[comp.sys.zenith] Zenith freezes

jszyliow@diana.cair.du.edu (11/24/90)

I have an old zenith with a 20MG hardrive and and a 5.25 floppy that
suddenly "freezes up", that is, I'm running a program and all of a
sudden nothing works on the keyboard.  The problem has been diagnosed as
a faulty motherboard.  Is it worth fixing? (the quote I got was $500). 

arra@inmet.inmet.com (11/26/90)

I have a Z-248 (AT "compatible") that displayed similar "freezing" symptoms.
I got unreasonably high repair estimates (in my opinion), so I tried myself.
I noticed that a short power off time resulted in very short "on" time, and
a longer off time gave a longer on time; seemed possibly a heat related problem.
The 80286 chip was running VERY hot, and if I kept it artificially cool, the
machine stayed up longer without hanging.

For less than $50 dollars, I replaced the CPU, and it runs fine now.
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 arra@inmet.inmet.com
 Arra Avakian
 Intermetrics, Inc.
 733 Concord Ave
 Cambridge, MA 02138
 (617)661-1840 x4500
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