On Thu, 02 Jun 2005 09:59:38 GMT, Stanislaw Flatto
<compaid@shoalhaven.net.au> wrote:

> A brand new 40Gb, which he "tried" to hot-swap, by his story it gave a
> puff of smoke and went on strike.

Gruesome.

> OK, we found the proper tools to remove the special screws that hold the
> printed circuit in place, carefully (I do this VERY rarely) lifted the
> board and discovered a blown surface mounted IC. ( Of the 1cm/sq and
> about 80 connecting points kind).

That seems to support 'latch-up' someone else reported, was it a nice
crater in chip, or just a gentle crack that let the magic smoke out?

They don't make chips like they used to[1]: Years ago I was called down
to factory floor -- i8748 EPROM uC not working... Turn it on and the
corner chip die power connects glowing red under chip window...

Chip in backwards, turn off power, put chip in right way around and
it worked. (reverse connect power to chip forward biases the substrate
parasitic diode), this was in mid to late eighties, soft power supply.

[1] Now I'm starting to sound like an old fart.

--Grant.