HP97: Who was the killer (resistor or transistor)?

[Harald]

Wow Geoff!

Is there anything you DON'T restore?!?
I have Blaupunkt Milano that is waiting for restoration. How did you treat the wood to get it that great looking? How did you get on with the valve technology?
My Milano only works on FM and I haven't mamaged to work out why. It has become a bit pointless by now though. MW is more or less dead in Germany now, on LW you get a few french and british stations, maybe SW migt still be interesting.

Back on topic: I would still expect to see signs of (over)heating on the resistor if the damage was done by overcurrent. Slight over currents usually result in high temperature of the whole component and the sureounding area, cracked parts usually are the result of massive overcurrents and overvoltages. In that case you would eypect to see signs of excessive heat and even arcing. The energy do burst the component has to come from somewhere.