echarne@orion.cf.uci.edu (Eli B. Charne) (05/08/89)
A while back I posted a message about my computer (A500) spontaneously
rebooting. I got a few responses, and have figured out that my power supply
is shot.
What I would like is a reccomendation of a good power supply to get,
possibly where to get it from, and for that power supply to be one that
should last longer than my one from Commodore did. (less than a year)
Thanks
-Eli
--
Bitnet: zebcharne@uci.bitnet
Internet: echarne@cf.uci.eduprotcoop@leibniz.uucp (08/07/89)
Hi. I recently upgraded from an A1000 to an A500 (yes, I do consider it to be an upgrade :-). I was wondering how long I could safely leave my 500 powered up? I remember that at one time I left my 1000 on for 4 months straight (not the monitor though) and it didn't hurt it a bit. I realized that this would probably blow up my 500 so I want to know what the safe limits are. Also, how could I expand these limits? Would the main problem be with the power supply over-heating, or the computer itself? Would rigging a fan up to either/both do me any good? I need to leave the machine on for extended lengths of time since I want to start doing ray-tracing and as I understand it these programs can take some time to run. Any information would be welcomed ... thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Alan W. McKay | My opinions are mine, yours are yours. | Eat Food | NEPEAN, Ont. | I in no way pretend to represent the | and | 613-763-8980 | the options of my employer. So there. | LIVE !! |
jtreworgy@eagle.wesleyan.edu (08/09/89)
In article <1400@bnr-fos.UUCP>, protcoop@leibniz.uucp writes: > > Hi. I recently upgraded from an A1000 to an A500 (yes, I do consider it > to be an upgrade :-). Hmmph! You've fallen by the wayside with that Atari-ST lookalike. :-) > I was wondering how long I could safely leave my > 500 powered up? I remember that at one time I left my 1000 on for 4 > months straight (not the monitor though) and it didn't hurt it a bit. I > realized that this would probably blow up my 500 so I want to know what > the safe limits are. Also, how could I expand these limits? Would the > main problem be with the power supply over-heating, or the computer > itself? Would rigging a fan up to either/both do me any good? Leaving it on shouldn't tax the power supply... if something is going to kill it, it's going to kill it within a couple hours of turning it on. (This would happen if you tried to draw too much power, i.e. you hooked up a second disk drive. :-)). Some people say that it's actually better for the machine to leave it on all the time (i.e. less wear & tear on the circuitry from turning on & off). This is nice if you have clean power. We have blackouts & spikes all the time so I prefer to leave my machine off when I'm not using it. -- James A. Treworgy "You should have seen me with the poker man, jtreworgy@eagle.wesleyan.edu I had a honey and I bet a grand, jtreworgy%eagle@WESLEYAN.BITNET Just in the nick of time I looked at his hand" Box 5033 Wesleyan Station -Paul McCartney Middletown, CT 06475
bakerj@gtephx.UUCP (Jon Baker) (08/11/89)
In article <1400@bnr-fos.UUCP>, protcoop@leibniz.uucp writes: > > Hi. I recently upgraded from an A1000 to an A500 (yes, I do consider it > to be an upgrade :-). I was wondering how long I could safely leave my > 500 powered up? I remember that at one time I left my 1000 on for 4 ... I know of one person that left his Amiga up for about a month doing ray- tracing. I have left mine powered up for over 2 months now with no problems. I don't leave the monitor powered on, though ... J.Baker.
UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) (08/11/89)
In article <1400@bnr-fos.UUCP>, protcoop@leibniz.uucp says: > >Hi. I recently upgraded from an A1000 to an A500 (yes, I do consider it >to be an upgrade :-). I was wondering how long I could safely leave my >500 powered up? I remember that at one time I left my 1000 on for 4 You shouldn't leave your power supply on for a single minute longer than you absolutely must. The A500 power supplies only have so much power installed in them when they leave the factory, and when you've used that up, you're finished. It is far better to turn your machine on and off 20 to 30 times per day. Besides saving your power, this keeps the power switch from corroding.
unland@cbmvax.UUCP (Rick Unland - Regional Support) (08/12/89)
In article <89223.102821UH2@PSUVM> UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes:
$In article <1400@bnr-fos.UUCP>, protcoop@leibniz.uucp says:
$>
$You shouldn't leave your power supply on for a single minute longer than you
$absolutely must. The A500 power supplies only have so much power installed
$in them when they leave the factory, and when you've used that up, you're
$finished.
