FC5 INstallation Killing Computers

[Robert Gann]

I'm pretty sure that two of these computers were running Windows XP Pro, 
one was running Windows 2003 Server, and one had been running FC4.  I 
started with the FC4 computer and tried to install FC5.  I then went to 
the other computers.  Two years ago, I had these same computers running 
FC.  I presume that the version was FC4. 

With the first two, I thought that I had had incredibly bad luck.  Then 
I sat and thought for a while.  I realized that a common factor was that 
I had used the same UPS for each installation (not at the same time).  I 
decided that we probably had bad UPS.  In fact, I remember (I've been in 
this field for a while.) a VIC 20 (a predecessor the the Commodore Pet) 
power supply that was blowing computers.  So I plugged another computer 
into a totally different outlet using just a surge protector.  This 
computer died during the installation, also.

At this point, I got very suspicious of the lab's power.  I took the 
last computer down to my office ( four offices away from the lab) and, 
with my heart in my throat, started the installation.  Again, it failed 
several minutes into the installation.

I should mention that I swapped a big IDE hard drive into these 
computers.  On the first three computers, I used a 300 GB hard drive we 
had.  For the fourth computer, I purchased a brand new 350 GB hard drive 
and UPS.  I was also moving DVD-R and DVD-RW drives around.  These 
operations were trivial; the DVD drives were on rails and the hard 
drives were in a cage.   I've built computers from scratch and changed a 
lot of hard drives and drives around.  I don't think I did anything dumb 
like plug all of the drives into the same power line, because I remember 
telling myself to be careful not to do that, but I'll certainly check 
this on Monday.

Before I started, I looked around the BIOS to see if I could find a 
setting to set fans to "always on".  I'm really big on cooling.  (The 
college gives me a new notebook every three years.  As a computer 
science professor, they try to get one relatively high powered.  Three 
years ago the notebook had a P4 processor and the cooling system was 
inadequate.  I had occasional motherboard and hard disk failures until I 
bought a an Antec cooling plate for home and for my office..  The person 
who supervised students in building these computers had one of these 
computer, also.  Consequently, these have very robust CPU cooling units 
and lots of fans in the case.

At this point I'm wondering if I had a bad DVD-R or bad DVD-RW that 
caused the problem.  I had two of each, and I'm not sure if one of them 
could have been in all four computers.  Perhaps we had a bad UPS they 
burned out two computers, including a DVD drive, and I then used the DVD 
in the next two computers.

I'm really a software person, so I don't have an answer to your last 
question.  That is why I managed to burn out four computers.  At first I 
thought bad UPS, then I thought bad power and went down the hall.  Now 
I'm wondering about a DVD drive.  Fortunately, we have a bunch of DVD-R 
and DVD-RW drives coming in on Monday to upgrade the lab, so I think 
we'll be tossing the 4 DVD drives.

Thanks to everyone!

John Miller wrote:
> Robert Gann wrote:
>   
>> The strange thing is that all of these computers were working
>> properly. Three were running Windows XP Pro or Windows Server 2003.
>> One was running FC4. They all died during the FC5 installation. My
>> thoughts, in rough order are (1) some problem with the electrical
>> poser in the room (although three on Windows installations on 32 bit
>> machines done at about the same time have caused no problems), 
>>     
> So that we can better help, please define "at the same time" for both
> the Windows and FC5 installations.  Simultaneous, consecutive, same day, ???
>
>   
>> If I had to guess it is going to turn out that the power in our lab
>> has problems and that Linux is less tolerant of that than Windows.
>>     
> What would be the technical mechanism by which an operating system could
> make a computer less tolerant of power? 
>
>