🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991Mar19.192444.22258@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> mms7r@galen.med.Virginia.EDU (M Mitchell Smith) writes:
>
>Last night the ``right-angle'' cable harness between the power supply
>and backplane in my BA23 MicroVAX II went up in a cloud of smoke
>(and a hearty Hi Ho Silver Away!).  The ``left-'' or ``top-'' most five
>lines (5V) and pins 8-10 (COM) got hot enough to melt the phenolic
>plastic connectors right to the pins.  Owch!

If your microVAX is more recent than early 1987, the following does not apply.

This is a known problem with the older BA23 power harness. DEC produced an 
FCO for it back in 1986 or 7. By that time they had discovered that the cable
was not up to spec on a loaded power supply. However, in the usual DEC fashion,
no FCO is applied to your systems until you've seen the problem it fixes.

That policy struck me as damn stupid in a case like this.

I'm afraid I don't have the FCO (ECO?) number any more since I am no longer
at the same place I worked when I found out about this (at a DECUS symposium),
but Digital Field Service should be able to find it for you. If your MicroVAX 
is on contract, the harness they replaced it with should be the newer one.

Mine weren't on contract when I learned about this, but I forked out the $13
apiece and replaced them all myself. For that price I wasn't about to wait 
until they burned. 
-- 
Ruth Milner
Systems Manager                     NRAO/VLA                    Socorro NM
                            rmilner@zia.aoc.nrao.edu