RE: Star Wars/Wells Gardner 6100 Problem

This is what I wrote in the manual:

"(It's technically 'safer' to switch with the power off anyway, since
it's less likely to damage your monitor if the CPU doesn't reset
properly. Your Mileage May Vary. If in doubt, turn the game off before
switching.)"

I had one monitor blow the low-voltage section by switching on the fly
when the Vector Generator crashed (back at the end of 1996). Since then
I've done all sorts of horrible things to the boards and monitor and
never had a problem again. To be safe I'd "officially" say turn it off
first, then switch. Unofficially there's *lots* of people switching on
the fly and I've never heard of another monitor die with switching as a
likely culprit.

There's always a possibility that Dennis' monitor was just going to do
it's Rutger Hauer/Blade Runner impression that day anyway ("Time... to
die...") and it would have konked out when he turned the power off and
on again too...

-Clay

> ----------
> From: Tom Cloud[SMTP:computerspace@hotmail.com]
> Reply To: vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu
> Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 11:38 AM
> To: vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu
> Subject: RE: Star Wars/Wells Gardner 6100 Problem
>
> Clay,
>
> So I understand this then...is to NOT switch between the games with
> the power on? I must confess, I've been doing that. When I read the
> message below, the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up!!
>
> So, is it ok to switch games with the power on or do I run the risk
> of damaging my monitor?
>
> Thanks for the info.
>
> Regards,
> Tom Cloud
>
>
>
>
From: Clay Cowgill <ClayC@diamondmm.com>
> >To: "'vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu'"
> > <vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu>
> >Subject: RE: Star Wars/Wells Gardner 6100 Problem
> >Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 17:46:03 -0800
> >Reply-To: vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu
> >
> >
> >> A couple games later, he switched it back to ESB, and it still did
> not
> >> display video, so he switched back to Star Wars, and now that was
> not
> >> displaying video either.
> >>
> >For what it's worth, this is what killed my monitor when I was
> *first*
> >working on the kits-- hence the warning about switching with the game
> >on.
> >
> >Clay's techy idea on what can happen:
> >
> >I think you can switch and still have the code land in a segment that
> >refreshes the watchdog, but the vector generator crashes.
> >Max-deflection for very long = dead monitor. Someday I should
> probably
> >redesign the kit to have the bank-selection switch go into a PAL and
> >then have the PAL yank reset for a few clocks after the switch
> changes
> >states. I'd want to *really* fix those nasty old 2212 NOVRAMs at the
> >same time though by replacing it with some kind of EEPROM, so the
> >project gets larger and I keep putting it off...
> >
> >-Clay
> >
> >
>
>
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Received on Wed Feb 3 14:10:52 1999