Re: Apple IIgs random hardware crashing - any ideas?

[Jeff Blakeney <CUTjblakeney@syndicomm.com>]

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.  :-)

-- 
 Jeff Blakeney - Dean of the Apple II University in the
                 Apple II Community on Syndicomm.com
 CUT the obvious from my address if you want to e-mail me