Burning Alpha!

[chu tes-mail jpl nasa gov (Eugene Chu)]

Speaking of temperature monitoring, I have a relevant experience.

Earlier this week, I come into my computer room to find the strong
smell of very expensive perfume...burning electronic parts.  Well, it
wasn't burning by then, but the smell was still quite pungent.  A quick
glance shows a red light on the front panel of one of my UP2000+.
Openning the top revealed one of the CPU modules (833 MHz) with a
melted plastic back cover.  It had fused itself to the mother board and
support frame, so I could not pull it out.  The other CPU module pulled
out with no trouble, and showed no visible burn marks.  All the fans
appear to work, though not in this chassis; they were tested in one of
the other chasses.  I'm guessing power to the board or CPU is not being
enabled in this state, even though the power supply comes on and its
fan runs.

It is less than a year old, so I sent it back to my vendor for repair
or exchange hopefully under warranty.  They told me that API is not
very quick on repairs or replacements, so it may take a while for me to
get it back.  Does anyone know the straight scoop on this?

Also, has anyone else have this happen to them?  In my case, it
happened over the weekend, so no one was around to see what happened.
None of our UPSs registered any power anomalies, and the rest of the
computer systems in the same room, including 3 other UP2000+, have no
problems at all.  So I'm guessing the problem was only with this unit.
The room is adequately cooled with 4 air chillers, two of which 
actually blow directly onto the front of these particular machines.

thanks for listening,
eyc