MAX232 problems

[Art]

To be honest, I’ve never read such a post complaining about heat from any of them, but at the same time, am not here a whole lot these days.

If a chip was overheating while still functioning, oscillation from a floating input is the first thing I’d suspect,
but in modern times, anything other than stock logic is becoming more & more likely to include diode clamping, ESD/transient protection, etc.
Stock logic has become a thing of the past for most people other than me, and your typical PGA that replaces them will usually have internal pull-ups as well.

In modern times, I’d certainly replace rule number one with “Study the data sheet”.

[Dave]

If the parts you are using are original MAX232's then first I would look for the capacitor polarity's being correct. The original MAX232 devices required a 1 uF. cap for each of the up and down converters.