FREEZE A IIgs TODAY!
By Chris Birch
Copyright (c) 1991 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
When all else fails, when your IIgs seems possessed by some insidious piece of rogue software, concealed by a cloaking spell, there is only one solution: The cold start.
How to do this was trivial on a standard Apple II. You simply flick the On/Off switch, perhaps waiting 20 seconds or so for all electrical charges to be discharged. What is not so obvious is that the On/Off switch easily wears out and the temperature fluctuations that will occur across your main board and any slot boards dramatically reduces the life span of your system.
In fact your IIgs is best left on at all times, except during electrical storms when your entire system (especially the modem) should be powered down. Your IIgs does not need to sleep, save for the monitor which should be blackened with a screen blanker. A suitable screen blanker is available from the AUG PD library that is not only functional but fun too use too - get a copy of Twilight and you'll understand why!
Problems with IIgs monitors wearing out have surfaced recently. If I'm not going to use my computer for a while I usually turn off the monitor, just in case. I always leave the computer and other peripherals on however.
Any acceleration hardware is especially sensitive to environmental fluctuations. Some products are notoriously unreliable and require Tender Loving Care.
The best way to invoke a cold start is to get the IIgs itself to "trash" all the system related stuff in memory and to then reboot. Merely selecting reset ("Command", "Control" and "Reset" simultaneously) will cause the IIgs to shutdown and reboot in a predetermined "orderly" manner. This won't flush out the really stubborn gremlins though.
The solution is to invoke the built in diagnostic self test ("Option", "Command", "Control" and "Reset" simultaneously!) and then Reset immediately. Don't let the self test run past test 1 (there are about 12 in all) before you hit reset or you risk corrupting the battery backed portion of special memory. Quick reflexes are required here.
The battery backed RAM holds all your Control Panel settings plus some other mysterious goodies so it is easy to verify whether it is corrupt or not. You would be very unlucky to corrupt your battery RAM with this cold reboot trick. (If your battery RAM is corrupt then it usually means the battery is flat).
There is also a quick way to invoke a not so cold reboot from any application so long as you are able to access the Desktop. You know when the IIgs is in Desktop mode when it has a menubar along the top of the monitor - just like a Mac. All you need is the OSShutdown NDA, again available from the AUG PD library. This utility simply invokes the "official" GS/OS software for shutting down the system in an orderly manner. It is more rapid than selecting the "Quit"
menu item (found on the File menu) and faster than a reset from the keyboard if the mouse happens to be more accessible at the time.

THIS CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 2007, APPLE MACINTOSH USERS' GROUP, SYDNEY
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Permission is hereby granted for non-profit user groups to republish this content.
PLEASE CREDIT THE AUTHOR AND THE SOURCE: Applecations, publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia

THIS PAGE COPYRIGHT © 2007, ANDREW ROUGHAN