I'd like to know how ESD actually damages a PCB and whether it can be
reversed. If microchips are solid material with contacts how can
static electricity damage a chip that would lose electrical data
anyway on power-down!?
I ask this because I bought a 64Mb FPM from the US and it didn't work
at first (last 4Mb crashed the machine).
On pulling it out and leaving it for a few days and re-inserting it I
get all 64Mb and it's worked flawless ever since.
Can you earth any electrical charge in a device and repair it or did I
just get lucky by scratching off some oxidised deposits on the SIMM
contacts?
Anyway, if you have trouble use a fibreglass pen to scratch your SIMM
contacts shiny before re-flashing the board.
I have a 1260 not a PowerPC and my memory came good without too much
fiddling!
:-)
