When A chopped through B's phone wires...

Two of us are in slight contention over possible damage to a computer.
We are hoping that the collective brains of this group might resolve
the issue. Both of us have agreed this text. One of us is A. and lives
in the same building as B, the owner of the computer. At issue is:

What is the probability that by his actions A caused the damage
described to B's computer.

WHAT A. DID. A number of wires passed through a conservatory roof
where A lives. These were mainly phone cables but also two TV aerial
cables. Most of the phone wires went into a junction box then out of
the junction box and back out through the roof. One of the points
where the wires passed through the roof allowed rainwater to leak into
the building. Knowing some of the wires to be redundant and believing
them all to be so A. cut through them all and pulled them all back
outside the roof. The two holes were then sealed.

WHAT B. DID. On the same morning that A. did the above, B. tried to
make a phone call but was unable and reported a fault to the phone
engineer. On further investigatation B. discovered his phone wires
were cut. "Gosh!" thought B. B. met A. and enquired after the state of
A's phone, whereupon A. explained what he had done. "Oh dear!" they
both said.

WHAT A. AND B. THEN DID. They agreed that, between the two of them,
they might manage to re-establish B's connection by trial and error.
From among the tangle of chopped wires they believed they might be
able to reverse the vasectomy. At first attempt they got a dialling
tone, albeit with some background noise. At this point they believed
they had basically solved the problem, even though B was still unable
to make or receive a calls.

WHAT B. THEN DID. B. decided to test his internet connection. B.
connected his modem to his pc and booted up in the usual manner.
Boot-up went as normal, and everything appeared OK. However, when B.
tried to go online [AOL broadband] it appeared that there was no
connection. B. thought no more of the matter and pottered about for
about an hour. On returning to his pc the screen was all white with
grey vertical bands and some red stripes.

Next day an engineer put the matter right. What A and B had in fact
done was reconnect to the wrong line. However, even with the now
properly restored phone connection B's pc still had the weird grey
with red stripes display. Seeking advice among friends the view seemed
to be a knackered video card. One person suggested that if the
incorrect connection had been to an ISDN line, "which carries twice
the voltage of a normal phone line" that could somehow have fried the
video card's brain. A different monitor was tried with the same
result, thus eliminating the monitor as the problem.

THEREFO I refer the right honourable members to my initial
question; what is the probability that A damaged B's computer or B's
video card either by a] initially chopping through the wires or b] by
inadvertently connecting them to the wrong ones?

B's pc is a Pentium iv, slot one running on XP. The video card is an
Nvidia GForce 4.

Many thanks for any help and/or advice!

A. and B.

wrote:
Two of us are in slight contention over possible damage to a computer.
We are hoping that the collective brains of this group might resolve
the issue. Both of us have agreed this text. One of us is A. and lives
in the same building as B, the owner of the computer. At issue is:

What is the probability that by his actions A caused the damage
described to B's computer.

WHAT A. DID. A number of wires passed through a conservatory roof
where A lives. These were mainly phone cables but also two TV aerial
cables. Most of the phone wires went into a junction box then out of
the junction box and back out through the roof. One of the points
where the wires passed through the roof allowed rainwater to leak into
the building. Knowing some of the wires to be redundant and believing
them all to be so A. cut through them all and pulled them all back
outside the roof. The two holes were then sealed.

WHAT B. DID. On the same morning that A. did the above, B. tried to
make a phone call but was unable and reported a fault to the phone
engineer. On further investigatation B. discovered his phone wires
were cut. "Gosh!" thought B. B. met A. and enquired after the state of
A's phone, whereupon A. explained what he had done. "Oh dear!" they
both said.

WHAT A. AND B. THEN DID. They agreed that, between the two of them,
they might manage to re-establish B's connection by trial and error.
From among the tangle of chopped wires they believed they might be
able to reverse the vasectomy. At first attempt they got a dialling
tone, albeit with some background noise. At this point they believed
they had basically solved the problem, even though B was still unable
to make or receive a calls.

WHAT B. THEN DID. B. decided to test his internet connection. B.
connected his modem to his pc and booted up in the usual manner.
Boot-up went as normal, and everything appeared OK. However, when B.
tried to go online [AOL broadband] it appeared that there was no
connection. B. thought no more of the matter and pottered about for
about an hour. On returning to his pc the screen was all white with
grey vertical bands and some red stripes.

