LIST! Are you LISTening?

In his June issue of QL Corner, Bob Gilder wrote about Ruth Fegley having “oxidation problems on the interface pins and by pressing the interface towards the QL body tends to remove the oxidation.” He also said Bob Malloy four computers with the same symptoms – one or more of the socketed IC’s had to be reseated into their respective sockets and the QL’s then operated as they should. Also, the Keyboard 90 interface also had to be reseated into its respective socket.

Bob then stated “periodically, all plugged-in devices such as interfaces and IC’s should be partially removed and then pushed’ back into their respective sockets for flawless computer operation without power on!”

Bob!, didn’t you get to read NIN Volume 7 Number 5? It states “If you are having trouble with ICs in IC sockets, clean them with tuner cleaner if you wish. Then put some mineral oil in a saucer and dip the IC pins into the mineral oil before inserting the IC into the socket. The IC will go in so much easier!” Earlier in the article it said “Tuner cleaner just doesn’t do the job because after the cleaning, no lubricant is left behind so corrosion will set in, not so with mineral oil. Oxygen can’t get to the metal any more so the electrical contact lasts for many years.”

Those ICs and connectors should have been installed with high viscosity mineral oil (Squib comes to mind), a laxative obtained at the corner drug store and applied with a tooth pick on the connector or by placing the ICs in a bowl with just a little mineral oil at the bottom as describe in the NTN7.5 issue. Someone at Motorola came to the realization that if mineral oil could keep people cleaned out that in might work on connectors and, I don’t know why, but it did!