Well, he was typing on the Apple IIe, and a neighbor
decided to leave
the complex.
C-A-T-A-L-O-G--
At the same instant that the roommate hit ENTER, the car managed to
back into the power transformer. There was a loud explosion outside,
and inside a smaller one was accompanied by (as he described it) "the
floppy drive flying right by my head and into the wall"!
The accompanying surge blew out every electronic device in the complex
that was directly attached to an outlet. Ironically enough, the Apple
IIe (sans unfortunate disk drive) survived. It had a Kensington
System Saver installed...
According to the roommate, the System Saver saved itself... The spike
was shunted to the power supply, which shunted it to the motherboard,
which shunted it to the disk drive. Having nowhere to shunt the
spike, the disk drive saved the computer by commiting suicide.
The last part I had no faith in, until uncovering his Apple IIe in a
store-room a few years ago. There was the system saver, the IIe, and
two disk drives... The first ("Drive 2") was perfectly functional, if
dirty... The second ("Drive 1") didn't work. On disassembly, a large
scorched hole winked out from a place on the analog board that once
housed a major IC.
Could you please explain that in a way that makes electrical sense. A
surge does not run around until it finds nowhere to go and then blows up
an IC....
-tony