A bizarre set of coincidences plagued the fourth floor of Grays Hall last week, leaving computers paralyzed and students perplexed.

Roy Astrachan '97 said everything happened suddenly and almost simultaneously.

"First a monitor went out, then another went black and white," said Astrachan. "Then some printers went out."

One resident of Grays commented that the problems were probably not caused by a virus, since the computers themselves were not rendered inoperable. Whatever the cause, the failures have left some students stranded in this week of midterm papers.

"I've had to go and use a friend's computer to type two papers due this week," said Sara E. Kimberlin '97, whose monitor ceased functioning.

Most of the monitors and printers returned to normal functioning this week. But residents are still wondering what brought on the mass malfunctions. Some students speculate a power surge in the building's aging electrical system led to the problems.

But Bill Ouchark, manager of the Harvard computer network, said there was really no way to be sure of a cause.

"Without actually looking at the computer, the problems described could be attributed to a number of things," said Ouchark.

Ouchark said there have been no other difficulties reported to HASCS [Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services] and that the malfunctions were probably "an amazing coincidence."