Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!ubc-cs!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!physics.utoronto.ca!neufeld
From: neufeld@physics.utoronto.ca (Christopher Neufeld)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: an Idle Apple...
Message-ID: <1990Nov9.195818.26230@helios.physics.utoronto.ca>
Date: 10 Nov 90 00:58:18 GMT
References: <*D$^=0+@rpi.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
Lines: 29

In article <*D$^=0+@rpi.edu> dragon@pawl.rpi.edu (Dragon) writes:
>Has anyone else had any troubles with their systems crashing when they are
>  left alone for short periods of time?  Programs seem to crash into the 
>  monitor for no apparent reason.  Any application that uses GS/OS or
>  ProDOS 16 gives me this problem, especially when dialog windows are open for
>  more that 10ish seconds without any mouse movement.  Games also seem to die
>  after being left in pause more for more than a minute or so.  Has anyone else
>  run into this annoying bug, and is there a way to get rid of it?
>
   Boy, do I remember this one! I spent some weeks trying to figure out
why all my GS specific programs were crashing if the ADB line was idle
for more than about a minute.
   The problem turned out to be bad RAM in the second 256kB (i.e. the
first populated bank on the RAM card). The annoying thing was that the
problems didn't show up on the RAM test because the computer had to be
warm, and the keyboard had to be left alone for a minute. I ran the RAM
check program about eight times, with no bad chips reported, and then
suddenly it showed seven chips bad out of eight on a later run of the
program.  I replaced them all, of course. Those were the RAM chips
which came with my Applied Engineering GS-RAM card. I made it a point to
buy only japanese made chips from then on. I've got 1.75MB now, and no
more problems.


-- 
 Christopher Neufeld....Just a graduate student  |
 neufeld@helios.physics.utoronto.ca    Ad astra! |  S = k log W
 cneufeld@{pnet91,pro-micol}.cts.com             |    Boltzmann's epitaph
 "Don't edit reality for the sake of simplicity" |