Is this damage Intentional or something else?

greedycrisp

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Fixing a Canyon Bomber board. No major signs of heat damage (other than typical audio amplifiers damage.) but all four custom proms are destroyed. Three had their tops broken off, the last one ( not pointed out below) fell apart as soon as I touched it.

20250808_162950.jpg

Is this just poor quality parts aging? They dont look burnt, just disintegrated
 
Those chips have a Ceramic package. They are susceptible to having their "cap" sheared or cracked off if hit with sufficient force from the side/top like you see here.

So the board was probably hit or crushed in some way during it's life.
 
Excessive voltage can cause the same issue, but typically for RAM.

I had a Space Invaders with a "convertible 2012 RAM chip - the top was missing. The PS "railed" for some reason, and the RAM let out it's magic smoke.

I was early in my repair career - I sent the whole thing to Eldorado and got a working board set back.
 
@bakerhillpins , thanks. That seems the likely culprit then.

I socketed and replaced all four of the eproms and the two audio amplifiers, straight replaced one other chip that appeared cracked. Will be able to test next week.
 
Fixing a Canyon Bomber board. No major signs of heat damage (other than typical audio amplifiers damage.) but all four custom proms are destroyed. Three had their tops broken off, the last one ( not pointed out below) fell apart as soon as I touched it.

View attachment 839121

Is this just poor quality parts aging? They dont look burnt, just disintegrated
I have some chips like this one a damaged Star Rider expansion Board. Guessing they got hit really hard as bakerhillpins says.
 
@bakerhillpins , thanks. That seems the likely culprit then.

I socketed and replaced all four of the eproms and the two audio amplifiers, straight replaced one other chip that appeared cracked. Will be able to test next week.
Drag your fingernail (gently) across each chip top. Anywhere you feel a "catch" - replace that chip.

I had a powered speaker with a blown amp. I used the fingernail drag trick to find the blown chip. Replaced that one, it worked great!
 
A lot of damage occurs just from rough, poor handling. As old as these boards are a lot just got tossed in a pile of boards. Probably not intentional. Just really careless handling.

I recently picked up a starship 1 board and a couple of the ceramic PROM chips had the tops broken off like that. Ordered new blanks and programmed fresh ones for it.
 
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