Almita Ranstrom wrote:
> Bob was describing the power problems and he said:
> >
> > Since the Starmax batteries must be nearing the end of their lives about
> now, we all either have had a bad battery or are about to.
> >
> > The symptoms people have reported so far range from no-power to no-video
> to not-recognizing-disks and so on. In my observation, chasing down each of
> those possibly bad devices or units can be futile and shouldn't be done until
> the
> battery is first checked. A bad or low battery corrupts the PRAM and can give
> us
> symptoms all over the map.
_________
>
>
> just to insert my two cents--This happened to me a couple of years ago and
> even the local shop didn't know this problem, but we found the info in the
> Internet and ordered a new battery--then struggled with the fact that the
> battery is *velcroed* to the MOBO (how farmerish.) But the really important
> thing we discovered was that the machine needs to have low-level voltage at
> all times; it should never be on a power strip or other power source that is
> turned off. I had been turning the SM off and then turning the powerstrip
> off and the battery died..
>
> Turn off the machine but leave it plugged into an active power source. We
> now have all of our machines, PCs too, plugged into UPSes which are never
> turned off and we have had no power problems.
>
> Almita, the cybergrannie of Vashon Island
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://vashonstar.com/gallery1/index.html
_________________________
I always had misgivings about the number of wall transformers for USB hubs,
modems, scanners, etc., that laid in gay profusion on the floor and around my
machines. These little units are notoriously cheap to produce and some don't
have UL labels, so I am concerned about fires--hence my shutting everything
down and preferring not hearing a smoke detector one dark night.
I can confine the little beasties to the powerstrips and leave the machine
running as a reasonable answer, but it still is wasteful. I can't seem to
remember anywhere an instruction from a manufacturer on the importance of
leaving the unit on for the purpose of keeping the battery charged. Then again,
I never read owner's manuals anyway, since I think I know everything.
My point is that the advice generally given about the Cuda button is
incomplete--and therefore misleading. If the battery is in poor or dead
condition, pushing the cuda switch probably won't make any difference (unless
the Starmax is plugged in) and the owner would proceed to look for other
failures. There won't be any, and it will be frustrating and expensive in
replacing whatever else it was that didn't seem to work.
One of the problems in giving advice is innocently repeating something that is
wrong or unchallenged as to being appropriate. (Like unplugging the Starmax and
waiting before pushing the Cuda button. I may be wrong, but I suspect that's
the exact circumstance when the button won't make a whit of difference.) I'm
not blaming anyone, sloppy advice happens all the time, and the user invariably
assumes the battery and PRAM is not the problem.
Bob Wulkowicz
http://www.enteract.com/~bobw
PS I enjoyed your site as well.
--
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