27 Jan
2014
27 Jan
'14
8:34 a.m.
On Jan 27, 2014, at 7:36 AM, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 9:17 AM, Jules Richardson
<jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote:
While whoever added the garage to the house (and converted the original garage to a family
room and the room I use as my office), put up dry wall, I'm pretty sure they
didn't include insulation. I know there is none in the attic. As such it gets down
to 32F or lower. At that point I turn off the Dehumidifier, and put a heater in front of
the computers. Not a major problem this year as the only thing running out there was a
router.
What I noticed was the gear got noisier without the heater once it got below freezing,
that was a pretty good indication to me that things were too cold. Though it's pretty
freaky to have cold air coming out of the back of a Compaq XP1000/667 VMS box! :-)
Zane
--
healyzh at aracnet.com
http://www.zanesphotography.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zanes-photography/
https://www.facebook.com/ZanesPhotography
We're all reasonably aware of the tendency
for vintage hardware to get a
little flaky if it's too hot - but what about the other side? I expect that
the electronics aren't particularly troubled by the cold, but what about
tape units, floppy drives, hard drives, magnetic media? When is it too cold
for them to work reliably?
I used to run a PDP-11 in the basement of my mother's typing shop.
The back stairs let out to an enclosed add-on room that was poorly
insulated. The cold air would sneak in and pour down the basement
steps. As such, it was routinely 50F or colder in the winter when it
was comfortable on the first floor.
The only thing I had that didn't like it cold (besides me!) was the
LA180. If it was below about 45F, it would blow fuses for the
carriage motor. I presume the lubricant got too viscous and it
increased the drive current past spec.
As for magnetic media, consult the old floppy sleeves - they used to
tell you not to let the discs get below freezing (32F/0C), IIRC.