Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!rutgers!rochester!udel!new
From: new@udel.EDU (Darren New)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Leaving Computer On
Keywords: Amiga, Continuous, Turned on, Running
Message-ID: <13174@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: 15 Apr 89 18:06:26 GMT
References: <7684@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <11984@ut-emx.UUCP> <13123@louie.udel.EDU> <5277@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Sender: usenet@udel.EDU
Reply-To: new@udel.EDU (Darren New)
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 26

In article <5277@cs.Buffalo.EDU> ugkamins@sunybcs.UUCP (John Kaminski) writes:
>In article <13123@louie.udel.EDU> new@udel.EDU (Darren New) writes:
>>I have heard, as an unsupported rumor, that the Amiga video chips
>>may incur damage if the video is turned off while the computer
>>is on.
>
>Slight chance of a voltage spike coming thru the monitor cabling.  I suppose

What I had meant to express is "... if the video is off while the 
computer is on." That is, turning off the monitor and then turning on the 
computer could damage the chips for some reason like unbalanced loads,
unsinked sources, or something like that, and not just because of the
transient.

>I think it is about the same risk that is incur-
>red if you leave the disks in the drive(s) while powering up/down.  Sure, there
>is a real slight chance that a pulse will go thru the write head, but that
>chance, in my opinion, is rather slim.

Regarding this, I saw in a magazine where a drive manufacturer was asked
this question and responded that the probability of damaging a 3.5" floppy
while removing it is about 1 in 2000 and the prob of a voltage spike trashing
data because you powered off is about 1 in 1000. It seems that second 
number would be very dependent on the machine the drive was in, tho.
	    - Miscellaneous rememberences without references from
	    -- Darren New