need 30 days at least to
select new pc components, so I would need something that is easily available
for 30 days, though visitting mammie everyday would be kinda fun as well,
but she would probably get fed up with that real quick/soon as well !
=D and then I would no longer be welcome and get into a fight and that would
not be cool ! =D Though she does also have an old computer which could
also be used but still...

Last possibility is fixing pentium III and replacing it's power supply, it's
kinda a good thing that I didn't order so many old components for the
pentium III because like I concluded in the end: it would have been wasted
money... and so it would... it would be literally dead money by now !

Perhaps that money is better spent on some tablet... though there is one
little danger with tablet "wifi" (I typed wife by accident lol) and
"electromagnetic radiation or something like that"... which has me worried !
and will probably be a reason for me never to buy one of them... so this
illiminates phones and tablets... though if there was a tablet without
wifi/bluetooth/gsm and instead use ethernet or usb for connection options I
might buy it but then the thing might up in bed, and reduce my sleep so
maybe not a good idea... but it is tempting a bit... I also read laptops in
bed bad for "marriage" but I am not married lol (Gje I wonder why !
=D) - crazy people ! =D

So PC stays best !

Bye,
Skybuck.

On Aug 31, 5:55*am, JW wrote:
On Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:46:41 +0200 "Skybuck Flying"
wrote in Message id:
e.nl:

my mind

huh?

Please don't feed the trolls....

Skybuck,
You experienced a well-known, but little publicized, phenomena called a
"dry" dream. A "dry" dream is the opposite of a "wet" dream, in that
something bad happens and makes your member shrink.

Take two aspirin and forget it. Don't go to bed though.
--
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great
pleasure."
-Clarence Darrow

Today I opened the pentium III 450 mhz for the first time and inspected it
and made some photo's.

There is no apperent damage to the power supply which I opened too. There
was some slight blackness on the metal casing on the inside though.

The plastic sticky tape around the wires for the power fan were still intact
so a short-circuit in the power wires for the power fan is most unlikely,
unless the sticky tape itself somehow became conductive, people say sticky
tape does not conduct but I know it does so it's still possible. However I
cannot imagine an entire power supply going dead just because the power
wires to power fan short-circuited this seems somewhat unlikely and I would
expect the conductence over the sticky tape to be very low.

There is also no apperent damage to the motherboard.

I did find a broken off washer which was probably used to lift the
motherboard of the metal case... I can vaguely remember losing a washer in
the case and never finding it or something... but this rememberance is
unsure.

So there are now a number of possible hypothese of what happened:

1. The washer broke off because of old age/heating/cool down, it's a
flexible tiny little washer and it's plastic cracked away... causing the
motherboard to short circuit with the case. This is a plausible theory
considering the potential difference which is on the ground wires. Therefore
the potential on the ground wire short circuited the motherboard.
Perhaps the motherboard of the pentium III 450 mhz is now dead too. I should
try and re-build the system with spare parts to see if the power supply is
dead or the motherboard.

If the motherboard is dead then I am pretty fed up with it... because that
would be the zillion-th motherboard that blew up like that... and then I am
going to immediatly call an electrician to replace those power wall sockets.

2. Other theory is a design-flaw in the entire computer system in relation
to the power supply and the power button. I could not tell if the power
button was on or off when I plugged it in. But I do know old systems do not
have a "software controlled power button". If the physical power button is
on on it will power on. Thus the theory is that the power surge went through
the entire system damaging the system. This could be a reason why newer
systems are always in a power off state. Thus design error could also be
cause of death.

Other less likely theories:

3. Age of power supply, stuff evaporated and died.

4. Dust made some sort of connection.

5. Spider which I killed a few days ago short circuited it... unlikely but
cannot be ruled out.

6. Spark during plug in, caused a weird power surge through ground wire of
plugs.

7. Cable electronics dead.

I am starting to suspect "ground wire" does more damage than it does good

Bye,
Skybuck.

I have decided not to rebuild my old pentium III 450 mhz for the time being
at least, because I think it is not worth it.

I'd rather spare my spare parts for my DreamPC in case it ever gets damaged.

But I am pretty fed up with the power wall sockets, they are unsaved for
some reason.

So I am going to have them replaced by hopefully something more safe.

Hopefully no more sparks.

I will also publish some little video later on on youtube to show a power
wall socket spark, just to show there is a problem with these power wall
sockets and power wall socket connectors.

Bye,
Skybuck.