Below are 4 separate reviews of Stabilant 22 by Byte magazine.
1.The second product of the year goes by the name of Stabilant 22 which advertises itself as a "contact enhancer. It's a clear liquid you dab into places where you suspect you're getting bad contact, IC sockets, edge connectors, RS-232C plugs, that sort of thing. My first use was on a sticky Reset button. I didn't bother to turn off the machine, just pulled the top off the button and squirted the merest drop. VOILA!
Last week my telephone started to make horrible static noises which could be cured by violently shaking the instrument, and they'd come back. I took it apart, took off the plastic cover over the little relay contacts activated by hanging up the phone, and squirted. The noise went away. Faulty TV remote controller: squirt. Now in an audio system: squirt. So far, it has cured about a dozen annoying problems. A little bit of the stuff goes a long way. Get some. You'll love it.
2.The change took about 10 minutes, because the ROM chips are big and we bent the pins inserting the first one. After I straightened them out and got out the Stabilant 22 contact enhancer and connector lubricant, we didn't have any more problems.
3.We removed all the boards and disconnected all the cables. Cleaned all the cable connectors with alcohol. Cleaned the board contacts. Got out my Stabilant 22, the wonderful contact treatment liquid that comes from D W Electrochemicals in Canada, and ran a line of that along every board and on all the cable connectors. When we were finished, we put the whole thing back together and voila! All of which proves what I've known since S-100 days: these machines do take a bit of preventative maintenance, and Stabilant 22 is one of your best friends!
4.I did everything right. Examine the chip. Make sure that all the pins are straight. Put it carefully in place and look again to be sure the pins are fit in the socket, and then get out a powerful flashlight, and look again. Then push in carefully and watch several pins buckle and bend.
Don't panic. Out comes the flathead alligator pliers. Ground myself carefully. Straighten the pins carefully. Now it has to go back in - Which was where I got smart.
Two years ago I gave a product of the year award to Stabilant 22, a contact enhancer fluid that solves all kinds of problems with PC's. It came to me as a vision that this was exactly what I needed here. I still have a nearly infinite supply - a little of that stuff goes a long way - so I fished it out of the tool cabinet and ran a bit of it along the newly straightened pins. Presto!, the chip went in with no effort at all. In future I'll never insert chips without first lubricating with that stuff.
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