Miscellaneous Projects
Server Fun
First up are a couple of server boards with blown capacitors. I have no idea how they were still kicking in their respective conditions, but it was kind of unreal once I got them disassembled and started checking the boards out.
Both systems are old Xeons, and both had a bunch of blown caps…. And surprisingly, that was all that was wrong with them. One had 14 bad caps, and the other had a whopping 34!!! I honestly have no idea how long they had been running like that, but my best guess is that since they were both on big fat UPS systems; they had somehow managed to survive all manner of random power outages over the years. Until they didn’t… I know one of them for sure didn’t survive a weekend outage when we had some scheduled electrical work going on. I’m not sure what finally took the other out. The basic theory is that they were on and running long enough for all those caps to blow, leak, and dry up. And they just stayed on as long as they had power. Then when their UPS’s finally ran out, and they fully discharged… Well that was the end of them…
So why bother right??? Well each of them was running 1 ancient application, that we were still using; that didn’t exist anywhere else (of course)…
Everything Else
A custom build for a friend. A couple of random board swaps for some commercial print equipment. And my Christmas Wreath!
The Wreath was a fun little build. Super simple to make.
Just a bunch of old RAM, some Zip Ties, a couple of scrap Keyboards, an old ISA Fax Modem, some Red/Green Cold Cathode case lights, 1 “Singing Christmas Card” of your choosing (mine is Sleigh Ride); and a spare external Molex HDD power adapter is all you need to spread a little Holiday Cheer.
