Comment on 'boardswapping' as part of the computer culture.

[Tony Duell]

> > 
> > Unless you know what/where the fault is, you can't know you've fixed it 
> > IMHO (I've explained the problems many times before).
> 
> With a proper 'boardswapping guide' and strong documentation and 
> training, the tech can be assured that the fault is isolated to the 
> board in question.  Then, as a _team_member_ he passes the faulty board 

I fail to see how, at least without doing further tests and measurements 
(some of which can be quite complicated). I've yet to see a system where 
symptoms alone with determine the faulty module with 100% reliability.

> There need to be 'grunt' foot soldiers who know how to pull a board 
> from the chassis, replace it with a known good board, and ship the board 
> back to the repair depot where an expert will pinpoint the problem down 
> to a specific chip and send feedback to engineering so the new Rev. J 

You know as well as I do that it doesn't work that way for most, if not 
all, of the machines that _we_ work with, and probably never has. The 
sort of failed servoids I've met just look at the symptoms, pull a part, 
put a new one in, and hope the problem is cured. AFAIK the defective part 
is _not_ analysed futher.

When was the last time you met a droid in a PC shop who sent the 
defective board back to %far-eastern-country?

> > Hence my comment that I don't have a modern PC because I can't afford the 
> > test gear I'd need to maintain it.
> 
> A man is not an island.  The fact that you _personally_ cannot tear 
> down and completely rebuild a particular machine should not prevent you 

Well, actually, I do refuse to use anything I don't properly understand, 
but that is another issue.

> from understanding that somebody can, and become a part of the community 
> that somebody exists in. 

OK, I'll go further. Not only do I not have the skills, documentation or 
test gear to maintain a modern PC properly, I don't know anybody else who 
can, or how to find such a person. And I am not going to trust my data 
and my (in)sanity to some idiot who can't understand why a logic analyser 
or 'scope might even be useful

> 
> I wear what I consider to be a fairly nice Gruen wristwatch.  I don't 
> have the skill and capability of dismantling and servicing it.  Not 
> being able to service it doesn't lead me to refuse to wear it.  Yes, 
> there are high quality vintage pocket watches I could use instead that I 
> *would* be entirely capable of servicing. 

Actually I am trying to think of anything I own and depend on (or even 
use actively) that I am not capable of repairing.... I'd have problems 
with a wristwatch, but pocket watches and clocks wouldn't be a problem. 
Nor, for example, are real cameras.

-tony