> > Big CHOMP! > > >... You could hose up the head, or send a minute > > electrical charge through your body that could affect your ability to > > reproduce in the future. Unless you are really good with working on

Well said. I agree 100% Not only do I _enjoy_ doing repairs, but I am getting fed up with the number of times I've received replies like : 'Monochrome monitors are old-fashioned. You can buy a new SVGA colour monitor for less than the cost of repair' The problem is, the monitor in question was off a Whitechapel workstation. Not the sort of machine you can just plug a PC monitor into. Ditto disk drives. You can't plug just any hard disk into a PERQ or a PDP8, or an Apple ][, or a whatever. Sometimes you have to repair the old unit. That's apart from the fact that you should try to keep as many original parts in a classic as you can. Without wishing to blow my own trumpet, some people on this list are quite good at handling small parts (a lot smaller than you find in disk drives), are quite happy to replace surface mount components at home, will rebuild thick-film hybrids, will rewind motors, will realign disk drives, and have an array of tools and test equipment that exceeds just about any service centre. Another mini-flame for service manuals that claim that some part is 'not field repairable'. Sorry, but _I'll_ decide what _I_ can repair. At the moment, the only thing I can't rebuild is hard disk HDAs. But I'd much rather have a service manual that starts 'Take the HDA into a clean room and undo the cover screws (#1 in fig 4.2), lift off cover' etc than one which entirely misses out the HDA. Do you have any idea as to the circuit topology in this unit? I don't have any Compaq stuff, but I may be able to guess what's going on if you indicate what the main chopper control chip is, and where the resistors are located (electrically) in relation to it. -tony