Good question, Sam!
On Mon, 10 Jan 2000 21:42:52 -0400, Samuel W. Heywood wrote:
> Oh, no, not at all. Would it not be less expensive for me just to
> replace the old 386sx motherboard and power supply instead of buying an
> oscilloscope?
If you're going to replace power supply, it is often cheaper just to
replace the entire case -- new ones come with power supply built in, and
I've found them cheaper than buying power supply only. Honest!
Particularly older style power supplies.
As for replacing the old 386xs mobo, you can't. You can only upgrade.
And that *can* be a problem, depending upon what cards you currently use
in your system. Some of [many??] the new mobos out there are decidedly
short on ISA slots. If your current cards are ISA, you may end up
having to replace some of them. If you have, however, an E/IDE HDD and
are using controller card now, you can toss that card out the window
since FDD & IDE are built into mobo. If you have comm card in current
system, that can be tossed too ... since COM1, COM2, PS/2 mouse, LPT1,
LPT2, etc. are also built into the new mobos.
On the other hand, high tech oscilloscopes that would have costs $10K a
few years ago are probably available in a smaller package and for less
than $100. <G>
For checking power supplies, and mobo power switches, you don't need an
oscilloscope, though. I bought my little multi-meter [ac/dc amps,
resistance, voltage, etc] for less than $10 and it works just fine
checking out voltages on systems I work with.
Nowadays even *I* can afford to buy a bunch of "fancy equipment" that
allows me to get in over my head. };>
l.d.
-- Arachne V1.50;s.r.c., NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://home.arachne.cz/
