e i g h t - c u b e d . c o m 

Power event

Yesterday morning at about this time, my three computers here at home were subjected to a transitory power event. My guess is, somewhere nearby, a car hit a power pole.

The power went out for a very short time and came back on - enough to dim the lights and cause the TV to black out before coming back on (I was watching the TdF at the time).

This wasn't very healthy for the computers.

The three computers I run here are an Athlon based Windows machine which is used for office tasks and terminal emulation, an old laptop that runs Linux, and an AlphaServer 800 5/400 running OpenVMS. I raced over and looked, and all three appeared to be OK. However, closer inspection showed that while they all had power, all three were not sending or receiving network packets, and the Alpha didn't appear to be responsive at all.

I started by attempting to reboot the Linux laptop with no success at all. After four hours worth of trying different things last night, I finally gave up and reformatted the disk and reinstalled from the distro. Fortunately, nothing of importance runs on this machine - I just use it to test my MT installation. It was finally back up and running at midnight.

The AlphaServer is another story. I power cycled it for no result at all. Power is available, but the SRM console won't start. The next thing to try will be to disassemble the machine and check the circuit boards for blown components, reseat everything, and cross my fingers. I really need this machine to run, as I do a lot of development on it.

If I have to purchase another Alpha, I may bite the bullet and get some power conditioning so this won't happen again. Suggestions for a power conditioner to support approximately (350W + 350W + 120W + 100W) that won't break the bank appreciated.