Re: GS Question

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

In article "Tom \"Cowgod\" Greene" <cowgod@rockpile.com> writes...

>I just got myself an Apple ][GS. I opened it up to see what was inside,
>and there was a fan, attached to the side of the power supply. Is this
>something Apple put in there, or did someone else add it? And if Apple
>did put it there, when did they start (or stop) doing so? My friend's GS
>has no fan...

    Definitely not a stock feature, no Apple IIgs ever shipped out of 
the box with a cooling fan. What you've discovered is most likely the 
(infamous) optional internal accessory fan Apple dealers sold. A simple
device really, it clipped on the far end of the powersupply and got it's
power from a +12V connector on the motherboard.

    At the time, Apple stated if you installed more than two interface
boards inside your IIgs, _without_ a fan (i.e. their US$50 fan), your
warranty would be void. The problem was, this fan blocked some slots
(unless you had very short cards), was quite noisy and worst of all,
did a poor job cooling the inwards of your system. Basically all it 
did was circulate already hot air around and around inside your case.

    In later years, 3rd parties came out with more useful cooling fans,
although these were external devices. The most popular was probably the
Kensington System Saver IIgs, followed by the MDIdeas Conserver (later
Applied Engineering took over the product). Both these sat between the
CPU case and monitor, though the Kensington product worked and blended
in best. There was also the Orange Micro JuiceBox, which clipped to the 
side of the CPU case, and look very similar to older 8-bit Apple II+/IIe 
external fans (though it drew air from underneath the case).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca