Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!jgreco
From: jgreco@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Joe Greco)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
Subject: Re: These Problems
Message-ID: <3095@csd4.milw.wisc.edu>
Date: 25 Jun 89 07:11:49 GMT
References: <2573.24A307D6@isishq.FIDONET.ORG>
Sender: news@csd4.milw.wisc.edu
Reply-To: jgreco@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Joe Greco)
Organization: UW-Milwaukee Home for Out-of-date 8 bit Hackers
Lines: 44

In comp.sys.cbm article <2573.24A307D6@isishq.FIDONET.ORG>, David.Johnson@f171.n221.z1.FIDONET.ORG (David Johnson) wrote:
]this is an indication of an impending power supply death.  This death 
]could take out ram and rom in your computer.  Get a New Power Supply 
]ASAP.

...or overheating chips... or ... or ...

]Later on if when you turn on the computer and the drive lights come 
]on (normal reset sequence) and stay on and your screen stays black. 
] You have just lost 1 or more ram chips  ( lost 2 ram chips and blew 
]up a fastload this way.

Power supply failure doesn't guarantee that you will lose "1 or more
ram chips" - trust me, I've been through quite a few 64's and even
more bricks.  Central site has a monster power supply, but remote
sites here still use bricks....

The best hope is to find EARLY model VIC/C64 power supplies in the
vented open air case.  Later model VIC's and early 64's had these,
they usually don't fail.  When one of mine died, we fixed it easily.

But the point is, a power supply can fail in a nondestructive manner,
causing the computer to exhibit the symptoms you mention.  THIS
DOESN'T MEAN HE'S NECESSARILY LOST CHIPS!  There is no need to spread
such propaganda and scare people.

]It is not a vic or 6526 chip problem but the computer cannot complete 
]its initial power on ram check so it just crashes. 

There are other things that can cause it too.... CIA (6526) chip
crashes resulting in certain things not being set up, etc.  Perhaps my
favorite was a soldered-in SID chip that was affecting the data bus.
Overheated ROM chips sometimes will return garbage (although I can't
think of any reason for this behavior, I have *seen* it!)...

The point: (flame on) DON'T PLAY SERVICE TECH FROM YOUR OBVIOUSLY
LIMITED EXPERIENCES - Even experienced techs often don't correctly
diagnose a problem right the first time.  (flame off)

--
jgreco@csd4.milw.wisc.edu		Joe Greco at FidoNet 1:154/200
USnail: 9905 W Montana Ave			     PunterNet Node 30 or 31
	West Allis, WI  53227-3329	"These aren't anybody's opinions."
Voice:	414/321-6184			Data: 414/321-9287 (Happy Hacker's BBS)