W
@tgape said:After performing research for a couple days, I located the problem: it was the initial failure mode for the communications card in the machine. They apparently normally took about 6 months to go from the first incident to total failure. We contacted the vendor, who informed us that was the first component that was withdrawn from support. There were, of course, no replacement cards available anymore.
I had a similar experience some years ago. Three strikes on legacy hardware. Actually, 2 on legacy hardware, 1 on legacy software: we were relying on a third-party software development tool that... expired. The maker was out of business and management didn't want me to crack it. I finally told them to pick _new_ hardware if the project was going to not be a disaster, and ... I got nine months pay to sit on my ass while they tried to figure out what hardware to pick, before finally concluding that what was possible on 1980s hardware is clearly impossible on 1990s hardware...
But, hey. Getting that much money to sit on IRC all day wasn't bad. :)