In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Ian L. Pine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
These chips were a major cause of the failures of many of the Q40s that Tony built. At the time we did not know that the video ram actually did more than just video and any failure in these chips would cause the machine not to boot. They were also a major cause of frustration and anger when Peter Graf said 'Some of the parts that Roy bought were inferior' because he supplied these chips to us.(and Tony bought all the others) I was very against using some of these recycled parts in the first place but we were forced into it.This is exactly the problem I have with my Q40 (as Tony well knows as he has reseated the Video RAMs for me on a number of occasions!) The last fix lasted approx. 15 minutes and a subsequent fix I did myself had a similar result. It was not an inexpensive machine to buy and I haven't had enough use of it to be able to afford to write it off just yet. I was wondering if someone might be able to come up with a permanent solution, e.g. removing the sockets and soldering the RAMs in place; or maybe there are some spare chips with longer pins (some of the pins on mine seem too short to be gripped properly by the sockets); or perhaps creating a little piggyback Video RAM board that could be plugged in somehow. I'm keen to get the Q40 back into full time service again. Are those chips still available new?
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Roy Wood
Q Branch. 20 Locks Hill, Portslade, Sussex.
Tel: +44 (0) 1273 386030 fax: +44 (0) 1273 430501
web : www.qbranch.demon.co.uk
