[rescue] Rescued iMacs looking for input on repair

[Carl R. Friend]

   On Wed, 5 May 2004, Bill Bradford wrote:

> I saw a friend get knocked back about 10 feet just from the power supply 
> in a Sun 411 external enclosure.  [...]
> 
> Touched the wrong part of it (the power supply), and it was almost comical -
> it looked like he tensed up and kicked himself backwards.  Landed on the 
> (carpeted) floor, out cold.

   I wonder what he bridged to get such a reaction.  The worst thing
that's ever happened to me has been a (very) violent arm retraction
and a blistering stream of curses.  Usually to get that sort of
reaction you need to bridge the *big* muscles (which can be very
dangerous).

> He woke up after a couple minutes of us going "OH CRAP!" and standing
> around.  Got up, "Why the hell am I lying on the floor?"; he didn't
> remember a bit of it.  Also wasn't "quite himself" the next couple of
> days after that.

   The general reaction at that point is: "Damn.  Who has to fill out
what paperwork NOW?"

   Why do you think that "electro-shock therapy" "works"?  (It's
known by other names in the developed world.)

> On the other hand, we had a tech support guy / stoner who would discharge
> CRTs with nothing more than a large, long flat-head screwdrive and an
> impressive "BANG!".

   This is perfectly normal on very old kit.  A large screwdriver
with a jumper lead attached to it works quite nicely.  So long as
various body parts don't get too near ground during the procedure
it's perfectly safe.

   CRTs make great Leyden jars and can hold a charge for quite a while;
I learned this the hard way one time when I picked up a disconnected 27"
colour CRT that had been unplugged for a good week and it gave me a good
hard belt when I accidentally touched the anode cup.  I was quite torn
between the extreme desire to drop the goddamn thing and an equally
extreme desire to hold onto it because I didn't want the bloody thing
imploding on the floor betwixt my legs.

+------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin)            | West Boylston       |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast            | Massachusetts, USA  |
| mailto:crfriend at rcn.com                        +---------------------+
| http://users.rcn.com/crfriend/museum           | ICBM: 42:22N 71:47W |
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