^^^^^^^ No Smiley Faces?
$
$It is far better to turn your machine on and off 20 to 30 times per day.
^^^^^^ This is absolutely false! There are a Lot of major
corporations that would love to disagree with you about this one. Turning
any electronic device on and off is extremely bad for it due to the power
surges that occur upon power up. I for one am familiar with a case at
a major studio in hollywood that actualy tested to determine if the cost
of leaving equipment on outweighed the repair or replcement cost due to
the power surges from turning them off and on each day. I have a 500 in
office that runs for months on end and has no problem with the depletion
of the so called installed power alotment :^). This firm discovered that if
the equipment was to be used within a twelve hour period then a shutdown was
uncalled for and would reduce the life by an amount greater then the bill
for power consumption. This is especially true of monitors and displays which
are more effected by powersurges than some other types of equipment. BTW
I have three Amigas and they have remained on for upto three months and one
was running continusly for almost a year without any sign of trouble.
$Besides saving your power, this keeps the power switch from corroding.
My switches dont seem to be exhibiting this problem very much and
one of my machines is right next to the beach which has a tendency to
have more corosive air than in some other parts of the country.
My opinion is: Leave it on if you plan to use it in the next four or five
hours and dont do unecessary power ups and downs.
These are my opinions! If they were someone elses then they would have said
them. I am not talking as other than a private citizen.
So There!
--
******* Rick Unland Commodore Business Machines ****************************
* Usenet: uunet!cbmvax!unland ARPA: cbmvax!unland!@uunet.UU.NET *
* Standard Disclaimer: If I said it, I was drunk! *
* If I didn't say it, I wasn't drunk enough! *
* "I thought they said the Commodore could stand up to anything!" *
*********************************************** Earth Girls Are Easy! **********swarren@eugene.uucp (Steve Warren) (08/12/89)
In article <7633@cbmvax.UUCP> unland@cbmvax.UUCP (Rick Unland - Regional Support) writes: >In article <89223.102821UH2@PSUVM> UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes: >$In article <1400@bnr-fos.UUCP>, protcoop@leibniz.uucp says: >$> >$You shouldn't leave your power supply on for a single minute longer than you >$absolutely must. The A500 power supplies only have so much power installed >$in them when they leave the factory, and when you've used that up, you're >$finished. > ^^^^^^^ No Smiley Faces? >$ >$It is far better to turn your machine on and off 20 to 30 times per day. > ^^^^^^ This is absolutely false! There are a Lot of major >corporations that would love to disagree with you about this one. Turning >any electronic device on and off is extremely bad for it due to the power >surges that occur upon power up. I for one am familiar with a case at [...] I think he was being incredibly sarcastic when he made those statements. He probably thought that what he was saying was so patently absurd that smiley faces would be redundant and reduce the impact of the humor. I laughed :-). That said, the poor fellow who asked the question is probably not an EE, and probably legitimately needed an explanation, or he wouldn't have asked the question. Give the guy a break! --Steve ------------------------------------------------------------------------- {uunet,sun}!convex!swarren; swarren@convex.COM
tron1@tronsbox.UUCP (K.J.Jamieson) (08/14/89)
>You shouldn't leave your power supply on for a single minute longer than you >absolutely must. The A500 power supplies only have so much power installed >in them when they leave the factory, and when you've used that up, you're >finished. > >It is far better to turn your machine on and off 20 to 30 times per day. >Besides saving your power, this keeps the power switch from corroding. > I know this is a joke (has to be) - but I want to make sure YOU know! **************************************************************************** * " Salad isn't food, salad is what food eats. " The Zen Monk ALF * * "My thoughts claim no responsibility for my body" * * * * UUCP: tron1@tronsbox.UUCP uunet!mimsy!oddjob!clout!ddsw1!tronsbox!tron1 * * * * Sysop, the Penthouse ]I[ BBS * * (201)759-8450 (201)759-8568 * ****************************************************************************
fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish) (08/15/89)
