ART100@psuvm.psu.edu (Andy Tefft) (07/26/90)
Summary: My //c serial ports will not operate if there are devices plugged into both; either one seems to work if there's nothing connected to the other one. Today my modem port began acting strangely. After a modem session I left the computer on while I went outside to water the plants. I often do this, since if the phone rings the modem will display "RING" on my screen and even though it's not an answering machine, at least I know if anyone has called. A call did indeed come, but I answered it. When I returned to my //c, I saw the "RING"s on the screen as expected, but the modem had locked up. I turned everything off and tried again, but I could not type anything to the modem. The modem's "SD" light was on constantly. Thinking it was a modem problem, I turned everything off and switched the modem to the printer port. I was able to use the modem this way just fine. I then tried connecting the printer to the modem port. I typed pr#2 from basic and all seemed to be well until I typed anything; then the cursor disappeared and I had to hit reset. I turned everything off for a couple of hours and then later went to try the modem again, in slot (port, heck, i'm a //e user at heart) 1, and it didn't work. I switched printer to slot 1 and it worked. I eventually figured out that the modem was not going to work with the printer plugged in the other port. Since I just now got hung up by call waiting I decided to switch things again; the modem works in port 2 as long as the printer is unplugged. I don't think this is a problem with the printer, because it wasn't used all day. The cables haven't been changed, or anything. I thought it might have been overheating, but it's not that hot a day and this //c has been warmer than it is now without any problems. In the past 3 years I've mainly used the //c as a terminal, for several hours a day when I had a job writing help files on the mainframe. Even now I spend most of my computer time uploading the files I get off the net to local bulletin boards, so you can see my serial ports are important to my enjoyment of my //c. My question is this - what's wrong? I don't mean specifically, but maybe some other //c owner has had this problem. I'm an electrical engineer and my warranty is up so I'm not afraid to go in and replace parts, but I'm wondering if what I'll need is available for me to buy and for how much. If it's a minor job I'll do it but if not I can live a while with only one serial port at a time unless it might be harmful to run this way. Hmm, now after a while of being on my modem just locked up on me again. Only the modem was locked up. Turning everything off fixed it temporarily. This tends to make me believe a temp or maybe power supply problem, but again all that's affected is the serial ports. And the case of the //c is cool.