Troubleshooting intermittent issues with ACSI storage

[Cwiiis]

So I'm pretty sure I know what my issue is, but I'd like to get a 2nd opinion before acting on it. So I had my DMA chip socketed because I wanted to try the DMA changer board and have the option of putting a good DMA chip in at some point - that was fine and indeed, the DMA changer board fixed my issues, so great! A day or two of perfect behaviour, it then bombed out and when booting, would immediately bomb on any read, ACSI or floppy (and would boot and work fine with no media inserted).

I diagnosed this to be the DMA socket - it had gotten loose and even visibly it was clear it was not good. I desoldered it, replaced it with a turned-pin socket and everything was fine again. Given the DMA changer board has a turned-pin socket integrated, I thought that style of socket made sense, even though I know they're generally more problematic than the usual dual leaf socket.

All was fine, until today, where I'm now getting intermittent 2 or 3 bombs on disk access - infrequent enough that I can actually use the machine with a bit of perseverance, but annoying enough that I want to fix it... I'm guessing it's the same issue again and just perhaps it's not a good idea to socket the DMA chip. My fix would be to either 3d print something so that the floppy drive could apply some pressure on top of the DMA chip or, more likely, just solder the changer board in place.

Does anyone have any experience with socketing a DMA chip? Did it work ok for you? Any opinions on the above?

[exxos]

Lots of machines have a socket already. Though I only recommend 3M sockets these days I've been through hell with sockets over the years.

[Steve]

Just wondering if you've tried a HC CPU?

[Cwiiis]

Just wondering if you've tried a HC CPU?

Yes, I have an HC CPU fitted.

[exxos]

Its odd if the HC CPU didn't fix your problem. But you don't say what motherboard you have. There are mods that myself and Atari did over the boards revisions. If you have a early release board, then you will have issues even before getting to DMA chip related issues.