In article <89223.102821UH2@PSUVM> UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes: >You shouldn't leave your power supply on for a single minute longer than you >absolutely must. The A500 power supplies only have so much power installed >in them when they leave the factory, and when you've used that up, you're >finished. Actually, they run off smoke and are fully charged when they leave the factory. As proof of this, when the smoke escapes, the power supply must be replaced. :-) -Fred -- # Fred Fish, 1835 E. Belmont Drive, Tempe, AZ 85284, USA # 1-602-491-0048 asuvax!{nud,mcdphx}!estinc!fnf
sneakers@heimat.UUCP (Dan "Sneakers" Schein) (08/16/89)
In Message <89223.102821UH2@PSUVM>, UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes: >In article <1400@bnr-fos.UUCP>, protcoop@leibniz.uucp says: >> >>Hi. I recently upgraded from an A1000 to an A500 (yes, I do consider it >>to be an upgrade :-). I was wondering how long I could safely leave my >>500 powered up? I remember that at one time I left my 1000 on for 4 > >You shouldn't leave your power supply on for a single minute longer than you >absolutely must. The A500 power supplies only have so much power installed >in them when they leave the factory, and when you've used that up, you're >finished. How true! You know I left mine on for a week solid one time and my 500 wouldnt work after that. The local service rep said odds were I left the BLUE smoke out of the chips. So I stopped by and he had a can of BLUE smoke for refilling chips. I really wanted to see how he recharged them but he said it was a CBM secret and id have to wait outside. A few minutes later he left me back in and darn if it didnt work again! He only charged me $50 for the recharge and since then ive never left it on for over 5 hours at a time. Heck if im going to the bathroom I even turn it off. >It is far better to turn your machine on and off 20 to 30 times per day. >Besides saving your power, this keeps the power switch from corroding. WOW! I had never thought of the power switch giving me problems, guess thats because I take mine in for a monthly tune up. The service rep cleans it and checks the chips BLUE smoke level for only $15! Heck for that price its worth every penny of it (considering the $50 it cost me for the recharge before I started the monthly check ups). Im not sure if the local service center in your area will do this for you or not. But if they do run (don't walk) out that door because all the above is a joke :-) :-) :-) :-) I can only assume Lee's message was also a joke but he forgot the smiley faces! -=- On the serious side: When I worked at CBM my equipment was *NEVER* turned off. It was on 24 hrs a day when I was there and when I wasnt (vacation, trip, ect). Never did I have a single item go bad while running. The machine that runs BERKS AMIGA runs 24 hours a day for over a year now. Not one bit of trouble, its even online during storms and the like. Im of the school that teaches "99% of the light bulbs burn out when you turn em on - not while their on" and think the same way of my computers. (All 3 ;-) Sneakers ___ Dan "Sneakers" Schein //// BERKS AMIGA BBS Sneakers Computing //// 80+ Megs of software & messages 2455 McKinley Ave. ___ //// 12/2400 Baud - 24 Hrs West Lawn, PA 19609 \\\\ //// 215/678-7691 \\\\//// {pyramid|rutgers|uunet}!cbmvax!heimat!sneakers
marksm@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Mark S Madsen) (08/16/89)
In article <435@eagle.wesleyan.edu* jtreworgy@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes: *In article <1400@bnr-fos.UUCP*, protcoop@leibniz.uucp writes: ** ** Hi. I recently upgraded from an A1000 to an A500 (yes, I do consider it ** to be an upgrade :-). * *Hmmph! You've fallen by the wayside with that Atari-ST lookalike. :-) * ** I was wondering how long I could safely leave my ** 500 powered up? I remember that at one time I left my 1000 on for 4 ** months straight (not the monitor though) and it didn't hurt it a bit. I ** realized that this would probably blow up my 500 so I want to know what ** the safe limits are. Also, how could I expand these limits? Would the ** main problem be with the power supply over-heating, or the computer ** itself? Would rigging a fan up to either/both do me any good? * *Leaving it on shouldn't tax the power supply... if something is going to kill *it, it's going to kill it within a couple hours of turning it on. (This would *happen if you tried to draw too much power, i.e. you hooked up a second disk *drive. :-)). Right about the early kill, but wrong about the disk drives. *Some people say that it's actually better for the machine to leave *it on all the time (i.e. less wear & tear on the circuitry from turning on & *off). This is nice if you have clean power. We have blackouts & spikes all the *time so I prefer to leave my machine off when I'm not using it. I use DMouse (yeah, I know QMouse is supposed to be more fashionable ;-) to blank the screen after 300 seconds, and never turn off my A500 unless I'm going away for more than 24hrs. The system has been turned on for about 10 months out of the last 12 (with a second drive and an A501) and has never suffered a glitch (touch wood :-) Tips: leave disks in the drive (but not irreplaceable ones !) for peace and quiet, and vacuum out the disk drives, just placing the nozzle over the opening briefly, regularly. This will considerably reduce the number of "disk errors". *-- *James A. Treworgy "You should have seen me with the poker man, Hope this helps. -- ####################################################################### ## Mark S. Madsen #### marksm@syma.sussex.ac.uk ################### #### Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK. ## #################### Life's a bitch. Then you die. #################
protcoop@bmers58.UUCP (op Student) (08/21/89)
Hi, I'm the guy who started this discussion. It seems that a lot of people leave their Amigas on for extended periods of time but don't want to tell me which model of Amiga this is. I know from experience that the 1000 can be left on for months. Also, a friend of mine has left his 2000 on for months too ... so could you all please be a little more specific? I appreciate all of the replies I've been getting but it doesn't do me much good if some guy with a 2000 tells me that he leaves his Amiga on all the time ... then I try it with my 500 and she blows up. I just want to know how long I can leave my A500 on ? Thank you all again. ------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Alan W. McKay | My opinions are mine, yours are yours. | Eat Food | NEPEAN, Ont. | I in no way pretend to represent the | and | 613-763-8980 | the options of my employer. So there. | LIVE !! |
mjw@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (Michael Weber) (08/22/89)
Alan McKay writes: > I just want to know how long I can leave my A500 on? Mine has been running constantly since April 1988 with the following configuration: Amiga 500 1080 Monitor (I never shut it off; DMouse -s900...) Phoenix Electronics external floppy drive (has worked flawlessly) Golden Hawk MIDI interface (does draw a small amount of power) Serial cable to a modem (again, a small amount of power drain) Parallel cable to a printer (again, a small amount of power drain) Pacific Peripherals SubSystem 500 CLtd SCSI 2000 in slot 1 (connected to homebrew Adaptec 4000 and Seagate ST251-1 hard drive system) A2058 memory board in slot 2 (populated to 4MB) The SubSystem was added in February 1989 along with the CLtd SCSI 2000. The A2058 memory board was added in April 1989. The above configuration evolved with a great deal of pain. If I didn't like the features of the Amiga so well, I'd have more than likely punted and joined the *BM compatible world. The SubSystem was ordered through Abel Supply in July 1988 and was delivered in late December 1988. Abel claimed that Pacific Peripherals was responsible for the delays. Pacific Peripherals wouldn't confirm or deny anything. Abel never sent the "your order is delayed" postcards as required by the mail order regulations. In all instances I had to initiate the contact in determining my order status with Abel. Originally, I purchased an OverDrive SCSI controller for the SubSystem (a controller and expansion box from the same company should work together... right?). I could never get Pacific Peripherals to write a driver for the Adaptec 4000 (is this still the case?). I also purchased an ASDG 8MI to use in the SubSystem. This would not work at all. Tried it in a friends A2000 and it worked great. ASDG's response: send us your SubSystem 500 and 8MI. We'll only charge you a $XX hourly rate plus return postage to solve *YOUR* problem. Pacific Peripheral's response: we've never really tried an 8MI in the SubSystem but the Commodore boards work well and the Micron boards also work fine... ASDG must be doing something strange. CLtd's customer support leaves something to be desired but I've been able to obtain periodic upgrades to their SCSIDOS software through their BBS for nothing more than the cost of the telephone call. The SCSI 2000 has never failed (I've formatted the ST251-1 twice, once for OFS and once again when AmigaDOS 1.3/FFS arrived). The A2058 has also worked well (no apparent memory faults, i.e. no frequent gurus). If anyone wants them the following are for sale: ASDG 8MI (0K), manuals, and software $200 or best offer Pacific Peripherals OverDrive and software $ 75 or best offer I'll pay shipping (UPS ground) to anywhere in the contiguous 48 states. -- Michael Weber, AT&T Bell Laboratories, ...!att!alux4!mjw, (215) 770-2732