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From: mason@furilo.dec.com (Explaining is not understanding)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Multi-vendor Mac failure.
Message-ID: <9587@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: Thu, 30-Apr-87 09:27:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.9587
Posted: Thu Apr 30 09:27:02 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 2-May-87 09:43:55 EDT
Sender: daemon@decwrl.DEC.COM
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 43

My Mac is having a problem.  Can someone suggest solution/course of action?
It started as a 128K, was upgraded to 512K by MassTech (now defunct), then
to 2MB by the same people.  I added a MacBottom 20 serial hard disk, and
all was well for a long time.  I have just had the Mac+ disk/ROM kit
installed by a dealer. [Note: to make this work, he had to pull an EPROM chip
from the memory daughter board.  It faked the 64K ROMs into recognizing
the extended memory.  The instructions came from the fellow who developed
the software bundled with the memory upgrades.]  Shop testing showed the
machine to be functional.  When I got home, I was OK for a short while,
but then fell apart.
Starting system software: Finder 5.3, System 3.2(520K,15DA), HD20 1.1a1(?).
Starting hardware: The Mac as described above, MacBottom 20MB serial disk on 
	printer port, Imagewriter I on MacBottom, ext Apple 400K, DF03 modem.
Procedure: I ran the above configuration to start.  The anomalies began,
	and got worse until it bombed.  Restarting led to the same problems.  I
	tried all kinds of combinations - move the hard disk to the modem port;
	take the hard disk off altogether; leave the modem disconnected; etc.
	Nothing I did prevented the deterioration over a period of from 1 to 
	about 5 minutes.  The bomb occurred after anywhere from 2 to 6 
	application executions.  Applications included Excel 1.03, Double Helix
	V35, MacDraw 1.9, MacWrite 4.5, MacDraft 1.2, MacTerminal (?), MS Word
	3.0, etc.  Failure occurred while in any of the applications at random.
	I changed to virgin system, finder, and HD20 files on hard disk and 
	flexy.  Nothing seemed to help.  All was well for about 5 minutes and 
	several applications, then...  Desk accessories were not immune either.
Symptoms: 1) Vertical lines of sporadic dots on the screen, starting at the
	right, getting more dense, and spreading to the left.  The pattern 
	varied, but always "adding to a vertical line" before spreading left 
	in the same mode.  Sometimes they were just out of the nominal screen
	edge to the right - maybe a pixel or two. [NOTE: Day 2 testing had
	the other listed effects, but NOT the spurious dots on the screen.]
	2) Strange running - only the Multi-scrap DA.  The scrapbook on
	the HD worked fine.  Switching to the flexy scrapbook file took,
	literally, 10-30 seconds per action to accomplish.  It seemed to
	be paralyzed, or running in a time warp. [Possibly a DA problem?]
	3) Bombs.  They occurred in applications or DAs, were random in
	nature, and included 02, 03, 10, and 28.  The 02s seemed more
	prevalent than the others. Bombs always occur at action points,
	that is, it never fails just sitting there idling (up to 30 min.)

Any help you could offer would be GREATLY appreciated.                        

Thanks...Gary                    (617)467-7529    Easynet-  FURILO::MASON