fixing a Hamamatsu ORCA-ERA camera over skype chat is NOT my idea of a good time.
angrycellbiology below the cut
especially when it costs several thousand euros, is the best one in the lab, and the last time (okay the only time) it broke, it took us half a year to have it fixed. and several rounds of negotiations with hamamatsu tech support and hamamatsu dealer who had sold it to us. still, *something*went*wrong* and in the end, it would not be recognized by two computers which is exactly how it broke down that other time.
ouf. it’s so difficult when there’s a panicking colleague on the other end of the line, who is reasonably competent but is just not a tech support (mwell... i kinda am). they were so out of their minds (i have never learned who was her partner in crime) that they even lugged a microscope around the lab to connect it to another computer! which is a last ditch effort really. kudos to zeiss whose microscopes tolerate various form of abuse by over-zealous cell biologists Really Well. yes and they had done that before they turned all the equipment off and then turned it on, which immediately solved half the problem. i came into chat when they were searching for a USB key for a particular camera managing software - but if the camera is not recognized, it cannot be managed, how did the they come up with this idea even. so i made them turn the cam and the comp off and then on (through SHOUTING IN ALL CAPS yes), and then everything was kind of okay. not okay okay because there is still a lingering problem that i can’t quite understand, like maybe the firewire port is faulty or perhaps the cable is, but checking the cable was way beyond them already. still, i think she’s done for tonight, there were no more skype messages, but ouch. i’m a bit worried.
turned out that we’ve lost the USB key to one of the expensive software packages we own, but i remember that particular package as utterly useless crap, quickly replaced by imagej. so i’m definitely not in tears over that, but i will want a full report tomorrow. fuck i was scared.