Monitor Damage by Programming (was Stupid programming errors)

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From: ji... Jim Lyon
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 1990 22:18

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The year was 1984.  The machine was one of the original Compaq portables
(now frequently called "luggable" -- expect one arm to get substantially
longer than the other if you ever have to carry one across O'Hare airport).

The Compaq featured one of the original multi-sync monitors.  It synched
at 50 Hz like the IBM Mono Monitor, and at 60 Hz like the IBM Color
Monitor.

I had just finished writing a customized video driver (to replace INT 10h).
I added a line to the CONFIG.SYS file and re-booted.

About 5 seconds into the boot process, the monitor went blank, and the
high-pitched whine of the horizontal flyback stopped.  I had just begun
to scratch my head when I got the first whiff of the telltale smell of
burning resisters.

I immediately powered off the machine.  I have no doubt that permanent
damage would have been done if I had left it in the erroneous state.

Desk-checking revealed a bug in the code that loaded up the registers
in the 6845 video controller -- byte swap issues between the little
endian 8088 and the big endian 6845.

-- Jim Lyon
   ji...@tandem.com

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Message-ID: <1990Sep12.221818.8391@tandem.com>

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References: <ben.2630@epmooch.UUCP> <3061.26e54065@cc.helsinki.fi> <7322@milton.u.washington.edu> <12727@asylum.SF.CA.US>

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Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!shelby!apple!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!pacbell.com!tandem!jimbo
From: ji...@tandem.com (Jim Lyon)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Monitor Damage by Programming (was Stupid programming errors)
Keywords: First-Hand Experience
Message-ID: <1990Sep12.221818.8391@tandem.com>
Date: 12 Sep 90 22:18:18 GMT
References: <ben.2630@epmooch.UUCP> <3061.26e54065@cc.helsinki.fi> <7322@milton.u.washington.edu> <12727@asylum.SF.CA.US>
Organization: Tandem Computers, Inc.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12 23:18:18 1990
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