I received 100 PT2258 ICs from Futurlec a couple of weeks ago and just fitted the first one to my prototype PCB this afternoon.
It ran very hot. I assumed I had made an error with the board design, but that was not the case. I fitted another IC with the same result. I discovered that both ICs read about 3 ohms between the Vcc and analog ground pins. I've now tested 22 of them and 10 of them read less than
60 ohms. The rest are over 30K. Of course, I don't trust any of them.
Looks to me like these have been subjected to a static discharge, and if so, is a first to me in over 25 years. I have a good anti static procedure, so am very confident it didn't happen here.
I had small concern when they arrived as the tubes had all been cut in half and they were not in a metallic bag, but I've had CMOS sent this way many times in the past (although, not from overseas) without any problems.
Anyway, I've e-mailed Futurlec to see how they handle this, and wonder if anyone else here has had a similar problem with Futurlec or another supplier.