> You would have to go back to the early eighties,
> the days of the VAX-11/7xx and the VAX 86xx, to
> find FEs fixing components on site. In those days
> machines cost a great deal more and people (even
> highly trained people) cost a great deal less.
>
> Antonio
Actually, the last time I know of any DEC guy doing on site
chip or compnent level repairs was the early 80's when my branch support
guy went down to Mexico City around '84 after a major earthquake to
chip level repair 11/70's. Most DEC US chip swapping was over by '82
when I hired on.
In the states you really needed a reason to do mote than board level
swap. One case I know of is where a specific Unibus board was fried
taking out an address or data line on the entire Unibus.
Replacing and desoldering transceiver chips became necessary when there
were more burned boards than stock in house in the local office.
I once told an engineer who called me up and demanded I replace a certain
chip on the TE16 at Naval Air Propulsion at Trenton, NJ. The problem was
that the drive wouldn't go on-line although the on-line led lit.
I told them that I would be there in about three weeks, since the chip
was a special order item from logistics.
After the "Uh..." pause I told them I could be there in 15 minutes with
the TE16 Logic and Write (LAW) board if they wouldn't bust my chops.
They had full coverage on service contract and the board swap cost them
nothing.
What you had here is a case of an engineer-customer showing how good he could
troubleshoot and trying to make the Field Service guy feel inadequate.
Nice try.
Sometimes board swapping is actually faster than chip replacement.
Bill
--
d|i|g|i|t|a|l had it THEN. Don't you wish you could still buy it now!
bpechter_at_shell.monmouth.com|pechter_at_pechter.dyndns.org
Received on Mon Oct 08 2001 - 09:35:10 BST