Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!topaz!ll-xn!mit-amt!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!burdvax!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!ukma!knnngt
From: knnngt@ukma.UUCP (Alan Kennington)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16
Subject: Re: Atari 520ST power supply failure
Message-ID: <3408@ukma.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-May-86 22:07:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: ukma.3408
Posted: Mon May 12 22:07:45 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 15-May-86 07:54:03 EDT
References: <2459@watmath.UUCP>
Reply-To: knnngt@ukma.UUCP (Alan Kennington)
Distribution: net
Organization: U of KY Mathematical Sciences
Lines: 23



        Yes, there is an official line. At least, I got a line from an Atari
hardware person. He told me that a check had been made and that this
showed that the problems were very rare. The story I heard from a non-Atari
individual last year was that 50% of supplies before September last year
(ie produced before that time) were faulty to the extent of emitting smoke
and giving a 15V difference between pins 1 and 7 on the supply instead of
5V. (Also giving a 35 mS pulse on boot-up.) But now the problems seem to be of
three kinds:
(1) Too much voltage on the 5V line.
(2) Too much smoke from the "brick".
(3) Blowing the MMU when extra RAM is added.
Now the question may be asked whether these are mutually exlusive, or
independent etc. My old supply had (1) but no (2). And I never tried (3).
        The hardware person became merely sympathetic when I told him
that the warranty had expired. But it was the TOS ROMs that made
the problem evident, and they weren't available until it was too late.
The thing I don't understand is why it took a week of using the TOS ROMs
before one of these chips blew. Yet more mystery! If only this net
had an automatic voting capability to indicate whether people had
options (1), (2) or (3)!!
        So long,   Alan Kennington.