nazgul@apollo.HP.COM (Kee Hinckley) (08/30/89)
--- Posted for batsford_s@apollo.com (Steven Batsford) Re: Orientation of Apollo on floor. From: Steve Batsford, Apollo R&D I performed the environmental testing on the Apollo DN3000, DN4000, DN4500, and DN3500 workstations. All of these workstations are designed to be mounted horizontally on a desk or table top, or vertically on a floor stand. When mounted on a floor stand, the tape or floppy is at the top and the left side vents are three inches the floor. If a system is mounted vertically with the left side vents blocked it will overheat. The left side vents are where most of the air that cools the AT-Bus enters the unit and if these vents are blocked the AT-Bus area only gets a bare fraction of the normal airflow. If a system is mounted vertically with the left side vents up it will also overheat. This is because in this orientation the fan is lower than the AT-Bus area. The heat being generated by the option cards is trying to rise and the fan is trying to pull that warm air down to get it out of the workstation. This causes a very sharp decrease in airflow over the option cards installed in the AT-Bus and the decreased airflow causes overheating. Even with only two or three option cards installed in the option slots a system can overheat if installed incorrectly. You may not have a hard failure, or any definable problem, but overheating can cause chips on the option cards to behave strangely causing hard to diagnose and unnecessary problems. On page 24 of the manual "Unpacking and Installing Your Domain Personal Workstations and Servers", (Apollo part no. 007857-A00), there is a diagram that shows the minimum clearances allowed from each side of the workstation. If you MUST install a workstation in the vertical position make sure that the left side vents are toward the floor, there is at least three inches between the floor and the vents, and most important of all make sure that NONE OF THE VENTS ARE BLOCKED. Steve Batsford Research and Development Apollo Computer inc. -- ### User Environment, Apollo Computer Inc. ### Public Access ProLine BBS ### ### {mit-eddie,yale}!apollo!nazgul ### nazgul@pro-angmar.cts.com ### ### nazgul@apollo.hp.com ### (617) 641-3722 300/1200/2400 ### I'm not sure which upsets me more; that people are so unwilling to accept responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate everyone else's.