powering up older machines - is it safe?

[Brian L. Stuart]

From: "Roy J. Tellason" <rtellason at verizon.net>
> On Thursday 05 June 2008 17:13, Eric J Korpela wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 1:36 PM, Eric Smith <eric at brouhaha.com> wrote:
> > > Eric J Korpela wrote:
> > >> On a 286 PC clone no unique hardware, just flip the switch.  On a
> > >> TRS-80 Model 3 you might want to turn it off if you smell smoke.
> > >
> > > So on a 286 PC clone, you _don't_ unplug it if you smell smoke?  :-)
> >
> > Well, I suppose eventually the flames might endanger surrounding
> > machines...
> 
> Is that like,  a prior owner picked that as a place to keep their stash 
> ("Nobody'll ever bother powering this up again...) and then forgot about it?

If that's the smoke he smelled, he wouldn't care about the other
machines.  He'd be off looking for munchies...  "Now where were
those chips?"

BLS