Sup Zanther!
Saw your posts here, and I just HAD to aquire an account so I could tell you, and all, my compaq tale. You tell me, once I am done, what you think of my "configuration".
This happened about 4 years ago. I worked at a bank that used only compaq. Compaq servers, desktops, raid arrays... Oh yeah, it was happenin' compaq big time.
So, on a fairly regular interval, the compaq servers would need a "redesign kit" to be implemented. We had the Big rack mount boys that were about 12 inches high. Anyhow, you would get this kit, and you basically had to gut the thing, then take the support rails outta the case, rearrange the supports with new parts, and put everything back. Now the hard disks would be on a different side, cooling airflow would be redirected all different, etc.
Now, you ask, why would they do that? Isnt that expensive? Why dont they engineer right before mass produce? Well... you know... cheapest QA dept in the world is, your customer base.
So here's my story-
I had this standup server that had a 8 disk raid array at a remote location. And, a fix it kit came in... turns out the backplane on the raid controller was a FIRE HAZARD. Well, how-dee! Thats enough to have the boss-man tell me to drop everything and go fix it. Fires, it seems, are not viewed favorably in the IT world. So, I go down to the remote office, complete with this new backplane. No big deal. Now this was about 8" by 6" and I would say over 1/8 inch thick. The extra thick PCB. Tough mother.
I start dismantling the server, back the hot swappable raid cage out, unplg the IDE(or whatever kind) cables off the back of it, swap out backplanes (very careful with ESD, thank you) and thats it. Start to put it back in and realize that the hot swap feature does not leave much room for the cables. See, the engineers designed for the airflow without condsidering the cables. At least, thats what it looks like to me. Maybe they had a cut in banana pay that year, who knows. (ooh ooh)
SO I finally trick the cables into falling the right way so the raid cage seats. Plug in all the hard disks again. And I power the server on.
Ready for the fun Zanther? You got your popcorn ready? This is, the good part here. Try to listen now. Turn off Pokemon for a minute. Good.
The server, within 1 second of power up, is POURING, no BELCHING forth THICK BLACK SMOKE. The thickest I have ever seen. This is no VW bus exhaust, this is maybe Vegas smoke, some sort of magic trick. Dark dark black. Woulda been funny except for one thing-
That was the FOULEST smell I have ever smelled. Burning PCB is the absolute worst. Stayed in my clothing, car and hands for a week.
So of course I shut that @&*(^$# thing off as fast as I could. Beat it to HD initialization so no data was lost. Thanks goodness for that. The cause, as determined by a very sheepish compaq engineer I personally spoke with later (which actually speaks to thier benefit that they spoke personally with me- then again, exposing people to FIRE with bad engineering, that may have been a legal dept call in terms of damage control). Anyhow, it was; a bad capacitor/layout problem combo on the backplane.
The kicker? They were having me replace the other one due to a POSSIBLE FIRE HAZARD. Too funny.
The backplane afterwards, the thick one, had a hole burned through it the size of a silver dollar. It was only on for maybe 2-4 seconds! Good god!
Yeah Zanther, explain how that was MY fault, and not compaqs brilliant engineering. And we all know that the servers get the better engineers too, which speaks very well for the PCs, dont it? Was it bad RAM? LOL.
And the name of the company that manufactured that board was on the board... can you guess who it was?
C*****
Theres your first hint.
RD
PS- On the flp side- this is the funniest thing that I have ever seen in the sysadmin biz, and I do have compaq to thank for a great tale. Everyone enjoys that story. Thanks compaq! For that I am truly thankful. Good stuff.
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