Phil, I'm going to go out on a limb here. We have witnessed something like this three seperated times now from three different board houses. What we experienced follows this process. The board house decides that something associated with the plating on several panels is not right. They removed the gold and start over. The problem is that they are not completely successful removing the gold. You form a solder joint to the nickel layer but beneath that layer is a layer of gold. The nickel bond to the gold is very weak. If you have access to a SEM(Scanning Electron Microscope) that has EDS (Electron Dispersive Spectroscopy) you can neatly locate and plot the extra layer or remnants of gold present. Not sure it this is true in your case but it can happen and has happened to us. It is truly a nightmare as the board house often does not keep detailed records of which panels and which subsquent boards could be affected. This leaves the entire lot in question unless you can locate all the boards by the number of panels affected. This what we were forced to do with finished product in one case. Drew --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 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 -----------------------------------------------------