Ahhh, the familiar tingle of fresh, juicy 50Hz 240V AC..... but out of the SCSI port?
Yes folks, whilst attempting to debug SCSI problems on my housemate's Powermac 5260 I got electrocuted touching the SCSI port. Now surely that can't be right. It didn't feel like full-strength 240V but maybe that's because I was wearing rubber soled shoes on a wooden floor.
My housemate seems to think it has something to do with the 6400/180 motherboard I swapped in. That's when he says the problems began (can't start up with external scanner). We swapped back to the original 5260 mobo for a comparison (same problems). Was plugging in another cable when I got zapped.
Clues anyone?
BTW my arm still hurts
Perhaps the "hot" and "ground" wires on the outlet you have the system plugged into are reversed?
(I don't know how a PM 5260 chassis is wired, but if the signal ground leads directly to the "Common" ground you could potentially get zapped like that.)
--Peace
A 240V MAINS POLARITY TESTER is on the page. You need something like that to test the outlet with.
Thanks. i picked up one from Jaycar yesterday. Turns out the extension cord is wired live-neutral reversed. Should be easy to fix. Hopefully the SCSI problems will go away. I'll report back.
This thread http://www.applefritter.com/node/view/4045 suggests the power supply may be a problem. Anyone got any comments?
I suggest you test the SCSI port with one of those neon screwdrivers intead of you hand
Also, is it a 2 pin plug? Here, if that happened with the 3 pin plugs the fuse would have blown....and stopped the shock.
Pff, fuses, I laugh at your namby pamby safety devices.
Seriously though, you should see the wiring in this place, it's hair-raising. Sometimes literally. The 3-phase circuit breaker has been bypassed for example.
Yes, we've got a sparky coming in to check it out, and yes, I run all my own gear off an RCD, a surge guard and a UPS.