Date   : Thu, 02 Nov 2006 05:42:20 -0600
From   : julesrichardsonuk@... (Jules Richardson)
Subject: Dead Beebs (mine)

Colin wrote:
> I re-soldered the wire (on the socket, not the circuit board) and fastened
> it all back together (that's about the sum total of my technical skills).

Are you absolutely sure you didn't get any blobs (and by blob it could be less 
than 1mm) of solder on the PCB (or maybe a tiny strand of wire broke off from 
the end of the video cable)? Relatively easy to do when soldering ancient and 
possibly corroded wiring.

Such things have a habit of working their way under ICs and IC sockets, and 
shorting out two pins on an IC often has interesting effects (which typically 
don't actually *break* anything once the offending object's removed).

They can be really easy to miss, though! I'd check the area really closely 
around where you were working (with a magnifying glass if necessary) just to 
be sure. (As a first step, turn the whole lot upside down and give it an 
enthusiastic shake :-)

cheers

Jules