OK. I have looked at the postings. I still see nothing that would lead me to believe that a weak magnetic field could erase an EPROM. Last time I heard, EPROMS were programmed by electrical charge (the programming cells are capacitors) and a weak magnetic field shouldn't induce enough current to change that charge. I would buy an High power X-ray erasing them, the current induced by that could be enough to change the charge and do the job. I just don't see it happening from the gauss produced by a magnetized screwdriver tip. I would still like to see any current references to the contrary if I am wrong, though :) -- George Patrick Tektronix, Inc. Central Engineering, PCB Design Group P.O. Box 500, M/S 39-512 Beaverton, OR 97077-0001 Phone: 503-627-5272 Fax: 503-627-5587 http://www.tektronix.com http://www.pcb-designer.com It's my opinion, not Tektronix' -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bloomquist, Ken Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 12:45 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Magnetic Screwdrivers I would check the TechNet archives. There was a pretty extensive discussion on this subject a few months ago. KennyB --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------