Agilent 5973N burning up control cards (Smartcard)

[freddiespedalo]

Hi there,
has anybody else seen 5973N MSD which will burn components on the control card (Smart Card) bottom rear board on the LHS of the electronics module? I have one which would not communicate with PC, LAN lights on etc, won'trun at all. Othe older symptoms are that the LCD control panel does not work (even when bringing a new LCP and ribbon cable to the instrument). I replaced the Smart card but this burnt out a component just above the port where the LCP plugs in. Not sure if the 2 symptoms are related. Now I can't trust this instrument without replacing the whole electronics module. So it is dead to me...... any ideas??

[James_Ball]

I have a 5973 that had the control panel burn out and I just run it without the control panel. Is it old enough that it still gets its IP address from the BootP so there is nothing on the control panel that I absolutely need. If yours will run without the control panel then you may be ok without it.