WAYNE CHIRNSIDE wrote in a message to ROY J. TELLASON:

-=> ROY J. TELLASON wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

 WC> Not turning the machine off at all tends to shorten the lifetime
 WC> of those soldered in NiCad cells in my experience.

 RJT> It was leaky when I pulled the board out of the pile and built the
 RJT> machine in the first place.  That was back in oh,  October or
 RJT> thereabouts,  and I've been meaning to get back into it ever since.

 WC> Thought of that spooks me, all that electrolyte around
 WC> a multilayer circuit board.
 WC> I snipped mine off the M.B. on my other machine first sign
 WC> of trouble and wire wrapped to the terminals an external battery.

Yeah,  one of these days...

 WC> Stupid 72 pin SIMM socket and RAM in this 486 don't seem to seat
 WC> perfectly so every now and than an unpredictable amount of RAM
 WC> doesn't register or disappears in operation crashing Netscape or
 WC> another application.

 RJT> Plastic or metal clips?  Those might be the problem,  perhaps?

 WC> Well it's tin on tin with the the frame of the socket plastic,
 WC> plastic alignment tabs but with metal clips that snap shut when the
 WC> SIMM's seated.

Those are the ones that I was talking about.  I remember hearing horror
stories about the plastic ones,  and have encountered a few.  Didn't like
them much.

 WC> I've cleaned the socket and RAM, reseated the RAM, tightened the
 WC> locking clips which held for a while but now it appears if I leave
 WC> the machine on for any length of time bye goes the RAM.

 RJT> Not a good sign.

 WC>  Well from experience with another since deceased M.B. 
 WC>  I know the memory chips are rock solid as it never dropped out 
 WC> in that machine.

It ain't the memory,  it's whatever MB parts are talking to it.

 WC>  I really think it's a thermal flexing problem where the SIMM is  
 WC> losing addressing lines.
 WC>  I've tried to think how I could shore up support for the center of
 WC> the SIMM but nothing has sprung to mind as yet.

Solder the buggers in there?  Solder socket pins in there and use SIPPs? 
Change the sockets?  I dunno,  it's a design problem.  My main linux box
seems to occasionally suffer from glitches when there are wide swings in
temperature,  like we're seeing this time of year.

 WC> Imagine my surprise when the repair took without so much as a cold 
 WC> solder joint. Got lucky on timing and the solder cooled before my 
 WC> fingers moved.

 RJT> This reminds me of that old cliche about "It's like riding a
bike..."
 RJT> :-)

 WC> I remember how but doing so would be out of the question. I 
 WC> snagged a mountain bike left by a previous tenant and it's in 
 WC> prety good shape. Should mount a seat and sell the thing.

 RJT> Last time I was up in NYC I got to demonstrate that one,  finding a way
 RJT> to get to where I wanted to go in fairly short order,  in the chaos
 RJT> that's lower manhattan streets.  Tomorrow I go back for the first time
 RJT> since that visit and we'll see if I can still remember how to drive in
 RJT> that town.  

 WC> Never got into the city in N.Y. but I can sure see a bicycle or 
 WC> the subway as having the advantage over a car in Boston.

I was just up there yesterday and the day before.  And yes,  you don't
forget how to drive up there if you're any good at it.  I could feel
certain rhythms in my driving coming back while still a few miles in NJ... 
   :-)

 WC> Nice surprise and the repair only took me about four minutes.

 WC> Now does _anyone_ have a clue as to what the remote code for a
 WC> Montgomery Ward branded T.V. might possibly be?

 RJT> Not me!  Maybe there's a web site devoted to that stuff?  I haven't
 RJT> looked, but probably should at some point.

 WC>  yes indeed there's an FCC web site I've located before
 WC>  looking up the Packard Bell's monitor scan rate to 
 WC>  setup the GUI in slackware.
 WC>  Plug in the FCC number and up springs a file with the FCC
 WC>  specifications of the device in question, very useful.

Hm.

 WC>  Knoppix Linux dispenses with that and autodetects the monitor.  I
 WC> may even have the codes in a file on this box
 WC>  as I remember looking them up once.

I can understand how a system can autodetect video card capabilities,  but
the monitor?

 WC> I've yet to get the FCC number off the set and try looking it up
 WC> via google.

 RJT> Think the FCC number will do it?  I've never tried punching one of
 RJT> those in there.  Right now I'm looking for info on this printer that I
 RJT> can't get working right.  

 WC>  I think there's a good chance the FCC number will do it.
 WC>  I've used it to snag scan rates for monitors, specifications  for
 WC> a large monitor and a CD drive that had changed manufacturers 
 WC> twice. In the last case I got the information from the FCC site 
 WC> which plugged into google got me to the DOS drivers for the CD 
 WC> drive.

 RJT> It's an IBM 4019 laser with postscript card and at the moment 
 RJT> doesn't seem to understand postscript,  though it did before.
 RJT> It's also stopped kicking out this status page every time you 
 RJT> turn it on,  though I'm not sure how I did that either.  The damn 
 RJT> linux printing-howto says that the best thing you can do is get a 
 RJT> postscript printer,  only now I've got one and can't get the damn 
 RJT> thing to work right...

 WC> I'd look to searching the net, I've had great success on everything
 WC> how to balance a ceiling fan to to all sorts of electronics
 WC> and assorted stuff.

Been doing that,  and it's amazing how many people there are who want to
sell me toner for the darn thing.  But aside from one page at
linuxprinting.org I didn't really find much in the way of any sort of solid
info on the printer itself.  Or where I could get an owner's manual.  I
*did* find that one page, and got some details about how to switch modes on
it,  which you do by holding one or more buttons while cycling the power. 
That's what I apparently did before.  I've got it back now to the way it
was,  and just need to figure out what I need to do on the computer to get
it to work right...

 WC> sad to say using the proper keywords I was even able to pull up a
 WC> paper on how to weaponize anthrax :-(
 WC> Right off a government computer at a U.S. weapons lab 
 WC> too with no security at all.

I'll bet that's changed.  Or if not,  then they're closely monitoring who
downloads that info,  along with the way they monitor those who are chasing
kiddie porn.

 WC> Deleted _that_ file pretty quickly, defragged the drive and 
 WC> ultimately tossed it when it failed.

 WC> Taking a hit at the grocery store here in Florida in the last few 
 WC> months :-( Milk's gone up 60 cents in the last few weeks, 

I couldn't quote it exactly here,  but yeah,  it's up all over.

 WC> cheese is up two bucks a LB,

And all derivative products.  Ice cream too.

 WC> and beef up 25 percent.

It ain't just there.

 WC> Then too there's the price of gas.

That's insanity,  the way that's going.

 WC> Either domestically or foreign policy I'm not a happy camper with 
 WC> the current administration.

Dunno who to lay the blame on for this mess...

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