bob@acornrc.UUCP (Bob Weissman) (05/26/88)
Here's an interesting problem. My wife owns an El Cheapo XT clone
(actually an AMAX 2100 XT "Turbo") which has developed an annoying
tendency to not want to boot when it's powered up.
Symptoms vary randomly; sometimes it will just sit there, flashing its
Caps, Num, and Scroll Lock lights (which it's supposed to do briefly
during the boot sequence), and will boot if you let it sit long enough
-- 10 minutes, say.
Other times, it will just go dumb, with lights off and screen blank,
and not boot at all. Repeated power cycling will eventually get it to
boot.
Other times, it boots up right away first time. Once booted, it
usually works fine for the rest of the session (but has died in
mid-session once or twice).
This machine has a 5.25" floppy drive, a 3.5" floppy drive, and a
Seagate ST-238R 30MB hard disk with the dreaded RLL controller. It's
got 640K of memory, 2 serial ports, 2 parallel ports, a game port, and
a clock. One serial port goes to a 2-way switch switching a modem
between it and another terminal. The other serial port has a MS mouse
on it. One parallel port has a printer on it, and the other one is
unconnected, as is the game port. Power-up diagnostics and Norton
utilities don't find anything wrong.
Can anyone give me a clue as to what might be going on here? I hate
these intermittant problems; I know that if I take it in for repair, it
will suddenly behave perfectly in the shop.
Thanks,
--
Bob Weissman
Internet: bob@acornrc.uucp
UUCP: ...!{ ames | decwrl | oliveb | pyramid }!acornrc!bob
Arpanet: bob%acornrc.uucp@ames.arc.nasa.govsvirsky@ttidca.TTI.COM (William Svirsky) (05/28/88)
In article <817@acornrc.UUCP> bob@acornrc.UUCP (Bob Weissman) writes:
-Here's an interesting problem. My wife owns an El Cheapo XT clone
-(actually an AMAX 2100 XT "Turbo") which has developed an annoying
-tendency to not want to boot when it's powered up.
-
How many watts does your power supply put out? It may be marginal.
With all of the equipment you listed, I'd say you should have a 150
watt power supply. I've seen them for as little as $30 now.
--
Bill Svirsky, Citicorp+TTI, 3100 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Work phone: 213-450-9111 x2597
svirsky@ttidca.TTI.COM | ...!{philabs,psivax,trwrb,csun}!ttidca!svirsky