[HECnet] Bringing up a MicroVAX 3100-80

[Fred]

On Fri, 27 Mar 2020, Dave McGuire wrote:

> There is a big metal cage, which doubles as a heat sink, over the
> entire board that is soldered to it at several places.
>
>  We now have a stack of six that have failed.

Hmmmmm.  That may have unlocked the mystery of what happened to the one I 
had attached to my 4000/90A that I ended up virtualizing with SIMH.  Just 
went up and died one day and wouldn't power on.  No smoke, no pop, just 
powered itself off one day and wouldn't power back on.  Tested everything 
I could (power cord, plug on the shelf itself, etc).  Short of busting it 
I couldn't figure out how to get "in" to the power supply to poke around.

I kept all of the drives, but scrapped the shelf. :(   It pained me to do 
that.  I try not to throw *anything* electronic away even if I think there 
is a "whisper" of it being able to be repaired/salvaged for parts.  I'm 
sure everyone on list has got their "bacon" saved by being able to rob a 
part from something that you kept around just in case ...

Fred