🚀 go-pugleaf

Marcelino Bernardo makes a good point about semiconductor reliability
versus mechanical reliability...
 
Oxidation can occur even with the best gold plated connectors,
and when you're dealing with multi-megahertz clock speeds even
the slightest added capacitance can throw things off.. the added
resistance of a bad connection can also play havoc with signal
levels, especially with older logic which doesn't have radical
voltage swings between logic levels.
 
Many times "fixing" the mainframes where I work will be as simple
as removing and reseating a circuit board.. just wiping the
oxidation from the fingers is enough to get it working again.
 
So while Warwick had it completely backwards in regard to the
reliability of the semiconductor electronics in a computer, he
was right about the mechanical reliability.
 
(The top of my 520 ST's case hasn't had the screws in it for
longer than I can remember.  Whenever there's a problem, the
first "fix" I try is opening the top and pushing all the chips
back down..  nine times out of ten, that's all it needs)
 
BobR