Once again, knowing no end to repairing things, I saw an HP 5316a come up on eBay for cheap ($20), that I bid on first thing, and ended up winning. Not sure I WANTED to win it, but hey, it’s a repair, I’m cool with doing those. Maybe I’ll be able to resell it, maybe not. *shrug*
3 days later, it showed up on my doorstep via FedEx, and looked to be in good condition, except the missing handle and feet, as described by the seller. Initial power up showed it power up okay, but never register any count. The gate LED would trigger, as would the sensitivity LED, and both could be adjusted. I did get a alternating flashing of the HP-IB LEDs on the front panel though (at this time, I didn’t know what this meant).
After opening the unit, I noticed two empty sockets, one on the HP-IB (GPIB) card, and one on the main board. It appeared they were used for a ribbon cable between the two, but the cable was missing. Also, another power up showed an E2 error (which translates into a failed HP-IB card)… which isn’t surprising given the connection to the HP-IB card was missing. I’m just not sure why it booted okay previous to that.