Re: Transwarp GS freezes

[Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com>]

STYNX <stynx@gmx.de> wrote:
> The replacing of components has made the card a little more stable. That
> means the components may have aged. They were replaced, because if i
> cooled them, the card would run longer uninterrupted. If i warmed them,
> the card would crash right there. There isn't _one_ ting wrong, but several. 

You are almost certainly wrong in this assumption. 

When you cool a component, you cool its surroundings, including the PC
board and nearby solder joints. When you replace a component you heat and
stress the nearby board significantly. Both actions can have a large
permanent or temporary effect on an intermittent trace, via, or solder
joint. 

As a result, it may appear that the component itself had something to do
with the problem. 

Digital components do not exhibit significant "aging" effects of the type
you describe. An intermittent contact (in a broken trace) or an open bypass
capacitor can produce your symptom. 

Since the symptom occurs at even low speeds, it is not a timing problem. 

Try some stressing with a plastic rod. It's fast, easy, and can be used to
make it fail or to revive it--whichever provides the most immediate
feedback. 

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon