leaving the atari on for most of the day, how rugged is it?

[cheeky_robin]

Will it or will it not be a good idea leaving the atari (in my case the 1040STE) on prety much all day in the studio, like 16hours. My studio is basically my bedroom and the heating is hardly on (even winter) but the atari is getting quite warm. This is more of a techy question so please move it if it's in the wrong place!

[mal7921]

Atari's are stupidly reliable and can be left on for hours on end without issue, however one thing I have noticed on occasion with STe's is that on early machines the chips were socketed and could on occasion need re-seating (My 520STe is one such machine and refuses to boot up at the moment), however later STe's had the chips soldered directly to the board and seem to last forever.

In short though, if your STe is working reliably, then your likely to have soldered chips and can expect your STe to work happily for hours on end without need to power down to cool off.

Other than the PSU, there is little in the ST series to generate heat that could cause the machine to malfunction. The processor chips at the time did not need cooling fans, even accelerated machines can get by without the need for cooling. The Falcon was the only 'All in one' machine that needed a cooling fan, however this was due to a number of factors, including the amount of space taken up by all the parts causing a lack of space within the casing. This in turn affected airflow within the case, and considering that most Falcons shipped with a hard drive, the amount of heat generated by the falcon (Which remember had a similar case to the STfm and STe) was considerably more.

Having said that, even the Falcon could run for hours without issue, which shows the reliability of these machines.

[cheeky_robin]

wow!
thank you very much for tha long reply
I'll open her up and see how it's all inside.
I reckon it will be a later one then. I've had no problems at all. I'm guessing it had been well looked after from the preveous owner, and I'm looking after it mega hard!
Before this I had a 520STFM,and eventually I sold it at the local carboot. Was having grief with 24 bombs, and freezin the thing! argh! Was told to open it up and reseat all the chips but it didn't work, I guess I just didn't do a good job and I was in a hurry for a good working ST!

Long live ST!

[mal7921]

I think the issue with the socketed chips was more likely to happen if the machine was not powered on for some time. For example, the STe I have was last powered on in 2005, so when I tested it earlier this year I wasn't surprised when it failed as a friends STe would fail if it was not powered on for a week! Luckily at that time I was a field service engineer for my day job and had the tools to re-socket everything in the boot of the car.

In my collection, there is only that and the ST Book that are problematic with booting up, the other 10 machines in my collection all work first time every time.

[Nativ]

Hi,
I have had my ST on for long periods of time. a couple of days to a week.

no problems.

/|\

Cheers