[Elecraft] dead K2 front panel - any recent bad components cause this?

[Wallace, Andy]

Was /P last week and used the K2 several times from
there. Worked fine.

Thursday, I switched it on and got a disappointment:
slight (normal) thump in the speaker, no relay clicks,=20
and dark front panel. Turning the AF gain up all the
way, I heard a slight hiss. No diagnostic equipment
with me, but I did open the rig up, dismount the cover
(with KAT2) and saw that it still was dead. No LEDs,
no backlight, no LCD display, no receive.

Did not smell anything cooked/hot.

Got back and started looking at it yesterday: metered
the collectors on the finals to make sure they were
not shorted, and checked the 12V input line. No
problems.

Powered on and -- it worked! Normal operation all
around. Hmm.

Anyone else with a recent bad-component intermittent
issue?

My rig is serial 31xx. I figured the 5V or 8V=20
regulator had popped, but apparently not. Recently
built and installed the KSB2 and K160RX boards.
Will open it up again and check to make sure no
long leads are shorting to the RF board, and
make sure there are no unsoldered connections.
As it had been working fine for weeks, I doubt it,
but you never know.

Would the final(s) being shorted to the case cause
this symptom? I figured not, because that should
have caused the 12V fuse to open and I'd
have no audio, no hiss or anything, yet I did.

Andy