Reply 540 of 590, by Tiido
- Rank
- l33t
HASL will destroy the gold plating in the slots over time though galvanic corrosion. There is a lot of scientific information on the matter.
Other thing is that HASL plating is typically fair bit thicker than the board itself and from my experience (with game console cartridge slots) this alone is enough to make the connectors unreliable, I can see the gold layer buldozed off after just a few insertions and the exposed materials corrode quite quickly (within days I see discoloration already). After that point the game is likely to crash randomly or not run at all until I wiggle the board around in the slot a bit to dislodge the new corrosion on both the tin plated contact and the damaged original slot connector. The effects are permanent and the connector is never reliable again.
It helps that in a PC you usually leave the thing in the connector effectively permanently, with mechanical welding preventing some of the corrosion related problems happening but how well it lasts still depends on surrounding atmosphere and other factors.
Another thing is to have beveled egde, it will make the insertion cycles much more gentle on the connector. There's lot less downward compression force in the beginning of insertion for the contacts, instead the angled edge helps to push the contacts away so the board can slide in.
T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
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