O05@PSUVM.BITNET (11/12/88)
I have a lab of 20 AT&T PC6300's. They have been doing fine, and just
two weeks ago, I started having problems with memory. Little to my
liking, the chips are soldered on a memory expansion board. Why AT&T
chose this route, I'll never know, but that doesn't matter.
Does anyone out there know what might cause 4 machines to develop the same
memory symptoms at the same time. To the best of my knowledge, no spikes,
surges, etc have gone through the room. It seems to be located in the bank
between 256 and 384k which would make it the first bank on the memory
expansion card after the 256 on the motherboard.
If you have had similar experiences, please let me know to this newsgroup
or direct E-Mail to o05@PSUVM. I'd like to hear from some tech at AT&T
as to the soldering on the card issue. Looks like our service charges will
be $150 to $200 for each of the machine, and I'm worried about the other 17
machines.
I hope this is not a plot by AT&T re: planned obsolescence, as the
warranty has expired 6 months ago.
Anxiously waiting reply,
Glenn S. Piper
Computer Coordinator
Penn State University
Berks Campus
BITNET: o05 at PSUVM
(215) 320-4819mvolo@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Michael R. Volow) (11/13/88)
In article <61050O05@PSUVM>, O05@PSUVM.BITNET writes: > I have a lab of 20 AT&T PC6300's. They have been doing fine, and just > two weeks ago, I started having problems with memory. Little to my > liking, the chips are soldered on a memory expansion board. Why AT&T > chose this route, I'll never know, but that doesn't matter. > > Does anyone out there know what might cause 4 machines to develop the same > memory symptoms at the same time. To the best of my knowledge, no spikes, > surges, etc have gone through the room. It seems to be located in the bank > between 256 and 384k which would make it the first bank on the memory > expansion card after the 256 on the motherboard. > > (215) 320-4819 Not sure it this is an answer to you problem, but here goes. I had a direct lightning hit on my house, entering the house wiring and the phone lines both. The surge appeared to enter my computer (had surge protector) through the phone line --> modem --> serial port --> bus!! Needless to say everything closest to the bus was zapped (modem, com1, parallel port, accessory switch on monitor, printer interface chips.. .....). I wonder if something like this happened to your AT&T's. Were the four computers with memory damage near each other on the cir- cuit? It sounds like the damaged chips were those closest to the bus. I/O lines are royal roads into the guts of the computer and are most often totally unprotected from surges (unless you have a modem surge protector). Don't know whether this applies to your situation or not. M Volow, VA Medical Center, Durham, NC mvolo@ecsvax