Re: Need help with zip drive

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article bjblackbear@ibm.net (B.J. Major) writes...

>Your luck has not run out yet, but I wouldn't push it.  There is
>*always* a possibility that SCSI devices won't be recognized if they are
>not fully powered on before a cpu. From what I've read, you run the risk
>of either frying out the motherboard on the cpu (with the sudden power
>surge of all the devices running through the already-powered-on cpu at
>once) OR ruining your SCSI port/connection, period, if you do not power
>them on before the cpu. The risk is analogous to plugging in a keyboard
>or mouse while the cpu is powered on--although in the SCSI case, there
>is *much* more AC involved.  Better to be safe than sorry, I say.

    It is interesting you should bring that up. I vagely recall an
article in which Drew Vogan (designer of the RamFAST SCSI) issued 
a warning about powering on an Apple IIgs with a RamFAST controller 
while the hardrive or other SCSI devices were switched off. The
exact details are too fuzzy to remember, but he did say it was
detrimental and possible to zap essential components on the board 
if you did this frequently enough.

    With that in the back of my mind, I've always powered up my
hardrive before switching on the IIgs. Hmmm, perhaps I should see
if I can dig up that article, I believe it was printed in Steve
Weyhrich's A2 Digest publication back in the early 90's.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca