[rescue] Did I kill the octane?

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Sun, 7 Dec 2003, Scott Newell wrote:

> I knew I was pushing my luck by taking it apart and cleaning out the dust,
> especially using a vacuum in the (low humidity) wintertime.

How did you attempt to clean the compression connectors?

> But I consider myself careful, as I've never lost a board due to ESD.  And
> I've handled a lot of boards.

If you vacuumed across the compression connectors in a dry room, there
is a very good chance that you killed them.  SGI recommended to me using
a horsehair brush or computer-grade compressed air in a reasonably humid
environment as the ONLY way of cleaning a compression connector, and
that's only if it -needs[0]- to be done.

> Next up--yank the system board and press down on the central black
> heatsink.

Which model IP30 do you have?

> Am I SOL?

Unfortunately, it sounds that way.


[0] They never need to be cleaned unless they were out of the case in a
    dirty environment with the connector covers removed.  It's
    impossible for them to get dirty while mated to the frontplane.
-- 
Jonathan Patschke  ) "Earth works.  That's proof positive that Mother
Elgin, TX         (   Nature isn't a suit."            --Dave McGuire