Next day an engineer put the matter right. What A and B had in fact
done was reconnect to the wrong line. However, even with the now
properly restored phone connection B's pc still had the weird grey
with red stripes display. Seeking advice among friends the view seemed
to be a knackered video card. One person suggested that if the
incorrect connection had been to an ISDN line, "which carries twice
the voltage of a normal phone line" that could somehow have fried the
video card's brain.

Fanciful. Modems have to be designed to handle surges on the
phone line and the ring voltage, so that wont kill the video card.

A different monitor was tried with the same
result, thus eliminating the monitor as the problem.

THEREFO I refer the right honourable members to my initial
question; what is the probability that A damaged B's computer or B's
video card either by a] initially chopping through the wires or b] by
inadvertently connecting them to the wrong ones?

Zero.

B's pc is a Pentium iv, slot one running on XP.
The video card is an Nvidia GForce 4.

Many thanks for any help and/or advice!

A. and B.

wrote:
THEREFO I refer the right honourable members to my initial
question; what is the probability that A damaged B's computer or B's
video card either by a] initially chopping through the wires or b] by
inadvertently connecting them to the wrong ones?

So close to nil it's not worth considering. Any modem should be able to
deal with line surges properly.

You don't say if the ADSL modem is internal or external. If it's
external then that probability drops even further...

Alex

, 7/16/2006,2:44:38 PM, wrote:

Two of us are in slight contention over possible damage to a computer.
We are hoping that the collective brains of this group might resolve
the issue. Both of us have agreed this text. One of us is A. and lives
in the same building as B, the owner of the computer. At issue is:

What is the probability that by his actions A caused the damage
described to B's computer.

WHAT A. DID. A number of wires passed through a conservatory roof
where A lives. These were mainly phone cables but also two TV aerial
cables. Most of the phone wires went into a junction box then out of
the junction box and back out through the roof. One of the points
where the wires passed through the roof allowed rainwater to leak into
the building. Knowing some of the wires to be redundant and believing
them all to be so A. cut through them all and pulled them all back
outside the roof. The two holes were then sealed.

WHAT B. DID. On the same morning that A. did the above, B. tried to
make a phone call but was unable and reported a fault to the phone
engineer. On further investigatation B. discovered his phone wires
were cut. "Gosh!" thought B. B. met A. and enquired after the state of
A's phone, whereupon A. explained what he had done. "Oh dear!" they
both said.

WHAT A. AND B. THEN DID. They agreed that, between the two of them,
they might manage to re-establish B's connection by trial and error.
From among the tangle of chopped wires they believed they might be
able to reverse the vasectomy. At first attempt they got a dialling
tone, albeit with some background noise. At this point they believed
they had basically solved the problem, even though B was still unable
to make or receive a calls.

WHAT B. THEN DID. B. decided to test his internet connection. B.
connected his modem to his pc and booted up in the usual manner.
Boot-up went as normal, and everything appeared OK. However, when B.
tried to go online [AOL broadband] it appeared that there was no
connection. B. thought no more of the matter and pottered about for
about an hour. On returning to his pc the screen was all white with
grey vertical bands and some red stripes.

Next day an engineer put the matter right. What A and B had in fact
done was reconnect to the wrong line. However, even with the now
properly restored phone connection B's pc still had the weird grey
with red stripes display. Seeking advice among friends the view seemed
to be a knackered video card. One person suggested that if the
incorrect connection had been to an ISDN line, "which carries twice
the voltage of a normal phone line" that could somehow have fried the
video card's brain. A different monitor was tried with the same
result, thus eliminating the monitor as the problem.

THEREFO I refer the right honourable members to my initial
question; what is the probability that A damaged B's computer or B's
video card either by a] initially chopping through the wires or b] by
inadvertently connecting them to the wrong ones?

B's pc is a Pentium iv, slot one running on XP. The video card is an
Nvidia GForce 4.

Many thanks for any help and/or advice!

A. and B.

Probably none. But is a video card worth ill feelings between
neighbors? Having had neighbor problems it might be well worth your
while to buy him a new one. At the least let him see the rest of the
replies and invite him and his wife over for dinner.

wrote:

Two of us are in slight contention over possible damage to a computer.
We are hoping that the collective brains of this group might resolve
the issue. Both of us have agreed this text. One of us is A. and lives
in the same building as B, the owner of the computer. At issue is:

What is the probability that by his actions A caused the damage
described to B's computer.

