Re: Apple IIgs random hardware crashing - any ideas?

[ToasterKing <toasterking@SPLATbigfoot.com>]

In article <lj8uov89f9bd1tm4dm4i0is68rultnmn3i@4ax.com>, Jeff Blakeney
<CUTjblakeney@syndicomm.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 06:41:40 GMT, ToasterKing
> <toasterking@SPLATbigfoot.com> wrote:
> 
> >Okay, as a follow-up to the totally bizarre behaviour of my ROM 3 IIgs
> >as of late, I've stumbled upon something interesting.  Last night I
> >completely removed the IIgs motherboard from its case, and reinstalled
> >the cards and reconnected the cables with it sitting unhoused on my
> >wooden shelf.  Ever since then, it has worked fine.  I used it for a
> >few hours last night with SCSI and full acceleration and never had a
> >problem.  Since then I've left it repeating the built-in hardware
> >self-test for 24.5 hours, and it hasn't failed once.  (Formerly it
> >would fail within 15 minutes of repeated tests.)  The funny thing is I
> >see no way any part of the board could possibly be shorting to the
> >ground shield in the case -- it has more than enough clearance
> >everywhere.
> 
> I've been experiencing similar behaviour with my main IIgs of late but
> haven't bothered looking into it much.  I mentioned it in chat in the
> Apple II community on Syndicomm one night and Tony Diaz said that it
> was probably my power supply connection.  Apparently the connector on
> the motherboard can become oxidized and there isn't a lot of pressure
> between the contacts in the cable and the pins on the motherboard
> connector so this can become a problem.
> 
> I believe there is an article in Juiced.GS that explains this problem
> and ways to fix it so it doesn't occur again as quickly as it would by
> just sliding the connector on and off a few times to scrape the pins
> clean.  :-)

Thanks for the tip.  The IIgs seems to have several power
supply-related anomalies once it gets loaded down.  I don't think this
is the issue in my case, though, since I tried now 3 different power
supply units (and thereby 3 different wire harness connectors) on this
board, one of which had recently had its "sprongers" (contacts)
retensioned when I added fatter leads.  I didn't find any oxidation. 
This will of course get archived, though, for future troubleshooting.

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