I figured out why that old Dell server in the back room kept crashing every Tuesday at 2 PM

Last month, I was at a small office in Spokane fixing a printer, and the manager casually mentioned their server would die like clockwork. I checked the logs and saw nothing. It finally clicked when I heard the hum of the floor polisher outside the server closet... the cleaning crew's heavy-duty machine was on the same circuit. Tripped a breaker every time they started it up. Has anyone else had a weird environmental cause for a tech problem that took forever to find?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_spencer9d ago

Oh man, the floor polisher thing is a classic. I always put server racks on a dedicated circuit now, it's saved me so many headaches.

robinf519d ago

Dedicated circuits are the real heroes, saving us from floor polisher chaos lol.

vera5149d agoTop Commenter

Seriously, I read a whole article about this last week. It said most office break rooms are on the same circuit banks as nearby offices. So when Karen fires up the microwave and the space heater at her desk, boom. The writer called it "the coffee maker effect" and it's the same basic problem. Makes total sense to just wire the important stuff separately from the start.