Electrical spikes cause card reader crashes
The electronic Diebold card access system has been experiencing some difficulties recently, according to Campus Police Chief Mary Voswinkel.
Voswinkel said electrical "spikes" led to the recent card reader system crashes. A spike is an electrical voltage fluctuation. Facilities and Engineering installed an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) device at a cost of approximately $1,000 to prevent the fluctuations. The Diebold maintenance team installed a new controller for the system since the old one had been damaged beyond repair by the fluctuations.
"We are planning on installing a better UPS system to prevent spikes from causing problems with the Diebold computer," Russell Price, maintenance manager for F&E, said.
The problems began two weeks prior to midterm recess and recurred several times thereafter.
Several students were affected by the failure, since some student records were mixed up and others were deleted from the system.
"[Students who are having problems with their ID cards] should come by and let us check their cards to see ... what number has been encoded on their card," Voswinkel said.
About 30 or 40 people have reported problems with their IDs so far, according to Voswinkel.
"I was surprised [by the failure]. I said, `Oh my God! They changed the locks on me,'" an anonymous faculty member said.
The Diebold system is 12 years old. Voswinkel affirmed that the current system will be updated but could not give a timeline for the upgrade.
This item appeared in the News section of the March 15, 1996 issue.
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