Been off air

Sarongman · Post by **Sarongman** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 2:59 am

I've been off air for the last 5 days due to a thunderstorm disabling my computer, despite having a Belkin 'surgemaster' supposedly protecting everything! ( It also put the phone lines temporarily out ) I have rigged up an old pentium 1 and am peering bleakly into the tiny CRT screen but, at least, I am back in contact.

SkirtDude · Post by **SkirtDude** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 3:45 am

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Website · Post by **crfriend** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:43 am

"Surge suppressors" have their place, but are usually only good for suppressing one or two before they lose their efficacy. That said, nothing is going to protect a machine against a direct lighting strike on the mains near one's home; the amount of energy involved is just too great. A honking big UPS works better in this case, but even then, a nearby hit will likely destroy the input rectifiers and may pass enough across the batteries to blow the inverter.

Sarongman -- Depending on how comfortable you are with hardware, you may be able to repair your old machine. If the hit was to the mains, you may just have a blown power supply, and those are easy enough to replace. If the hit was to a comms line (especially a telephone line plugged directly into a modem that was plugged into your computer) the damage may be more disastrous. If nothing else, you should be able to grab the disk out of the dead one and read it on another machine.

SkirtDude · Post by **SkirtDude** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:58 am

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Website · Post by **crfriend** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:42 pm

{CRFriend grabs soldering iron} YOW!!! {grabs the right end}

SkirtDude wrote:ETA crfriend's vacuum tube is probably more lightning resistant than my LED

Empty-state logic has its virtues. A jolt that a firebottle will shrug off will turn that LED into a DED (Dark Emitting Diode).

Since1982 · Post by **Since1982** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:33 pm

Carl wrote:{CRFriend grabs soldering iron} YOW!!! {grabs the right end}

Takes about 30 minutes of Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahh ahh ahh!! after grabbing the wrong end of the soldering iron before the stiffness and pain starts to degrade into the ability to get something "other" than Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! to emit from your toothy end. Then and ONLY then can you sit semi quietly in a puffy chair and think about mebbe next time, (~ o)looking(o ~) carefully where you put your hand.

Been there done that!!

Sarongman · Post by **Sarongman** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 4:50 am

Thanks all for the advice so far given. The techie who is (hopefully) fixing it believes and hopes it is also a simple job. As for me, I know, in some ways, I was born a bit over 100 years too late. The closest I've come to electronic soldering was rewiring a 1928 Essex tourer I had thirty years ago and restored from a rusty wreck. I am able to just get by on a computer but, can discuss the restringing of a dulcimer or the tunability of a Corliss valve system on a steam engine (and I just love Shays) The other passion is reed (pump) organs. Just to the left of me as I type is my 2 manual, full 30 note pedalboard Estey!

Sarongman · Post by **Sarongman** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:58 am

Still playing with old Pony express computer, will see about my real one tomorrow. BTW, I do need a fast dual core CPU as I play with "Photoshop".(Going into withdrawl here!) Though only by following the instruction books completely and to the letter. Though I do have my grandfather's recipe book for wet plate, daguerrotype and tintype photography plus his full plat Thornton Pickard. As I said, born far too late

skirtcafe.org

Been off air

Been off air

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!