If you doubt yourself when you change a pair of these, change them again.

If the mounting is very close to the PCB, like in a D line Toshiba, the
improper bend in the pins can cause stress. I didn't pay attention when I
tightened the screws down, but the second time I saw a bow in the board.
Imagine the stress put on the edge pins.

This may have been the sole cause of the failure. If you encounter this
difficulty with the pins, go ahead and screw it down, but then push down on the
pins from the bottom with a screwdriver handle or some such. BEND the pins so
as to relieve the stress. The second set has been working well for awhile now
since I did that.The failure of the ICs was the cause of the first set going
down. It came in with blue horizontal problems and we changed them both. Later
comes up a problem with the green vertical.

Maybe that's what's wrong with that BIG batch of these I hear is bad. If that's
the case, the best way to fix it is to put the IC in, though the holes, then
with a screwdriver handle or something blunt, push STRAIGHT down on the IC
pins. Push them so they stay down. If you've got that mounting problem, correct
it now, before you plug it all in, fire it up and make heat. Imagine the stress
on those pins if you don't. If you got that problem, there is extra pin length,
just push them down to normal pin length and you might be good to go.

Sometimes you have to use what you have. (easy part)
effectively (hard part)

There's money in the hard part.

JURB

From: (JURB6006)
Date: 2/1/05 4:45 AM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id:


STK 392-020 suspect lot# E418


I've run across this so many times, I only use OEM parts now. Zero callbacks.
Not only with conv ICs, but typical vert ICs, audio amps and transistors,
switch mode regulators (I had a dozen bad STR53041s and 10 bad 2SC4927 HOTs
from Tritronics)

HOWEVER, there is a company in Colorado called Electronica who sells only OEM
sourced semis. Of course, it's still possible for his sources to slip
forgeries to him as well, but he's very diligent in monitoring his parts.

John