Way back in 1980/81 I worked for the local Radio Shack Computer Center.
Back in those days, the various modules of the old TRS-80 Model 1 were
cabled together with (rather cheap) ribbon cables.
After a while, the metal in the ribbon cable connector contacts on the
motherboard would oxidize a bit and the computer would stop working. The
owner would unplug it, bring it in, plug it back together.....and it'd
work fine. Magic! ;)
The reason: the act of removing the cables cleaned off the oxidation.
But I'm sure the service guy made a LOT of money for the business with
absolutely NO effort.....
After a while, most people learned. We recommended they use a pencil
erase to clean off the contacts on the card edges before bringing them in.
-Bill
>
>I can sometimes do stuff like that. I most recently tried it on one of my
>mopeds, only to find that the piston was cracked and had gauged the inside
>of the cylinder! I hope I scared the other two into working though.
>
>-James
>
>>On Friday, November 2, 2001, at 02:33 AM, Ed Kummel wrote:
>>
>>> As my time became shorter and my
>>> days more busy, those devices that I left in pieces
>>> for extended lengths of time worked immediatly after I
>>> put them back together again. Having performed no
>>> maintenance, just taking it apart, leaving it that way
>>> for several days and then putting it back together
>>> again, somehow fixed the machine.
>>
>>this is properly the most common way a mechanic used to fix anything,
>>this technique is hard to master, without actually fixing it, just tear
>>it apart and put it back together and it is fixed---works like magic!
>>
>>Ed Cheung
>>
>
>
>The James Elliott Newton Site
>http://www.geocities.com/rootbeeraddict/newton.html
>Is that a Newton in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?
>
>
>
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