Summary of S3DPU/SWICS/SWIMS/SEPICA activities for the weeks of
8/23-29 and 8/30-9/3

On 8/23/98, the S3DPU reset itself completely for the third time since 7/8/98.
As in both of the previous resets, SWICS and SWIMS were put into standby and
SEPICA was turned off by the spacecraft autonomy current limit condition. A
power cycling of the S3DPU had been planned should a third reset occur, and
this was performed on 9/2/98. SWICS and SWIMS were turned back on for the
period between the reset and the power cycling, and Sepica was left off. All
three instruments were restarted on 9/2/98 after the cycling.

The power cycling of the S3DPU may restore nominal behavior in the S3DPU, but
examination of the resets will continue.  It is an inherently difficult
problem to diagnose because the resets clear all traces of the conditions that
caused them, however some progress has been made. The spare S3DPU at the
University of New Hampshire has recently undergone spontaneous resets of a
similar nature.  This may make it possible to use tracing equipment from the
S3DPU manufacturers to isolate the problem. Meanwhile, the S3DPU software team
is developing a patch that will download flight program code memory to detect
any lingering corruptions that may exist there after a reset.