Component level repair

I don't know why some people appear to have been annoyed by this comment - I completely agree with Tony - I too think that most everyone here *COULD* to component level troubleshooting if they wanted to. I didn't hear anyone saying that you should - only that you could - in case you guys missed it, it was a compliment. Very well said - Some people look at me funny when I try and explain that one of the things I like best about my old computer habit is bringing long-dead machines back to life. I get the most enjoyment out of many machines when they first hit my bench - Not only do you have the fun of a "logic puzzle" as Tony describes, but sometimes you get to work on systems that you haven't investigated in detail before, and have the chance to see how that particular manufacturer took slightly different solutions to various problems, or implemented some unexpected variation of what I "knew" must be there - I see lots of really clever designs go by (and occationally a "less clever" one). On top of all that, I get immense satisfaction when all the secrets have been extracted, the puzzles solved, and you hit the power switch for the final test, hear the drives step back, the click of the track-0 switch, a step out out and a prompt appears on the screen that didn't before (the exact audible scenario varies with the machine, but there's a distinct "sound of life" when things work). You have taken an artifact often considered "worthless junk" by whomever gave it to you, and restored it to a living monument to our digital history - You just can't get that kind of feeling by clicking "OK". (No intense offended to anyone - just describing some of MY motivations) Dave -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html