[cctalk] Scrapping machines was: People suck++

There was a time, when I was young, and dinosaurs did not yet roam the earth, . . . when "untested" meant UNTESTED. There was a very high probability that it worked. No reason not to take a chance on it. You could buy a memory board, and it was likely to work. THEN, you could buy a memory board, replace a few chips and have it work. THEN, you could buy a memory board, and the seller would have populated it with every bad chip that they could find. Then, the seller would replace chips to find working ones, and assemble the boards that tested bad with the chips that tested bad. NOW, "untested" is a LIE; it means TESTED, known to be bad, and beyond the repair capabilities of whoever tested it. If you are skilled at making repairs, it is still potentially a reasonable deal for the board on which to rebuild the circuit. But now, you can assume that others have failed before you, and that one or more of the most expensive LSICs that came with it are bad. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com