WHAT A. DID. A number of wires passed through a conservatory roof
where A lives. These were mainly phone cables but also two TV aerial
cables. Most of the phone wires went into a junction box then out of
the junction box and back out through the roof. One of the points
where the wires passed through the roof allowed rainwater to leak into
the building. Knowing some of the wires to be redundant and believing
them all to be so A. cut through them all and pulled them all back
outside the roof. The two holes were then sealed.

WHAT B. DID. On the same morning that A. did the above, B. tried to
make a phone call but was unable and reported a fault to the phone
engineer. On further investigatation B. discovered his phone wires
were cut. "Gosh!" thought B. B. met A. and enquired after the state of
A's phone, whereupon A. explained what he had done. "Oh dear!" they
both said.

WHAT A. AND B. THEN DID. They agreed that, between the two of them,
they might manage to re-establish B's connection by trial and error.
From among the tangle of chopped wires they believed they might be
able to reverse the vasectomy. At first attempt they got a dialling
tone, albeit with some background noise. At this point they believed
they had basically solved the problem, even though B was still unable
to make or receive a calls.

WHAT B. THEN DID. B. decided to test his internet connection. B.
connected his modem to his pc and booted up in the usual manner.
Boot-up went as normal, and everything appeared OK. However, when B.
tried to go online [AOL broadband] it appeared that there was no
connection. B. thought no more of the matter and pottered about for
about an hour. On returning to his pc the screen was all white with
grey vertical bands and some red stripes.

Next day an engineer put the matter right. What A and B had in fact
done was reconnect to the wrong line. However, even with the now
properly restored phone connection B's pc still had the weird grey
with red stripes display. Seeking advice among friends the view seemed
to be a knackered video card. One person suggested that if the
incorrect connection had been to an ISDN line, "which carries twice
the voltage of a normal phone line" that could somehow have fried the
video card's brain. A different monitor was tried with the same
result, thus eliminating the monitor as the problem.

THEREFO I refer the right honourable members to my initial
question; what is the probability that A damaged B's computer or B's
video card either by a] initially chopping through the wires or b] by
inadvertently connecting them to the wrong ones?

B's pc is a Pentium iv, slot one running on XP. The video card is an
Nvidia GForce 4.

Many thanks for any help and/or advice!

A. and B.

no chance. The phoneline isnt connected to the video card anyway.


NT

Many thanks for the post Alex.


Next day an engineer put the matter right. What A and B had in fact
done was reconnect to the wrong line. However, even with the now
properly restored phone connection B's pc still had the weird grey
with red stripes display. Seeking advice among friends the view seemed
to be a knackered video card. One person suggested that if the
incorrect connection had been to an ISDN line, "which carries twice
the voltage of a normal phone line" that could somehow have fried the
video card's brain.

Fanciful. Modems have to be designed to handle surges on the
phone line and the ring voltage, so that wont kill the video card.

A different monitor was tried with the same
result, thus eliminating the monitor as the problem.

THEREFO I refer the right honourable members to my initial
question; what is the probability that A damaged B's computer or B's
video card either by a] initially chopping through the wires or b] by
inadvertently connecting them to the wrong ones?

Zero.

B's pc is a Pentium iv, slot one running on XP.
The video card is an Nvidia GForce 4.

Many thanks for any help and/or advice!

A. and B.

Sorry! that should have been "many thanks Rod"!

Duncan

Many thanks Alex. For the record, the modem is an external one.

Duncan


On Sun, 16 Jul 2006 21:18:43 +0100, Alex Harrington
wrote:

wrote:
THEREFO I refer the right honourable members to my initial
question; what is the probability that A damaged B's computer or B's
video card either by a] initially chopping through the wires or b] by
inadvertently connecting them to the wrong ones?

So close to nil it's not worth considering. Any modem should be able to
deal with line surges properly.

You don't say if the ADSL modem is internal or external. If it's
external then that probability drops even further...

Alex

Many thanks for the post badgolferman.

Probably none. But is a video card worth ill feelings between
neighbors? Having had neighbor problems it might be well worth your
while to buy him a new one. At the least let him see the rest of the
replies and invite him and his wife over for dinner.

And you are quite right! This is an amicable dispute and there is no
question of war breaking out. Just trying to get to the bottom of
things. Thanks again.

Duncan

Many thanks for the post meow!

Duncan


no chance. The phoneline isnt connected to the video card anyway.