cib@lanl.ARPA (07/25/85)
While this experience may be unique, I post it on the chance that someone may be saved time and trouble. After six or seven months of impeccable performance, my PC began to crash in mid-program (any program) for no apparent reason. The crashes were creative - sometimes a frozen cursor, sometimes a blank screen, sometimes graphics characters, sometimes random patterns. The up time before crash became shorter and shorter until the machine was useless. "Temperature!", I said, since summer was coming on, and removed the cover and set up a fan. No improvement. "Power supply!" I said, since the board was full, and replaced the PC power supply with the XT supply. No improvement. Swapping of the RAM and the 8088 led to no improvement. "Desperation!" I said, and started to tap things lightly. As soon as SW1 was tapped, the machine crashed. Repetition gave the same result. I replaced those shoddy SW1 and SW2 dip switches with slide switches, and have had no trouble since.