[volt-nuts] hp 3458a advice

[Paul Fox]

hi --

i'm not a volt-nuts regular, and not even a precision measurement nut
at all, but given past discussion in the list archives, i think you
folks might be able to help.

i was recently given an HP 3458a multimeter.  the donor thought it
worked when he last used it, but that was quite a long time ago, and i
think it was stored in an attic for some time, so i'm not too
surprised that it now doesn't pass self tests. :-/  he mainly wanted
it out of his house, along with a bunch of other vintage (sadly mostly
non-working) equipment he'd accumulated over the years.

the self-test error is:
    ERRSTR 204, "Hardware Failure -- Flatness DAC Convergence: 198"

judging from past list traffic, repairs on these units are 
expensive, and it would still need recalibration to be useful, and
there are may be other parts (eeproms?) that may not be good
any more.  i'm not really interested in pursuing any of this
myself.

what's worse is that the unit doesn't have a serial number.  (i assume
the s/n would normally be obvious on the rear of the unit.)  it bears a
sticker on the back that says "MTG PROTO 27".  i think the unit came
from a place that themselves produced reference standards, and they
may have gotten a very early model from HP to work with.  that's
conjecture.  i haven't opened the unit, so i don't know if there are
other clues to its age inside.

so:  is this machine useful to anyone?  given the error message above,
are there any measurements at all that it might still get correct, in
it's current state?

paul
=---------------------
 paul fox, pgf at foxharp.boston.ma.us (arlington, ma, where it's 63.1 degrees)