derek@uwvax.UUCP (03/14/87)
Here's a dumb question: is it bad for the Amiga to leave it on for long
periods of time without using it? My workstation at the office doesn't
mind, but what about the Amiga? Also, how stressful is powering it up
and down?
derek
--
Abstract: Derek Zahn @ wisconsin
Usenet: ...!{allegra,heurikon,ihnp4,seismo,sfwin,ucbvax}!uwvax!derek
Arpa Internet: derek@rsch.wisc.educhapman@eris.UUCP (03/14/87)
In article <3340@rsch.WISC.EDU> derek@rsch.WISC.EDU (Derek Zahn) writes: >is it bad for the Amiga to leave it on for long >periods of time without using it? Gee, I sure hope not! :-) Mine's been on since, oh, let's see, right after I got back from Christmas, and that was about January 5th... Before that, it was on from the time I bought it (early August last summer) through Thanksgiving (that's most of 4 months)... The generally accepted concensus is that, as long as there aren't any problems with overheating (which the Amiga, thankfully, doesn't seem to have, unlike some _other_ machines I could mention...), it's better to leave it on than to be cycling the power on and off a few times a day. Note that this specificly does _not_ apply to monitors; monitors will "burn" (the phosphor will become permanently screwed) if left with an unchanging picture in the same place for long periods of time (this is why you see old terminals with images of the status lines visible even when there _isn't_ a status line there now). Either turn your monitor off when you're not using it, or use something like PopCLI which blanks the screen after the Amiga has been sitting idle (no keyboard or mouse input) for a certain amount of time (mine's set for 10 minutes) (funny trick to wake up your Amiga, especially useful if someone is around who _doesn't_ know how it works: Walk up and slam your fist down on the desk, with some appropriate comment like "Wake up, you lazy SOB!"; this generally jiggles the mouse just enough to make PopCLI think you've done something useful). The usefulness of PopCLI in this regard (it's plenty useful in other regards) is questionable, since the Amiga's "black" screen isn't really black, it's dark-dark gray. Brent -- Brent Chapman chapman@mica.berkeley.edu or ucbvax!mica!chapman
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (03/18/87)
The amigas that we have here, and the one I've got at home are about a year old. At that time, C-A was using Japanese power supplies that are VERY well built. The ventilation fan keeps the temperatures will down inside the power pack, thus the switching transistor and especially the filter caps should be able to expect a long life under continuous operating circumstances. Our Apple IIs practically eat power packs for lunch, as the dang case of the power pack has no holes for any air flow what so ever, and even with a muffin fan blowing right on it, the inside still gets hotter'n a pistol. This usually destroys the filter caps after about three months of non-stop operation. The Amiga power pack seems to have been designed to provide about 300 mS of ride-though with one external disk drive attached without any extras beyond the front-mounted 256K pack. So far, we haven't experienced any brown-out induced reboots. If you cycle the AC power on the Amiga, you should wait about 10 sec before re-applying the mains AC. This delay allows the voltage on the input capacitors to drop sufficiently to that the soft turn-on circuit is activated correctly. This assures that the capacitors, etc will not be damaged by an unrestrained current inrush. Not waiting long enough can cuase the power pack to be partially still active, and try to quickly bring the caps back up to nominal voltage, rusulting in potentially damaging currents. If I remember right, the Amiga manual actually alludes to the proper way to treat the power supply. Very commendible, as most makers don't bother to discuss that. --Bill (wtm@neoucom.UUCP ...!cbatt!neoucell a na
maj1@sphinx.UUCP (03/20/87)
In article <2801@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> chapman@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Brent Chapman) writes: >>is it bad for the Amiga to leave it on for long >>periods of time without using it? > ... Either turn your monitor off when you're not >using it, or use something like PopCLI which blanks the screen after the >Amiga has been sitting idle (no keyboard or mouse input) for a certain >amount of time Can someone tell me just how I can get a hold of this PopCLI gadget? Is it short enough to post it to the net? If not (and you own a copy) please Email it to me. Major Robinson jr -- ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!maj1 maj1@sphinx.uchicago.edu