From: bernie@metapro.DIALix.oz.au (Bernd Felsche)
Subject: Re: 30degC = Dead A4000!
Organization: MetaPro Systems, Perth, Western Australia
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 02:15:22 GMT

In <1993Jan9.144401.1@cc.curtin.edu.au> rwesleyag@cc.curtin.edu.au writes:

>What's the deal with my A4000! Its getting heat stroke!
>The mouse starts staggering about the screen and the 
>old disk light flash becomes a permanent feature of the
>front panel!

Bewdy! A front panel!

>This is not good. I heard a rumour that these machines
>were shipped into Australia without heat sink cement
>between the heat sink and chip, and when I recieved
>my A4000 you could definitly tell someone had been
>at it in a hurry ( mouse port screws missing, grubby
>finger marks about its rear.)
>I'm sure that the machine overheating like this is
>doing some damage to the 040.

Mainly the disk drive! Aren't you glad it's not a Quantum.

>Today I went as far as to set a thermometer up next
>to the case and a 30 degrees it became delerious.

[ don't do that then? ]
>(It was about 38 degrees outside, what a great big
>hot country this is!)

I put a temperature sensor up against the outlet air (with a
piece of cardboard behind it so that I wouldn't get a
"dynamic" reading). Outlet air was 34.7 C, with ambient 26.4 C.
At other temperatures, there still appears to be about 8 C
rise. Not much air flow though; you get more when ants fart.  :-)

Any idea where the cooling air is supposed to enter. My
A2000 has at worst a 3 C rise, but then the fan is 20 dB
louder (not so bad when you're flying an F/A-18).

>Seeing as Im using my A4000 to make a quid at the
>moment I and another friend who is having a similar
>problem invested in a chip mounting fan (like the
>magnum 040 boards have I think!) and guess what,
>no difference, maybe lasts just a little longer.
>Actually, I know for a fact that overheating this
>chip is doing some damage but if these things are
>meant to run at 37 degrees?????

More likely, not the 040. What about the other stuff!
There's more than an 040 inside the box!

>What I would really like to know is WHOS RESPONSIBLE!
>If this batch of A4000s were bench tested overnight
>and died shortly after everybody went home then they
>could have been left overheated for hours! This would
>certainly reduce thier heat resistance even after the
>heat cement was added (if indeed it was amiss in the
>first place.)

>I'm sure that commodore would environmentally check
>these machines out but maybe you missed about 30 degrees
>C at about 12% humidity.
>I'm willing to bet that this is probably the hottest spot
>in the world A4000's are being used at the moment and
>there are only about 7 here.

Well, I bought the first one in the State according to the
dealer. You must be a developer - I guess that makes me a fixer!

>Any comments or similiar experiences!

Mine's not crashing.

>Adam and his (not so) Cool Amiga4000

When you're hot, the A4000's *hot*.

You could drill a hole in one side of the base, slightly
tilt the box so that that end is the low point, the connect
the garden hose to the high end of the base and trickle
water across the metalwork. Not quite immersion-cooled like
a Cray, but certainly in the spirit.

:-) for the humour-impaired
-- 
+-----+ Bernd Felsche                     _-,_|\  #include <std/disclaimer.h>
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