The Issue
We had reports of erratic behavior on the 08BSPE2T processor board in various machines. In some reports, you could touch the board and the processor would reboot and start working properly. Another report had a processor that was suspended (hung) in operation. Power was checked and proven to be sufficient. Once the board was unplugged from harnesses and reconnected, the board then worked fine.
The Causes and Fixes
Lab results show that 2 root causes are suspected.
- Socketed ram chips are not making good contact. We have since soldered the chips directly to the board.
- The processor chip gold contacts have oxidized. We now tin the contacts of the processor chips.
What about my board?
Any board with ram chips soldered to the board is considered good, and assumed to have both remedies applied. We started applying these remedies to production and repaired boards in mod 2016. These remedies are possible with existing boards.
