Re: How to care for an old computer?

["Bill Garber" <willy46pa@comcast.net>]

"Ernest" <leucoplast@seanet.NOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:LUKRb.171898$xy6.808102@attbi_s02...
: As computers age, is there anything that we can do to keep them
running for
: the long term? By that I mean, what parts are most likely to
stop working,
: and can we do anything to prevent it?

Everything has the potential of failure eventually.
I'd say the one part to worry about most would be
the power supply, especially if you run them hard
with a lot of cards installed.

: My guess is that the power supply and ROM chips
: would fail first but I haven't had any ROMS fail
: yet (bit rot.)

What would cause a ROM to fail other than
material failure. What is bit rot? Do you mean
like with an eprom? Small amounts of light getting
in over many years eventually switching a 0 to 1?
Never had that happen.

: Power supplies go out but those can be repaired.

Actually, if you go to www.mpja.com , they have
a comparable power supply that is slightly smaller
and could be connected by attaching your blown
power supply's connector to the leads. I haven't
bought any yet, but they even have them that put
out more than the Apple supplies.

: What about the memory chips? Or the 74x's?

I've had 3 ram ICs go bad in nearly 20 years.
That's not bad IMHO.

: The ROMs can be copied to .dsk images.

The normal suffix for a ROM copy is .BIN,
but then again, some use .ROM

: Mechanical things can be fixed or remade but is
: there anything else that one should worry about,
: beyond the obvious?

I think that solder joints would be more of a
problem than any of the aforementioned items
not accounting for the PS. I'd say RAM would
be the first to go out of the main components,
since they get worked like mad.

: Thanks.

Anytime.

: PS. Don't forget to make images of your ROM burner's ROM. :o)

I assume you mean the ones that work in the Apple II
slots. Mine is a parallel port eprom programmer that
connects to my PC. Does it have a ROM? I don't think
that I saw one when I had it open last. ;-)

Bill @ GarberStreet Enterprizez };-)
Web Site - http://garberstreet.netfirms.com
Email - willy4SPAM6pa@comXcast.net
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