Overheated the TI i think.

[jrhodes]

This is admittedly my fault, but i fear i may have done in my TI.

I was just playing around in XB, when all of a sudden something more pressing needed my attention (details not important), so i got up and took care of that.

But in the process of it, i forgot to turn off the TI.

I came back about 4 hours later, and was greeted by the XB solid blue screen it goes to when idle.

I pressed space, and proceeded to try and run the program i was working on when the screen changed to a white color. My program never started and i am positive the screen change is not something i programmed, at least not that color.

I turned off the locked up TI, waited a bit, and went into TI basic. I was able to load a short (20-ish seconds) program from CS1 and run it.

I let the machine sit some more, until the "runway" and power supply brick was both cool to the touch, and attempted to power it on again. It made it to the main menu, but did not respond to either 1 or 2.

I waited another 10 minutes, and this time i was able to get into XB, but after about 30 seconds the cursor froze solid instead of blinking.

 

All of this was about an hour in the past as of this post, and the machine has been off, power supply unplugged, since.

I am honestly scared to try powering it back up. There may be one less TI in the world now.

 

As far as i can tell i have either:

1. Screwed my power supply. Its gotten hot before, but this time seemed to take quite a while to cool down (10+ minutes)

2. baked the heat grease in the TI to a crisp

3. fried the xb cart? TI basic seems to operate fine yet.

[jrhodes]

Forum is not letting me edit the post or i would have done so.

It has been over an hour, everything is cooled down, just tried it all again, and i can say it works.

That said, i still have my suspicions about the thermal grease.

I plan on doing a full take apart to really look things over, but i would greatly love a video to watch of the whole disassembly procedure.

I have found a webpage, but i learn more from seeing things taken apart in real time video then i do pictures.

I think the cartridge port may need a good cleaning also, so this would probably be the best time for that.

[Ed in SoDak]

Heat-related lockups happen. Mine worked a lot better after I plonked a small 12v fan on top of the console vents, purloined from some other computer gear. The little 2-inch-square fan runs fine off a 6v or smaller wallwart, even down to 3 volts, and is quieter than going full blast on 12v. And safer, since the blades are exposed with no enclosure for it. The console runs cool, even right over the power supply board. Just wire it to blow heat up and out through the cooling slots and set it where it does the most good. There's probably more elegant solutions, but it's cheap and it works.

 

Another common issue is simply due to grundge on the cart connectors. I pull and reseat it, but it benefits from a more thorough cleaning. TI used quality parts, but capacitors age no matter how well-made, so that issue is starting to crop up more frequently.

 

TI99's were made in the millions, so another console is not too hard to come up with. I still have three working consoles, the dead units with good-style keyboards I let go for shipping. I just picked 'em up when I saw 'em go for cheap years ago.

 

If you didn't let any smoke out, you're probably safe. Adding a fan is my best advice, after cleaning the cart contacts. There's threads and info on this and also at least a pictorial marking which screws to remove to pull the MB. Though that's really pretty simple. Most important is to mark which length of screw went where. While you're in there, also check for bad solder joints on the bottom of the keyboard and where the cart port plugs in via the L-connector. Those points see the most user stress.

 

Good luck!

-Ed

 

BTW: Posts made in this sub-forum allow editing for only one hour. You have to ask a moderator to go back to edit after that. The Development sub-forum relaxes this rule.

Edited April 13, 2018 by Ed in SoDak