RK07 questions - now RK611 questions

[Tony Duell]

> 
> >> But, if you know what and why to do something, a swap is not a crime.
> > Our views will differ on this, I suspect :-)
> 
> I see nothing more wrong with swapping boards than with swapping chips,
> fundamentally.  If I have a machine with a blown cg6, I pull it and pop
> in another, problem solved.  (I have enough spare cg6s that I do not
> expect to run out in the foreseeable future.)
> 
> Most of the criticisms of boardswapping I've seen have actually been
> against *blind* boardswapping, against easter-egg swaps in the hope

I would agree. Problem is that to fully test a board is a lot of work 
(it's a lot more than just running diagnostics (actually, I have a 
problem with using a non-working device to tell me what's wrong...). You 
need to check the timing of every signal on the connectors of said board.

> that they'll perturb the symptom out of immediate existence.  I agree
> that that is, at best, a last resort - but I see nothing wrong with
> swapping out a bad board, once you're sure it's the board that's bad,
> any more than I do for any other swappable piece.  (Whether it's worth
> repairing a board depends on lots of things; sometimes, swapping and
> tossing the bad one is a right answer.)

As well all know, it's finding the fault that takes the time. If you've 
found the fault so that you're sure a particular board is bad, then you 
(almsot?) always know what's wrong with that board, and can isolate the 
fault to 2 or 3 components. In which case it's probably quicker to 
replace just the faulty part than to find the replacement board.

-tony