Ron,
Cards are easier to deal with than sockets. If the problem moved from
board to board with the moving of the cache stick, yes, it is likely that the
problem is with that RAM stick itself. So try this before the Stabilant22.
Assuming that the motherboards are fine with other cache. It could also be
both. Or just an unhappy combination, which Stabilant22 will work on.
RAM is especially sensitive to static, as I'm sure you already know. So
use care when trying what I describe. SIMMs, DIMMs, etc. are all basically
small circuit boards with memory chips mounted on them. Using a strong
magnifier (12x jewelers loop equivalent as a minimum) look for hair-line
cracks in the circuit traces on the circuit board, especially where the
(socket contact) pads narrow to normal trace size and go up to the RAM chips,
and around where each chip is soldered to the traces on the board. Both
sides. If you don't find anything, as I suspect that you won't, proceed to
the contact cleaning.
If the contact pads themselves don't look clean and shiny, being
especially careful to use static control procedures, literally rub the pads
with a paper towel. A horizontal scrubbing across all of the pads is fine as
long as you are using your fingers to press the paper towel to the contact
pads. Just pinch the folded (double thick) paper towel on the contacts
(pinching front to back) and slide the board back and forth sideways. [I
usually hold the stick and run my fingers and the paper towel back and forth.
Just don't get too vigorous.] If a particular pad does not clean up well in
this way, carefully use a pencil eraser (not an ink eraser!), stroking the
pad itself from the card down toward the bottom edge of the contact pad.
Wipe the eraser leftovers off with a paper towel -- again downward only, NOT
side to side as you had done before.
Try it and see if it works. -Gary-
In a message dated 11/2/2000 6:23:08 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< On Wed, 01 Nov 2000, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Ron,
> Treat unreliable connections with Stabilant22.
Given that I had the problem on two motherboards, and they went away when I
removed the cache RAM stick, I have been tempted to blame the RAM itself
;-)
But I'll see if I can find Stabilan here in Darkest Paraguay.
Cheers,
Ron the Frog, on the banks of the Paraguay River.
--
>>
