megabyte@chinet.chi.il.us (Dr. Megabyte) (08/30/90)
Several people have indicated that my power on delay problems with my Amiga 500 seem to related to my power supply being broken. It seems that the CBM power supply is marginal to power my A500, my Trumpcard, and a Seagate SCSI harddisk. Being that there is no Amiga dealer for over 70 miles from me, I need advise on replacment power supplies. Other than CBM's, who makes supplies and what supply is the best? I've been told I can rig a PC power supply, but I'm inept at solder and making cables. So I need one that already comes built. Any ideas on who's to buy and from where I can buy it? -- Mark E. Sunderlin: IRS Technocrat in Stephens City, VA aka Dr. Megabyte: megabyte@chinet.chi.il.us (703) TOY-DUDE "They Venture Down Among Us and They Sign-in on the Log, The Manager, The Customer, The Pony and The Dog!"
limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) (08/31/90)
In article <1990Aug30.152522.3387@chinet.chi.il.us> megabyte@chinet.chi.il.us (Dr. Megabyte) writes: > Several people have indicated that my power on delay problems with my Amiga > 500 seem to related to my power supply being broken. It seems that the CBM > power supply is marginal to power my A500, my Trumpcard, and a Seagate SCSI > harddisk. This is what I send to people on Bitnet when they ask this such questions on Info-AMIGA. Tom's Guide to the A500 and Powersupplies ----------------------------------------- The CBM power supply is speced to handle the A500, the A501 Memory Expansion and EXACTLY 1 external floppy drive. This was told to developers from day one. There are EXACTLY 0 amps remaining after this configuration is used. But you say: "I understand. But *my* configuration sure works." Ok. Now each of your components aren't getting the right amount of electrons. They each get a fraction of what they want. They MAY work, but they are being stressed. This is much like eating half as much at each meal. You are getting fed, but you'll be moaning after a couple days and eventually you'll lose your body fat and then months later you'll pass out. Computers don't have body fat to delay the "pass out" phase. Eventually your components will start to randomly fail. You'll start thinking that you have buggy software or most likely you'll blame it on CBM for making unreliable machines. Who made your configuration unreliable? I'd blame either you or the third party, wouldn't you? I blame the third-party company since they broke the rules. Your configuration is adding to C-A's (unwarrented) bad reputation. But you say: "OK! I'll buy a bigger power supply! More amps for everything." Ok. Now each component is getting the right amount of electrons, but are you sure? Well, lets assume that you are an EE and you are sure. How do all those electrons get to those components? You are now pumping more electrons through the A500 mother board than it was made to handle. This is like putting high-pressure water through a garden hose. Sure, the hose won't break because it will expand. Can the electronics expand? No, so they hot. They convert the electrons to heat. They get so hot that the plastic case can melt. There is just enough ventilation in the A500 to support normal operation. Don't push it. If you don't melt the plastic case you are now making all the chips operate at a very hot temperature. This makes them unreliable and they start to fail. You'll start thinking that you have buggy software or most likely you'll blame CBM for making unreliable machines. Sounds fammilier? You're hurting C-A. But you say: "OK! I'll throw out my A500 and get an Amiga 2x00 or Amiga 3000 because they were made to expand and the A500 wasn't made to be expanded." Fine. [The rest of this is a little harsh. I need to figure out how to tone it down. A500 users may not want to read it. You have been warned. Take it with a grain of salt. Your milage may vary.] Or you say: "OK! I'll buy equipment for my A500 that has it's own power supply. Which means I'll need more wall sockets but that's the way C-A designed it." Sort of. In the specs it says that daisy-chaining off the expansion slot it NOT allowed. You either add one device or a well-built expansion box. You say, "but the price of a A500 plus an expansion box is the same as a A2000" or "but daisy-chaining works... except a couple combinations and each vendor blames the other vendor" or "but daisy-chaining works... except my machine crashes every couple hours... but I can live with that". I reply, "I have personally never recommended that anyone purchase an A500. If you want to save money buy an A2000. If you want to save time (by reducing hassle) buy an A2000. You save twice." You reply, "but a bought an A500 to save money." I reply, "Oh. Just keep telling yourself that." (and my radio pops on and you hear) "We were at the beach Boys in bikinis Everybody had matching towels Girls on surfboards Somebody went under a dock Everybody dancing And there they found a rock Everybody frugin' It wasn't a rock Dancing by the fire, having fun It was a rock lobster. Baking potatoes, baking in the sun." The B-52's, "Rock Lobster" -Tom --- Tom Limoncelli, Not representing any company or institution. limonce@pilot.njin.net -- tlimonce@drew.edu -- tlimonce@drew.Bitnet