MicroVAX II Console Garbling Characters

[Ethan Dicks]

On Thu, Aug 25, 2016 at 1:05 PM, Rob Jarratt
<robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> Just a bit more info on this.
>
> I tried cleaning up the corrosion, and that briefly seemed to make a
> difference, but then I realised the problem persisted. I looked again and
> realised that the corrosion around the DE-9 pins was a bit bad. Initially I
> thought to solder some jumper wires around pins 2 and 3, but when the solder
> would not melt very easily, I found that it kind of flaked off under a bit
> of heat and physical pressure. This made me think that although I was
> getting continuity with my DMM, the joint was not that good. So I desoldered
> the whole DE-9 connector, cleaned the board with PCB cleaner and then
> resoldered it back.
>
> This seems to have fixed it.

My own cab kit was also exhibiting gray solder that did not flow, so
without even testing it, I presumed it was faulty and I removed the
DE-9 and cleaned the PCB.  That's as far as I've gotten this week.  I
still plan to test the resistance of the traces because, sometimes,
those are consumed or heavily damaged (I've been reading a lot of
Amiga Varta repair threads lately - that's another platform I'm
cleaning damage on).  The question I have for the MicroVAX is if I
trust the integrity of the DE-9 itself.  I can solder in a fresh
replacement, but I _think_ the old one is probably still good.

-ethan