How long did your old computers last before they died?

[ChuckT]

How long did your old computers last before they died?

I think I had my Commodore 64 for 17 years and it worked and I was setting it up and when I turned it off and turned it back on, it blew.

I think my Amiga 1084 monitor lasted about ten years before I got a new one.

My Amiga drive came out of alignment after that.

[AndyFC]

The only computer equipment I have had which failed:
Acorn Electron - bought for Christmas 1985 - the TV modulator came loose about 7 years later. It still ran, just the picture would sometime go - a smack to the side fixed it.

Had about 4 Amiga 1200s (replaced under warranty). First one, the PCMCIA port wouldn't work, and then each of the two replacements had an issue (can't remember them all, but on one, the 'D' key wouldn't work). The last one (which I have had since 1994) still works.

Had two PC motherboards fail in the last year. I think this says something - newest and latest hardware is that which has gone most quickly!

[straycat]

My original A500 broke down twice in the first 12 months

But my A600 lasted 15 years before developing a fault..

[Darrin]

I've only had two computers die on me.  One was an A1200 mobo fitted in an Elbox tower which died after I reinserted the Power Flyer while it was in the tower and probably damaged something while the motherboard was bending under the pressure.

The other was my original A2000 which I took to Belize with me.  My office had high humidity and no air conditioning and after 6 months the internal PSU caught fire!  Nasty.  At that time the ECS A1500 was out so I bought one of them and transferred the parts from the A2000.

My original VIC-20 is still alive and kicking, except the power lead broke where it inserts into the VIC and I cut the plug off, made 2 loops out of the wires, put them over the prongs and then shoved a lump of blue-tac in to hold it in place.

My original C64 is alive.

My original C128 was stolen and the A1500 from the Belize story above was sold when I moved to the USA.

I still have 2 functioning A1200T, a regular A1200, a CD32, used A2000 (perfect) and a used A3000 (no battery and an iffy df0).  My Buddha IDE card has developed a strange fault where it either locks up the A2000 or A3000 or just doesn't allow the attached drives to be recognised.  I picked up a C128 last month and it's in mint condition.

I've lost count of how many PCs I've owned and none of them have died, but I've had 3 hard drive failures over the years and an old Pentium 2 laptop needed the lid stwich to be bridged.

[dfreniche]

My AMSTRAD CPC-464 & green screen monitor, bought in 1988, still works like a charm...
I don't believe it, twenty years using computers...

[Ilwrath]

It's a complete scatter for me.   Here's a rundown of my primary systems and their demise (or lack thereof)

My first "computer" was a Bally Astrocade from my uncle.  (it had a basic cartridge, too.)  It still works great, and I just played some Wizard of Wor (Incredible Wizard, it's called on there, but anyhow...) a few months ago.

My first C64 lasted two or three years before the power supply fried itself and damaged the board to a point it was cheaper to buy a new one.  

My C64C then lasted a couple years before it developed some odd random reset quirks, but by then it was old enough I sold it and my whole lot of C64 stuff to buy an Amiga 500.

My Amiga 500 was perfect.  Never a glitch over the 3-4 years I had it.  Sold it to buy an A1200.

My first A1200 was perfect for about a year before it developed the "A1200 AGA graphics fringe" bug (overheating Alice, but no one knew that at the time).  I got it replaced under warranty just before C= went under.  Second A1200 developed same issue a year later.  Picked up a used A4000.

My A4000 was my primary system for about 4-5 years, until I retired it.  It has stayed put for retro purposes.  About two years ago, the CyberStorm MKII I put in it back when I was using it as my primary, finally gave up.  It's not really dead, as eventually I'll send it to AmigaCenter for repairs.  Currently, it occupies a shelf, though.

I built an Athlon T-bird 1ghz which overtook the A4000 as my primary machine.  It ran until about 4 years ago when the motherboard fried.  I sold the CPU to an Amiga.org member.  Gave the RAM to a friend and folded the rest into my current workstation.

I built a P4c 3ghz that has been in use for about 4 years now.  Still going strong.

[B00tDisk]

Let's see...

My C64 blew a chip about six months after I got it (fixed) then the p/s went south (sold it to someone with a C64C that was going bad, so he had a p/s but no computer).

My A500's CIAs blew about a year in, as did the r/f modulator.  Fixed, kept on chugging until my A1200, which kept on chugging until my PC (486/100) which I blew up (badly constructed on my part, no real problem with the PC itself :-( ).  The dx2/80 I replaced it with kept going for quite a while; I've had a number of other PCs that I had for 2-3 years that (AFAIK) are still running, just in the hands of other folks (sold/traded/given away when I upgraded).

[Oli_hd]

I was bought a Sinclair 81 and it survived until we got a 128+2 at which time I opened it up and binned the bottom half, tipexed the top half and turned it into a till... it did not survive! :-D
I still have the top part (the tipexed keyboard) but no motherboard

by the time the 128+2 was replaced I had grown out of that and the 128 still lives.

I now have a real till (Sharp XE-A202) so it wont happen again.  :insane:

[A6000]

Ilwrath wrote:
My first A1200 was perfect for about a year before it developed the "A1200 AGA graphics fringe" bug (overheating Alice, but no one knew that at the time).  I got it replaced under warranty just before C= went under.  Second A1200 developed same issue a year later.  Picked up a used A4000.

I've never heard of this problem before, is it a common problem with a1200's?, does it affect a4000's?

In another thread I think alexh said heatsinks should not be put on plastic packaged IC's, but should I put heatsinks on all my alice chips anyway?

Are there any other known issues which I do not know about, is there a list somewhere?

[Phantom]

My first computer that "died" was the monitor of Schneider PC (remember that?) back in 1990. After one year of purchase. Then I bought my A500.

I have now my A1200 since 1994 and it's working great and the Commodore monitor 1084S too, since 1991. :-D

[rkauer]

 Never an Amiga die on my hands.

 Cannot say the same to peecees.  The last defunct was on October/2007. And I not blame myself! It was one with Asus motherboard, with flash/capacitor and a voltage regulator blewed out.

[Tenacious]

My Amigas don't die, they sometimes become ill (not often) and I make them better.  It's a symbiotic thing, grin.  I've lost a few mice, keyboards, and hard-drives.

My wife's PC craps out regularly, the whole OS needs to be reloaded.  Her previous computer, an e-machine e-one (looks like the original i-mac) would not stay repaired either.  The floppy and CD drives were special designs and would last about a year.

I have an Osborne 1 and few Hp-85s that need some work.

[Ilwrath]

[A1200 "fringing"...]I've never heard of this problem before, is it a common problem with a1200's?, does it affect a4000's?

It's fairly common with at least one or two of the earliest revisions of A1200.  I've personally owned 2 over the years that have had it in some varying degree of severity.  Some develop it worse than others.  (The worst one I've seen was the A1200 I purchased new shortly after they came out -- the one Commodore replaced.)  It's much more likely to occur in productivity screen modes.  Also, I've found it more likely to show up in accelerated machines.  (Also lending validity to the explanation I've heard that it is caused by Alice overheating.)

As far as I know, it's isolated to the A1200.  I've never seen an A4000 do it.

In another thread I think alexh said heatsinks should not be put on plastic packaged IC's, but should I put heatsinks on all my alice chips anyway?

Hmm...  I'm not really sure.   I might question how much a heatsink would help a plastic-packaged IC, but I doubt it would hurt it.  A quick search on Google only turned up articles about the problems of heatsinks on plastic-packaged ICs in a BGA application.  (Apparently, the temperature difference across the chip package can cause solder-ball problems -- that was news to me.)  Anyhow, that would seem unlikely to be an issue for the more conventional PLCC-style A1200 chips.

Are there any other known issues which I do not know about, is there a list somewhere?

 There are always a few "gotchas" for any Amiga model.  Other than Warren Block's site for the A3000 and A4000, I don't know of any other such resources.  

I've pondered making a "Known Amiga Hardware Usage" catalog, myself...  Essentially just a system to provide an easily searchable assembly of users notes on the old hardware.  

[A6000]

If the fringing problem only occurs on a couple of a1200 revisions, that might suggest an electrical or positional problem. so if we can see what changes were made to later boards we might be able to prevent the problem on earlier boards.

[Nlandas]

I have my Vic20 from 1981 until 1990 and then gave it to my brother who sold it 3 years later. My C64, I have from 1984 until 1988 and then gave it to my brother when I replaced it with a 64C, which I had until 1995 when I sold it to someone who had one that just died.

My Amiga 2000, I have from 1988 until 1993 when I sold it to another student to buy one of the first USA released Amiga 4000/030. I sold it in 1996 to a video editor when I needed to make rent. I really miss her.

I've since gotten a better job and re-acquired an A1200 and an A4000/040. (I'm working on re-habing the A4000 but the A1200 is rock solid.

Basically, I've never had a Commodore product that I bought new die on me - ever.

Well, My brother did end up having the C64 I gave hime die when he let clothes fall on top of it and it over-heated.

I still have my old Excelerator Plus disk drive and just hooked it up to my PC to rip my old collection of C64 disks. So far about 99% have no errors. Which is simply amazing to me.