hardware problem

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#659

From: Brian Westley (Merlyn LeRoy)
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1989 16:20

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I remember having a hardware problem with a PUP-1, an early
microcomputer, that seemed to be a simple heat problem.  After
using it for about ten minutes, some of the keys would be wrong;
pressing 'i' would produce 'a' or whatever.  Turning the machine
off for a minute apparently fixed it for ten more minutes.

Once, when it started getting flakey again, I decided to be more
methodical and tested every key to see if there was a pattern.
Sure enough, all of the bad keys were in two columns - directly
over my leg.  The uncased keyboard circuit card, with its solder
points on the underside, would gradually work their way through
the cloth of my pants and start shorting through my leg, scrambling
the keycodes.

-----
Merlyn LeRoy

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Message-ID: <1989Dec26.162043.11626@digibd>

Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!digibd!merlyn

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Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!digibd!merlyn
From: merlyn@digibd (Brian Westley (Merlyn LeRoy))
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: hardware problem
Message-ID: <1989Dec26.162043.11626@digibd>
Date: 26 Dec 89 16:20:43 GMT
Organization: DigiBoard Incorporated, St. Louis Park, MN
Lines: 16
Posted: Tue Dec 26 17:20:43 1989
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