5 Jul
2025
5 Jul
'25
11:12 a.m.
On 7/4/25 15:21, Wayne S via cctalk wrote:
This is similar to an IBM mainframe story i have.
IBM 370 wouldn’t IMPL.
CE and FE couldn’t figure it out.
They called in a “Special Consultant.”
I
Came in with a briefcase that contained his “tools”, which was a big brush that you would
use for light plaster work and a wood mallet.
He proceeded to sweep the brush across the wirewrap backplane and a wire cam loose.
He replaced the wire and all was good again.
I never found out what the mallet was used for.
We had a long-in-the-tooth 360/65 that was starting to get
flaky. IBM asked if they could be given the time for a
"field overhaul". They explained they would have the
machine down for about a week. They were given the
go-ahead. The brought in a 55 gallon barrel of some kind of
cleaning solvent, took all the circuit cards out of the
machine, and dunked them in the barrel. After cleaning, they
plugged EVERY board into some tester box and checked for
weak signal levels. They cleaned the "boards" which were
the wire-wrapped panels that took the SLT cards on the other
side. Finally, they put all the cards back in (after
replacing a few that failed on the tester box) and the
machine came up and ran until IBM sent the dreaded letter
that said you were welcome to keep running the machine, but
they wouldn't service it beyond a certain date.
Jon