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- Don't Degauss your Diskettes
-
- Ed Nisley
- Poughkeepsie New York Users Group
-
- Many color monitors (and all color
- TV sets) have a degaussing coil
- around the face of the tube. This is
- used to de-magnetize the shadow mask
- inside when the monitor is turned
- on. It is connected directly to the
- AC line and is controlled by a
- thermistor which passes a gigantic
- surge of juice and then tapers off
- to nothing as it warms up.
-
- To demonstrate this, put the color
- monitor right next to your
- monochrome display. When you turn
- the monitor on, the monochrome
- display goes "BOINNNNG" and then
- steadies down.
-
- If you keep your diskettes anywhere
- near (say, within a foot) of the
- front of the color monitor, they're
- exposed to a real shot of AC
- magnetic field every time you turn
- on the monitor. This isn't a good
- idea, since the field is designed to
- demagnetize things... the effect is
- cumulative and, unfortunately,
- irreversible.