Fire in SUN4/280 from Xylogics 753 disk Controller.

[Neal Immega]

Shell Development Co. had a fire in a SUN 4/280 when diodes on a Xylogics
753 disk controller overheated and caught fire. The plastic card guides on
the Illmanite double wide to triple wide controller also appear to have
burned and may have contributed to the damage of the two adjacent disk
controller cards (which operated perfectly while burning!). Flames four
inches high were coming out of the top of the card cage when the fire was
extinguished.

This problem could have been prevented if we had been notified of the
10/10/89 field change notice from Xylogics to make a free upgrade to all
boards by adding a heatsink for the diodes. The new design has a bronze
colored strip 1.5 inch wide running the length of the card. Xylogics said
that I should have been notified by the distributor (CITA Technologies)
and CITA says that they were not told of the problem. The Xylogics contact
for this is Laurie Walker at 617-272-8140. She will need the serial number
from the board (X plus 7 numbers from the back).

 Neal Immega
 Staff Geologist , Geology Research                                
 Shell Development Company, Bellaire Research Center            (713) 663-2572
 ...!rice!shell!immega   immega at shell.com