[THIN] OT: Pesky whiskers zap PCs
- From: Jennifer Hooper <jennifer.hooper@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "'windows2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'" <windows2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "'thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'" <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 08:37:12 -0700
Has anyone had this kind of trouble in their data centers? Curiouser and
curiouser... I remember the early days of clean room data centers. Boy
howdee, did that go out the window quick. Maybe with the advent of headless
blade servers, a pure environment is something to consider (never fly in a
corporate forecast these days with the costs of implementation and
maintenance, though.)
Jen
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"whiskers" zap PCs in secretary of state's office
By <mailto:asvaldi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> asvaldi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aldo Svaldi
Denver Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 01, 2004 -
Small metallic fibers known as "zinc whiskers" are the likely culprit behind
crippling computer outages in the Colorado secretary of state's office over
the past three weeks.
The fibers "are blowing out the power supplies on the computers," said Lisa
Doran, a spokeswoman for the agency.
Metal on floor panels and even in computer cases can secrete zinc crystals
over time, said Rich Hill, president of Data Clean in Des Plaines, Ill.
Zinc whiskers can appear as a light peach fuzz on a metal surface if they
grow long enough, but typically they are invisible.
Whiskers can get sucked inside computers and short out power supplies, trip
circuits and in extreme cases cause data errors, Hill said.
Aging computer rooms and more compact computer designs have increased the
problem, Hill said.
The outages in the secretary of state's office, which effectively halted
electronic filings of business and elections documents at
www.sos.state.co.us <http://www.sos.state.co.us> , highlight why the
state's various websites should be brought under one authority, said Leroy
Williams, the state's secretary of technology. Legislation this year enabled
the creation of such an authority, which was financed with $7.5 million at
the direction of Gov. Bill Owens.
The secretary of state's office has begun working on a remediation plan to
clean up the whiskers, Doran said.
<http://media.mnginteractive.com/media/paper36/whisker0701g.jpg>
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-820-1410 or
asvaldi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:asvaldi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> .
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