01659@AECLCR.BITNET (Greg Csullog) (03/01/89)
Our company has had a rash of mouse failures. The situation was puzzling because not one home user had a similar failure and there are more mice (mouses) off site than on site. We believe we know the problem. There are load resistors used in conjunction with the phototransistors. They typically have values of 600-800 ohms. With extended hours of operation (7-8 hours per day computers are on at work, typically <1 hour at home) there appears to be some deterioration in the load capacity that is followed by transistor drift. If all resistors are changed to 1K ohm, voila the problems go away (except that labour costs make it more expensive to replace the resistors than to buy new mice). Is Atari aware of this problem and has it been addressed properly? Or are there bound-to-fail mice out there in production lines?
john@stag.UUCP (John Stanley) (03/03/89)
[01659@AECLCR.BITNET (Greg Csullog) writes...] > Our company has had a rash of mouse failures. The situation was > puzzling because not one home user had a similar failure and there > are more mice (mouses) off site than on site. > > We believe we know the problem. There are load resistors used in > conjunction with the phototransistors. They typically have values > of 600-800 ohms. With extended hours of operation (7-8 hours per > day computers are on at work, typically <1 hour at home) there > appears to be some deterioration in the load capacity that is > followed by transistor drift. Sorry Greg, but I doubt that's it.... Many people I know leave their machines on 24 hours a day (at home). I've had mine "on" for nearly 4 years now with the only mouse failure being when the little rollers inside the mouse got dirty. I cleaned them up and used a mouse-pad after that and haven't had a problem in the last 3 years... (This is the typical mouse failure story from many of the people I've spoken to...) --- John Stanley <dynasoft!john@stag.UUCP> Software Consultant / Dynasoft Systems