Re: Maintenance of sockets, cards, etc.. (was Re: Packard Bell

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#4448

From: ph... Phil Gustafson
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 1990 07:21

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Another maintenance anecdote:

I once new a person who was in the Navy in the early 1960's. His job
involved maintaining a hybrid computer.  The inverters in this computer
were vacuum tubes, but the gates driving them used newfangled germanium diodes.

Maintenance for the tubes was simple.  Every so many hours, pull them
all out, throw them away, and replace them.

Nobody had much experience with diodes.  So some wizard came up with the
following procedure:

1.  Every so many hours, warm up your soldering iron and take
    all the diodes out of the machine.

2.  Test all the diodes.

3.  Put the ones that work back.  Replace the others.

Estimates for the ratio of normal to maintenance-induced diode failures
were apparently never made.  Remember, these were heat-sensitive germanium
devices desoldered by sailors.
-- 
  |  ph...@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG 		 | Phil Gustafson
  |  {ames|pyramid|vsi1}!zorch!phil 	 | UNIX/Graphics Consultant
  |  {sgi|vsi1}!gsi!phil         	 | 1550 Martin Ave., San Jose CA 95126
  |  phil@gsi                   	 | 408/286-1749

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Message-ID: <1990Sep15.072151.18507@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>

Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!samsung!usc!apple!vsi1!zorch!phil

References: <1990Sep6.154721.12322@iwarp.intel.com> <1410001@hp-vcd.HP.COM> <1990Sep11.023817.18825@lavaca.uh.edu>

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Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!samsung!usc!apple!vsi1!zorch!phil
From: ph...@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Maintenance of sockets, cards, etc.. (was Re: Packard Bell
Message-ID: <1990Sep15.072151.18507@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Date: 15 Sep 90 07:21:51 GMT
References: <1990Sep6.154721.12322@iwarp.intel.com> <1410001@hp-vcd.HP.COM> <1990Sep11.023817.18825@lavaca.uh.edu>
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Posted: Sat Sep 15 08:21:51 1990
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