Re: IIgs locking up after 15-20mins, TWGS likely overheating.

["ict@ccess" <gids.rs@sasktel.net>]

Michael J. Mahon wrote:
> On 8/29/2010 4:50 AM, wyeo wrote:
> > Too much draw from the power supply, if you have an original power
> > supply, it is insufficient and the PS overheats and heats up the rest
> > of the system.
> >
> > I had the same issue when I have just TWGS, RF SCSI and a sound card,
> > it will start locking up.
> >
> > Either you get a heavy duty power supply (likes of Pegasus,
> > InnerDrive, Vulcan), or the Buggie Power for a replacement.
> >
> > But recently, I came across an article on changing the size of the
> > cable inside the original power supply, to push out more juice ... and
> > jumping the power cables directly to the slots (for the serious
> > hardware hacker).
>
> That's just voodoo.  You need a power supply with a bigger
> capacity, and increasing the size of the wires won't do it.
> (It also makes your system look like Frankenstein.  ;-)
>
> I suspect this superstition got started because a few folks with
> just marginal power problems tried it and it gave them an additional
> few millivolts, making their systems slightly less marginal.  ;-)
>
> Don't bother.  Get a supply with more capacity--specifically, more
> +5v capacity.
>
> -michael
>
> NadaNet 3.1 for Apple II parallel computing!
> Home page:  http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/
>
> "The wastebasket is our most important design
> tool--and it's seriously underused."


Sorry Michael!  I am jinxing your voodoo and raising you a fact.

I, myself, have replaced one of the ground wires and the +5 V wires
with #12 gage wires inside the power supply.  Since I have done that,
my IIGS is much more stable with a 12 Mhz Zip GS in slot 3 and a 8 MB
serius RAM card.  I usually crashed 10-12 times a day.  Most of the
crashes were isolated to the serius RAM card.  Since the upgrade, I
barely even crash once per day.  I believe I can alleviate that one
crash as well by soldering a ground wire from the ground pin to a slot
5 ground.  I have a CFFA card in slot 5 and a PC transporter in slot
7, so slot 5, 6 and 7 cards would benefit from that extra grounding as
well as auxiliary RAM.

I haven't soldered a wire to slot 5 ground yet though because, just
call me plain lazy, but one crash a day is acceptable to me.  :)

Even 1 mVolt goes a long way to make the IIGS more stable and the
power supply strong enough for most purposes.  I have even installed a
Version 01 motherboard into a PC tower and adapted a 200 watt power
supply to work with the IIGS motherboard with no better results.  I
still crash about once per day.

my 2 cents worth (solder and #12 gage wire extra)

Rob