fb5294@WP-EDS.ARPA (Micap Osan) (03/06/89)
Is there, or should there be any problem turning computers on their side? I have a z-248 with 2 hard drives, and I need to know if turning it on its side will puty too much work on their mechanisms, or any other adverse effects, like the boards falling out of their slots, and crashing into each other, obliterating the boards, the computer, the R.O.K., all of Europe, the world, and even Life, The Universe, and Everything??? ' Please reply to fb5294@wp-eds c/o SrA Gautier Thank you, once again for all your help..
doug@ross.UUCP (doug carmean) (03/07/89)
>Is there, or should there be any problem turning computers on their >side? I have a z-248 with 2 hard drives, and I need to know if >turning it on its side will puty too much work on their mechanisms, or >any other adverse effects, like the boards falling out of their slots, >and crashing into each other, obliterating the boards, the computer, >the R.O.K., all of Europe, the world, and even Life, The Universe, and >Everything??? I can't warn you strongly enough against turning your computers on their sides. You will permanently damage EVERY SINGLE semiconductor device in the systems. You see, by rotating the computer you have effectively changed the normal 110 lattice structure to a 011 lattice structure. Powering on any device in this configuration will not only cause damage to the semiconductor device, but, according to Carver Mead: "...will cause skin to melt and eyes to explode. In short everybody dies." In summary, unless you want to cause world destruction, please do not rotate your computer equipment. -- -doug carmean -ROSS Technology, 7748 Hwy 290 West Suite 400, Austin, TX 78736 -ross!doug@cs.utexas.edu
bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) (03/07/89)
->Is there, or should there be any problem turning computers on their ->side? I have a z-248 with 2 hard drives, and I need to know if ->turning it on its side will puty too much work on their mechanisms, or ->any other adverse effects, like the boards falling out of their slots, ->and crashing into each other, obliterating the boards, the computer, ->the R.O.K., all of Europe, the world, and even Life, The Universe, and ->Everything??? -I can't warn you strongly enough against turning your computers on their -sides. You will permanently damage EVERY SINGLE semiconductor device -in the systems. You see, by rotating the computer you have effectively -changed the normal 110 lattice structure to a 011 lattice structure. What nonsense. Don't you realize that all your electronic devices get turned on all their sides, every day? You can't avoid it; the world rotates, and takes your computer with it. (Except at the North and South Poles, of course, where they just spin in place. This does cause difficulties, because the bound electrons tend to change their spin states, or "unwind", and get added to the conduction band. This alters the effective doping level of the semiconductor materials, and gives rise to dopey behavior.) -Powering on any device in this configuration will not only cause damage -to the semiconductor device, but, according to Carver Mead: - "...will cause skin to melt and eyes to explode. In short - everybody dies." -In summary, unless you want to cause world destruction, please do not -rotate your computer equipment. More of the seductive, Luddite teachings of the Flat Earth Illuminati. Or of vacuum tube salesmen.
pda@stiatl.UUCP (Paul Anderson) (03/08/89)
In article <18284@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) writes: >->Is there, or should there be any problem turning computers on their >->side? I have a z-248 with 2 hard drives, and I need to know if >->turning it on its side will puty too much work on their mechanisms, or >->any other adverse effects, like the boards falling out of their slots, >->and crashing into each other, obliterating the boards, the computer, >->the R.O.K., all of Europe, the world, and even Life, The Universe, and >->Everything??? Actually, there is a good reason not to do this with some systems. The data separator for disk drives is typically very dependant on the rotational speed of the drive for clocking data properly. While MFM controllers seem to do this very effectively, with some percentage of variation in rotational speed, RLL controllers DO NOT. It is typically recommended that drives hooked to an RLL controller be formatted and used withing 5 degrees of the horizontal plane. I am quoting this information (loosely) from an article in the March issue of Computer Shopper. It bears inspection. The article was on building your own 386 machine for a Unix engine. The info presented was very well written and down to earth. I would suggest reading it for a further description of this situation. My own experience with RLL controllers and ST238 drives indicate that this information is exactly correct. Once I put my drives back on a level surface and reformatted them, I no longer had any form of unrecoverable soft error (well, that is, after the drives came up to operational temperature :-) As far as CPU boards are concerned, just don't point the edge connectors down, that way the bits won't run out... :-) paul -- Paul Anderson gatech!stiatl!pda (404) 841-4000 X isn't just an adventure, X is a way of life...