From: jason_warren@ieee.org   
      
   I posted earlier about how the disk numbering changed:   
   disk zero became disk one and vice versa. I still don't   
   know how that happened, but after a month I think I'm back   
   from Computer Hell.   
      
   The Alienware R9 suddenly began to run very slowly. I ran   
   every diagnostic I could find - the built-in ones and   
   others. All passed, including the long versions that took   
   hours to complete.   
      
   I am diligent about backups and so I restored the SSD and   
   spinning SCSI drive, but that didn't solve the problem.   
   The machine still took half an hour just to boot, and I   
   could hear the SCSI disk rattling a lot throughout.   
      
   Today I did a "clean everything" fresh Win 11   
   installation. The install proceeded quickly (I'd tried   
   before and it was very slow). Forcing the Win installation   
   to use the SSD cut install time from more than an hour to   
   15 minutes.   
      
   By and by, Windows reported that there was a slew of   
   updates to apply, about 30. That's not surprising   
   considering how long it had been since the last update.   
   But what I noticed, and hadn't seen before, was the fact   
   that four of the updates were for the (Intel) SCSI   
   adapter! I've seen plenty of updates over the years, but   
   they've always been for drivers.   
      
   After the installation and required reboot, the machine   
   took off and is now running just as it always had.   
   There's more cleanup to do (and a fresh backup!). So, I'm   
   left wondering what happened.   
      
   I have an idea (please don't laugh). I've been a ham radio   
   amateur since the 60's. We are now experiencing solar   
   cycle 25 and it's been the strongest in years. Cycles are   
   on an ~11-year cycle. A strong CME (Coronal Mass Ejection)   
   floods nearby space (us!) with a LOT of energetic   
   particles that are known to be able to disrupt sensitive   
   circuitry, sometimes momentarily, other times  actually   
   damaging the minute gates in today's super-dense chips.   
   Could the SCSI adapter have gotten dinged by a charged   
   particle?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)