All, More info about the stylewriter. 1) Desoldered 4 of the 9 suspect transistors. They pass the 1-st order test Tony suggested (high resistance E to C and C to E, current flows B to E and B to C but not vice-versa). "Resistance" is not consistent if I change ranges on my VOM, (I see the same needle movement on different ranges) but is consistent among transistors and B-C to B-E. I busted two legs off while trying to pull them out, so I'm definitely in the market for at least 2 and up to 9 off 2SB1243 transistors (or equivalents). Anybody know a good source near San Antonio? 2) The markings were indeed "B1243". The only other markings are a pair of digits that look like "88" under the "43", but the first "8" has too big a top loop and too little a bottom loop, and both are slightly squared-off compared to a normal "8". 3) All the transistor Collectors go to wide traces on the ribbon cable via two pins each on the connector. 4) All the Emitters are ganged together via a wide trace on the PCB. I have not figured out where that trace ends up. Emitters also have narrow traces leading into a big array of small surface-mount components with numbers like "511" or "151" on them (not necessarily those numbers, but numbers like those). 5) The bases also have narrow traces going off into the small surface-mount array. 6) The power supply wall-wart does not have any fasteners under the label, nor any feet. Its recessed fasteners have hemispherical metal heads covered with some sort of dark anodize-like coating (it can be scratched off with a sharp tool). Next project is to pry the seam apart on the power supply, shove in a screwdriver to hold it open thereby putting some tension on the fasteners, then take a soldering iron to the fasteners to heat them up and see what gives. I'll try to do some more circuit-tracing as well, but that is looking harder. I'll also check the ribbon cable again. I put that off until I ran out of time last night, in part because I'm gonna feel really goofy if that turns out to be the problem after all. BTW, my VOM runs on a single AA 1.5V battery. Can I toast anything by trying to check resistance with it? Should I stay out of the "R x 1" range or something like that? - Mark