Androcles
Rising Star
I thought this would be a fun little topic for discussion, what is the first computer repair you made that would leave you cringing now?
I'll start off ...
Many moons ago i had an old Amiga 500, those of you that have peeked under the cover of one of them will know that on the keyboard circuit board near the power lights is a largish chip keyboard controller chip that if broken or removed completely locks out the whole machine.
My first ever Amiga 500 wokred great for a few months, then one day it just wouldn't work, it would power up but none of the lights would come on and it wouldn't display on the screen, in a panic i opened up the case and started fiddling with wires while it was turned on (as you do!) when lo i knocked the keyboard chip and yelled "it's alive!" the amiga started working again, over time the fault persisted and all i had to do was give the chip a flick, until eventually even that didn't work, after some messing about i found that if i squeezed the chip it would work so i fond a huge bulldog clip and slapped it on, i've kept that same Amiga (despite ownign multiple variants since), no cover with a huge bulldog clip sticking out of it and to this day it still works perfectly.
Looking back i'm pretty sure sticking your hands inside a live machine and wiggling wires and chips is a bad idea, i certainly wouldn't do it now, but we didn't know better back then ... or IS it better?
I'll start off ...
Many moons ago i had an old Amiga 500, those of you that have peeked under the cover of one of them will know that on the keyboard circuit board near the power lights is a largish chip keyboard controller chip that if broken or removed completely locks out the whole machine.
My first ever Amiga 500 wokred great for a few months, then one day it just wouldn't work, it would power up but none of the lights would come on and it wouldn't display on the screen, in a panic i opened up the case and started fiddling with wires while it was turned on (as you do!) when lo i knocked the keyboard chip and yelled "it's alive!" the amiga started working again, over time the fault persisted and all i had to do was give the chip a flick, until eventually even that didn't work, after some messing about i found that if i squeezed the chip it would work so i fond a huge bulldog clip and slapped it on, i've kept that same Amiga (despite ownign multiple variants since), no cover with a huge bulldog clip sticking out of it and to this day it still works perfectly.
Looking back i'm pretty sure sticking your hands inside a live machine and wiggling wires and chips is a bad idea, i certainly wouldn't do it now, but we didn't know better back then ... or IS it better?
