Me too. First I clean out all the dead flies, mice droppings, cobwebs and whatever else may have accumulated - this usually involves some level of disassembly, which is required anyway for the next step. Then I do a detailed visual inspection, paying special attention to "power" components, looking for discolored capacitors, resistors etc. I also look for corrosion in sockets/connectors, and anything else that looks at all out of the ordinary - I spend a fair bit of time at this. I always apply initial power through a current limiter (light bulb), which also gives me a visual indication as to how much power it is drawing. If possible, I disconnect the power-supply and energize it separately, measuring voltages. If it's analog, I ramp it up through a variac, monitoring the outputs and current draw as it comes up to operating voltage. If I can't disconnect the supply, I disconnect what I can, and pull anything socketed that I would have a tough time replacing. I don't like running equipment I am not familier with chips pulled - so I do so only long enough to verify that all power rails come up right. Recheck power rails with everything connected. Once powered up, I scope the power-rails to check for excess noise, hum etc. If the equipment does not "come up", I shut it down and do another visual. Then it's on to normal circuit debugging. The above routine may vary from one piece of equipment to another, depending on it's exact characteristics... Anything you would add? Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html