28 Sep
2002
28 Sep
'02
3:57 a.m.
At 11:01 AM 9/28/02 -0400, Bob wrote:
This is getting absurd!
Tony Duell wrote:
Bob is absolutely right here! I've had any number of boards that worked UNTIL I
tried to pull the ICs then the legs on the ICs would break right at the bend. I have a
HeathKit ET-3400 right now that was working till I tried to pull the 74LS241s and then
legs broke on everyone one of them. My advice is to test as best you can (looking for
shorted caps, etc) and leave the ICs alone!
and Altairs
The risk of causing damage by removing _socketed_ parts is extremely low.
Really? Here we must agree to disagree. Old sockets suck, generally don't use them for this
reason. If I recall correctly, you had to pay extra for sockets (or was
that the Imsai??).
I don't think sockets were even an option from MITS. You could buy and install them
yourself but since these kits were designed for absolute minimum costs I doubt many owners
were likely to pursue that. I've had two Altairs including one factory built and very
few of the ICs in either of them were socketed.
>
>In fact I would argue you _must_ remove and reseat all socketed chips to
>cure bad connections anyway.
Sometimes you have to do that but I'd test it first. If you have problems then try
to reseat the ICs but beware that electrolysis between the cheap sockets and ICs
frequently causes the legs to corrode right at the bend and any movment will cuase the
legs to fall apart. And some of those ICs are dammed hard to find now. I recently had to
replace half the legs on a CDP1861 that had fallen apart. It wasn't easy.
Joe