Article

IT blooper #46: Partial plug-in equals partial power

Catherine Ketcher
Allyson B. Miller, an IT specialist working in Washington D.C. arrived at her office one morning to the grumbling of her colleagues about a slow-running server.

Allyson went to the computer room to check for error messages. There were none. She checked the Ethernet card. Nothing there. Data was moving across the network without any errors or dropped packets. She scratched her head, wondering what to check next, when she noticed that the server rack was slightly askew. Behind the rack the power cord to the server was stretched taut and the plug -- just barely connected to the server -- was hanging at a 45-degree angle.

Apparently, the server was transported to the Blooper Zone earlier that day when a cabling crew working nearby bumped into the server rack and unwittingly jiggled the connection between the power cord and the power outlet.

Allyson asked all the users to log off, downed the server, re-attached the power cord, and then rebooted. The server worked fine. Lesson learned: Things are not always black or white in Blooperville. "I always thought you either had power or didn't," says Miller. "I never knew it was possible to have partial power!"


Share your bloopers with us. E-mail them to editor@searchsap.com. Read more of our past

    Requires Free Membership to View

IT Blooper Series, which originially appeared at SearchWin2000.com, part of the TechTarget network.

Join the conversationComment

Share
Comments

    Results

    Contribute to the conversation

    All fields are required. Comments will appear at the bottom of the article.