[comp.sys.mac.hardware] Mac 512K died, any hint? please

maxc1503@ucselx.sdsu.edu (David Tse) (03/31/91)

My friend's used Mac 512K, plain without upgrade, bombed when she tried
to print a 20pages term paper using MacWrite 4.5, System 3.2, Finder 5.3,
(so it can be fitted on a 400K disk), she left the computer on and later on
the screen shrinked to a vertical line in the middle, and rebooting 
produce the same result, while you can see some lines in the middle, like
watching through a vertical slit.

I later tried to loaded the file back up, and it crashed my MacWrite 4.6
due to junk data in the beginning of the file, many many times, one time
I managed to loaded it up without crashing, and delete some junk, which
can't be displayed and replaced by 'THIS PARAGRAPH CANNOT BE READ'
about five of this on top of the first 4 pages, I deleted them and saved
in text, and clean them up later. Also MS Word 4.0 can't load it up too.

MacWrite 4.5 crashed on my machine, so I can't test using that one.

Do you have any idea what cause these problems and are they related,
which means a hardware failure begin with software hangup first?

My prelimary guess is power supply failure. I would like to hear any
suggestions. e-mail is very much appreciated, I'll also try best to
check here.

thanks in advanced,
David Tse

pv0b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Pomona Anupol Valero) (03/31/91)

Hi there,

I manage a room full of computers here on campus (we call 'em clusters)
and more than half of my cluster is made up of Mac+'s.  About a month and
a half ago one of the +'s had the same problem with a vertical line, we
replaced the power supply and it's been working fine since...

Hope this helps,
Pomona Valero
Student Cluster Manager -- Morewood Gardens
Carnegie Mellon University