CompuServe Messages

A few weeks ago I left a message describing some bizzare problems I was having after I installed a new hard disk in my 2500. After much diagnostic work and a few hints from here, I found out that I had an apparantly bad ram chip on my A2620 board. (Dealer complaint coming up…) I took in it to the dealer, with instructions to find and replace the bad chip. I left the damn thing there for 10 days while I went on holidays. When I came back I called to see if it was ready. Not only was it not ready, but they hadn't even started to look at it! He said they might start that day. I called the next day, and he then told me they might get to it by the end of the week. By then I had enough, I told him I would just take it back, and fix it myself. When I picked it up, a different service techie sympathized with my problems, and suggested the problem might be just a bad solder job (that was the most common problem they found on customer installed zips). I thanked him and decided to take a look when I got home. Imagine my suprise when I checked the board and found that I had completely missed one pin on one chip! The amazing thing is that the memory worked fine for months! In retrospect, tho', it all made sense. My previous drive was a ST506 type, and the drive cables went over the A2620 card. The SCSI drive cable was right behind the area on the 2620 where the ram was. In installing the cable, I must have just brushed the end of the chip, breaking the contact. A little dab of solder, and everything works fine now. I just can't believe the chip for so long with the unsoldered pin. Weird. eit