magaj@levels.sait.edu.au (04/17/91)
I am becoming very weary of my A500 crashing at random intervals. I
have been reluctant to take my machine in for repairs because the problem
is not reproducible at will, and I don't have any idea about what causes it.
Here are the symptoms:
- Every now and again my A500 will reboot itself in the middle of
whatever I am doing. It is not the software that I am running
because I use that all the time, usually without a hitch.
- Increasingly these days, it will reboot itself in the middle of
one of these reboots, then reboot in the middle of that, etc.,
sometimes as much as five times!
- Often the capslock light will flash, and the keyboard won't respond.
Usually I just warm-reboot with ctrl-left-amiga-right-amiga and the
keyboard responds again. Increasingly these days, this will not do
the trick. If this happens, I pull the thing apart, have a look
inside, see nothing wrong, put it back together, and hey presto! it
works again.
- The other day I had it pulled apart and rebooted it. Most of the
startup-sequence ran but the machine suddenly guru'd for no apparent
reason. Upon rebooting again (both warm and cold reboots) it just
gave me a dark gray screen and nothing else. I have never had either
of these responses before. After leaving it off for a few hours
(in frustration), I put it back together again and it decided to work.
Notes:
- I have a filter for my power supply
- During these attacks, if I am using my modem it remains powered-up,
on-line and connected the whole time. After the rebooting has
stabalised, I can re-use my modem connection as if nothing had gone
wrong.
i.e. I don't think the problem lies with my power supply.
- The chips are all firmly seated, some cool, some lukewarm. The 68000
has a single hot-spot. Is this normal?
I know it is usually impossible to tell the trouble without examining
the machine, but I am hoping that someone has an idea about what might be
wrong, so I can be explicit when taking it in for repairs. I know little
about hardware, and would prefer not to offer any repairer the chance to
make a dishonest buck by telling me that all sorts of things are wrong with it.
Thanks in advance,
Geoff JarradBGT101@psuvm.psu.edu (04/17/91)
It sounds like your keyboard needs to be replaced. My 500 had similar problems except it did not reset itself all the time, but the CAPS LOCK LED would flash and the keyboard would lock up. I took it to get it repaired, but the repairman didn't find anything wrong with it. After I brought it back home the probles started again. So at the suggestion of a friend I replaced the keyboard, and since that time I haven't had any trouble what so ever. -Blaise
rogue@cellar.UUCP (Rogue Winter) (04/18/91)
magaj@levels.sait.edu.au writes: > - Often the capslock light will flash, and the keyboard won't respond. > Usually I just warm-reboot with ctrl-left-amiga-right-amiga and the > keyboard responds again. Increasingly these days, this will not do > the trick. If this happens, I pull the thing apart, have a look > inside, see nothing wrong, put it back together, and hey presto! it > works again. > I have had this happen often, when I turn off the computer at the power switch and turn it back on again without giving it an adequate period for "cool-down." When it does occur, I simply shut off the machine again and wait a little longer. One thing that intrigued me was that you said you weren't having a software problem, but implied that you were using the same piece of software every time. Is this the case? Rogue Winter : "How can you say I only protected people in South rogue@cellar.uucp : Philadelphia? I protected people all over this city; it uunet!cellar!rogue: didn't matter if they were in South Philadelphia or Cellar 215/3369503: Northeast Philadelphia." -- Frank Rizzo, 4/12/91