bad RAM chip cause DELL 2650 continue crash

[Stephan Wonczak]

   Hi All!

On Mon, 5 Mar 2007, Robert Goley wrote:

> I really like the ones we get from some customers that look at the screen on
> their servers or linux workstations.  The error that fills up the screen with
> messages that either /dev/lp0 or their parallel port "is on fire!" because of
> a communication issue.

   To give some history about the 'Printer on fire'-message.
   In ancient times (Mainframe; 70s to 80s) this message actually meant 
what it said: you should grab a fire extinguisher and head over to the 
machine room with the printer! These time there were large printers with 
type chains that were pulled across the paper with very high speed. This 
produced some rather inflammable paper dust that would accumulate in the 
nooks and crannies of the printers housing. Some of the parts would get 
rather hot in there, and if the accumulation was high enough (ie. someone 
forgot to vacuum out the printer every few hours of printing), this dust 
could ignite. Since this was a known problem, several temperature sensors 
were built into these printers and if they detected something burning, 
well, this message was produced.
   (I'm not making this up, by the way. I actually saw one of those beasts 
in real life some 20 years ago. Not on fire, though. :-) When I asked 
about the vacuum cleaner right next to the printer the above was explained 
to me)

 	Dipl. Chem. Dr. Stephan Wonczak

         Zentrum fuer Angewandte Informatik (ZAIK)
         Regionales Rechenzentrum der Universitaet zu Koeln (RRZK)
         Universitaet zu Koeln, Robert-Koch-Strasse 10, 50931 Koeln
         Tel: ++49/(0)221/478-5577, Fax: ++49/(0)221/478-5590