[comp.arch] Horror Stories

jose@utcs.UUCP (11/18/86)

(It has come to my attention that this line is NOT(?) nescessary!)

Help help but to add my little story as well.
About 4 weeks ago (yes! a month ago) I tried to power up one of my C64's
as I usually do.  After a few seconds I noticed that it had not initiallized
so I knew something was wrong.  After the usual obvious checks (is it plugged
in, etc...) I got out my trusty multitester and looked at it and noticed
that a power line had 3v when it was supposed to have 12v!

For many days I could not find the source of the problem, so I kept on looking
and eventually decided to replace components at random (remember this ?-) and
that's where I found the source:

It turned out that a diode was put in backwards (wow!) in the power supply
but it was able to function for 9 months.  Eventually the diode died and
began to act as  wire.  When presented with a choice of going through a
diode of a wire there is very little to choose.  The 7812 got no current
and half of the system did not have the right voltage...

Who said micros are "simple"?
-- 

Jose A. Dias			       University of Toronto Computing Services
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The  above  ascii characters are  not, have not ever been, or will ever be, the
opinion  of  anybody,  being,  or  super-intelligent shade of the  colour blue.
They  were just a fluke.  They were put together by randomnly selecting phrases
from Vogon poetry...
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