TECH: Mandarin wand failures

["Catharine D. Wolf" <wolfh@VIVANET.COM>]

We have been plagued by a series of wand failures this spring, after 2 =
1/2 years of automated circulation.

Sometimes, cleaning the inside of the wand with alcohol on a Q-tip =
helps.  Sometimes, cleaning the outside helps.  Sometimes, logging off =
and turning off everything and then booting up again helps.  Sometimes, =
we can plug in the inventory wand and it works.  Sometimes, we plug it =
in and it doesn't work.  We even borrowed a new wand from our library =
system for a couple of weeks and had the same experience with it.

I begin to wonder whether this is really not a wand problem at all.  =
Could there be an internal connection that doesn't always connect?  =
Usually--though not always--the wand failure comes at the peak of busy =
circulation.  Perhaps something iffy is overheating?

The external wires are not the problem, as far as I can determine.  But =
all that spaghetti must go somewhere on the inside, too.

Thanks for your thoughts--

Holly Wolf, librarian
Macedon Elementary School, Macedon, NY=20
wolfh@vivanet.com