[comp.sys.apple2] How to fry your //gs

lbotez@pro-sol.cts.com (Lynda Botez) (04/07/90)

In-Reply-To: message from fadden@cory.Berkeley.EDU

Andy, don't tell you did this?  Fried your GS?

Here's what you do.  Call

bsherman@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (Bob Sherman) (04/07/90)

In <23777@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> fadden@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Andy McFadden) writes:

>The Apple //gs, when seasoned appropriately with fused plastic, can bring
>great joy to the pocketbooks of computer repair centers.
{ lots of editing}


>If anyone at Apple can explain why a ROM 01 motherboard rose in price by
>$100, I'd like to hear from them...  (only thing I can think of is that the
>trade-in was devalued).

Well, I'm not with Apple, but I find your message surprising, as I
understood that the cost of the replacement motherboards for the GS
had come DOWN somewhere between $70-90 in the past few months.. That's
dealer price that I refer to.. As far as labor goes, it you carried in
your defective board for an exchange, there should not be a labor charge.
However if you brought in the entire machine, and the dealer had to "pop"
the board out, then he did provide service, although not any good will.

On the other hand, if you had AppleCare or whatever the other insurance
from Safeware or others is called, then the motherboard exchange would
have either been free, or at worst cost you the $100 deductable depending
on which policy you had.. You cannot have your cake and eat it too I 
guess.. Either you buy some sort of insurance, or you self insure, in
which case YOU pay for the repairs with the money you saved by not getting
other insurance..

-- 
   bsherman@mthvax.cs.miami.edu | bsherman@pro-exchange | MCI MAIL:BSHERMAN 

bchurch@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Bob Church) (04/08/90)

In article <23777@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>, fadden@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Andy McFadden) writes:
> 
> To fry your Apple in your very own room, all you really need is an old
> Disk ][ 5.25" disk drive, and a 20 -> DB19 converter.  Just plug the 20 pin
> connector in backwards, and presto!  You're hosed!

Ha! Proof that the //c is a better machine! With the //c you don't have to go
through all of the trouble off reversing the pins. Just plug an external drive
in while powered up and you're all set for a trip to the local dealer.
I consider it a sort of easter egg since the manual contains so many
warnings that it would have you believe you have to turn the machine off before
pressing the return button.   


********************************************************************
*                                                                  *
*   bob church  bchurch@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu                       *
*                                                                  *
*  If economics isn't an "exact" science why do computers crash    *
*  so much more often than the stock market?                       *
*                                          bc                      *
********************************************************************

toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) (04/08/90)

bchurch@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Bob Church) writes:

>In article <23777@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>, fadden@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Andy McFadden) writes:
>> To fry your Apple in your very own room, all you really need is an old
>> Disk ][ 5.25" disk drive, and a 20 -> DB19 converter.  Just plug the 20 pin
>> connector in backwards, and presto!  You're hosed!

>Ha! Proof that the //c is a better machine! With the //c you don't have to go
>through all of the trouble off reversing the pins. Just plug an external drive
>in while powered up and you're all set for a trip to the local dealer.

Hold it... plugging the drive in backwards is a real no-no because you cross
the power supply connections in a major way. But...

I have plugged and unplugged Disk ]['s from both the original controller card
and from the IIGS disk port while the power was on... many times and never once
did I fry the motherboard.

I did plug the drive in off center once -- that blew out the LS125 in the drive
and the LS174 on the controller, but nothing happened to the ][+ the card was
in at the time.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu

cs4w+@andrew.cmu.edu (Charles William Swiger) (04/09/90)

Hmm.  I killed my Apple ][+ when I was fooling around with my Disk ][ in
order to make a backup of something or other.  I didn't put the damn
card down firmly enough. It was off center by an 1/16th of an inch so
all of the "gold fingers" crossed.  When I powered up the computer,
ker-chunk.  Some smoke & a very big repair bill.   (a new power supply
and a new motherboard were required, although all of my cards were OK
for some reason)  Not fun.



					-- Charles William Swiger
					cs4w+@andrew.cmu.edu

reeder@reed.UUCP (Doug Reeder) (04/10/90)

Speaking of frying machines, is plugging and unplugging cables from the IIc
serial connectors while the IIc is on (or the modem is on) harmful?

-- 
Doug Reeder                                   USENET: ...!tektronix!reed!reeder
from ARPA: tektronix!reed!reeder@berkeley.EDU BITNET: reeder@reed.BITNET
the Little Mermaid on materialism:
I just don't see how a world that makes such wonderful things ... could be bad!

ART100@psuvm.psu.edu (Andy Tefft) (04/11/90)

I fried my //c in a similar manner. I had a generic-type external
drive and the connector plugged in either way - I had no idea which was
correct. I'd plugged it in backwards before with no ill effects; just
turning it around worked fine. This particular time I had the drive
case open since it was easier to reverse the plug there and was so eager
to do it I forgot to turn off the power... POP! and there goes my IWM.
Burned out the '125 in the drive too. However, my Unidisk DOES work...
I wonder if plugging the 5.25 in the back of the unidisk would make a
difference...

fadden@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Andy McFadden) (04/12/90)

In article <90100.184147ART100@psuvm.psu.edu> ART100@psuvm.psu.edu (Andy Tefft) writes:
>I fried my //c in a similar manner. I had a generic-type external
[snippity snip]
>Burned out the '125 in the drive too. However, my Unidisk DOES work...
>I wonder if plugging the 5.25 in the back of the unidisk would make a
>difference...

If you daisy chain your 5.25" drive through an AppleDisk 3.5" drive
before reversing the connector, you will fry both your machine and the
AppleDisk.

In neither case will you fry your 5.25" drive... those things never die.

-- 
fadden@cory.berkeley.edu (Andy McFadden)
..!ucbvax!cory!fadden