Re: Quadra 610 screen

[Jeff Walther]

On May 3, 6:11 am, Gregg Eshelman  wrote:
> --- On Mon, 5/3/10, larry moore & shirley allan  
> wrote:
>
> > Ok. We have a scheduled drive to the city at the end of May
> > - if I can't
> > DIY an adaptor before then,
> > we'll put it on the shopping list. Thanks, Larry
>
> Here's the information you need to build an
> adapter.http://www.ralentz.com/old/mac/hardware/dale-adams/video-quad8-centri...

The original poster could take a look at last Friday's postings to the
LEM Swaplist, where he'd see that I'm selling the Mac to VGA adapters
for $4.50 shipped (w/in USA), probably considerably less than the
parts to DIY one.  So unless he just wants to build one for the fun of
it...

Of course this will only get his old Mac connected to a newer
monitor.  It won't connect a newer machine (VGA style plug) to the old
Apple Color Display.  That's a different adapter.

I picked up a box of the things on Ebay once, mainly to keep them out
of a landfill and preserve the old Mac stuff.   So now I sell them for
just enough to make it worth putting them in an envelop and addressing
it.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Mac 128 Repair Advice

[Jeff Walther]

On May 4, 3:28 am, Gregg Eshelman  wrote:
> --- On Mon, 5/3/10, J. Alexander Jacocks  wrote:
>
> > I have a Mac 128k that _seems_ to boot fine, off of the
> > internal 400k
> > drive, based on the drive sounds, and the initial beep, at
> > power-on.
> > However, the internal CRT has a white dot at the center,
> > and nothing else.
>
> Analog board problem, failure of both the horizontal and vertical drive 
> circuits. High voltage
> is still working because you have the dot, there's also power to the 
> deflection coils but
> they're not doing any deflecting.

Could just be pin 1 on the logic to analog board cable.  That's a
pretty common failure.   Try whopping the machine on the upper left
side and see if the screen comes back for a moment.If so, find the
cable that connects the logic board to the analog board.   Find the
connector at the analog board side.   Remove the cardboard cover from
the outside of the analog board and desolder and then resolder pin one
of the connector.  Pin 1 is the pin by itself on one side of the blank
position on the connector.

The cardboard cover is held on with double sided sticky foam which is
available at Radio Shack (or was years ago) in a package of little
three inch strips.   Scrape off the old sticky foam and replace the
cardboard cover.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Quadra 610 screen

[Jeff Walther]

On May 3, 4:11 pm, larry moore & shirley allan
 wrote:
> Jeff Walther wrote:
> > The original poster could take a look at last Friday's postings to the
> > LEM Swaplist, where he'd see that I'm selling the Mac to VGA adapters
> > for $4.50 shipped (w/in USA), probably considerably less than the
> > parts to DIY one.  So unless he just wants to build one for the fun of
> > it...

> Having a store-bought *would* be more eye-sweet than one of my rat-tails :-)
> Ask if the USPS will send COD to Canada?

Response sent in private email.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Quadra 610 screen

[Jeff Walther]

On May 3, 4:04 pm, Scott Holder  wrote:
> On 5/3/2010 3:23 PM, Jeff Walther wrote:
>
> > 
>
> > I picked up a box of the things on Ebay once, mainly to keep them out
> > of a landfill and preserve the old Mac stuff.   So now I sell them for
> > just enough to make it worth putting them in an envelop and addressing
> > it.
>
> > Jeff Walther
>
> How would you rate the quality of the ones you got? I've bought several
> dirt cheap ones over the years (not from you, mind you) and they've
> rarely lasted very long. I'm not sure if it's all the switches that make
> them fragile, or if they're just very poorly made, or what, but they
> always seem to die quickly.

Well, I haven't tried hammering on them...but I have been using
several of these for more than fifteen years without a failure.
These adapters are the same type that Viewsonic used to send out on
request if you bought one of their monitors.  Way back when, Viewsonic
was kind of middle of the road for monitor manufacturers as far as Mac
support went.  Some monitor manufacturers were enlightened enough to
include a Mac adapter in the box.  Viewsonic's policy was that they
would send you an adapter on request if you supplied them with the
serial number from the monitor.

The adapters were also sold under the name UniMacFly and this
particular batch, which I got on Ebay, appears to have been associated
with IBM monitors, I think, because the packaging has a Gxxx part
number on it, which, IIRC was the format some IBM monitors used.

Anyway, as far as switch settings, I have, on occasion, had to fiddle
with the switch settings when the current setting was causing
limitations.   However, in general, if one chooses the multi-res
setting for the largest resolution that your monitor supports, then
the things are attention free.   In these days of inexpensive high
resolution monitors that usually means the highest resolution that the
adapter has a setting for.

The way the settings can cause problems, IIRC, is if you set it for
1024 X 768 for example, and your monitor only supports 832 X 624.
Then the computer senses the code, outputs 1024 X 768 and the monitor
can't synch to it.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Getting an SE on ethernet?

[Jeff Walther]

On May 2, 3:45 pm, Boyer Jason  wrote:
>   In addition to finding a PDS ethernet card for the SE, I'm going to
> need to find a way to get ethernet on a non expansion slot mac.
> Are there recommendations or places I could obtain a SCSI to
> ethernet or serial to ethernet adaptor?

The SCSI to Ethernet adapters were made by Asante, Dayna and
Farallon.  Asante made at least three different models.  In addition
to the Micro EN/SC for PowerBooks, there was the Desktop EN/SC
(sometimes called the Mini):
<http://amro_akiba.at.infoseek.co.jp/network/desktopensc.JPG>

And the full sized (probably the original) EN/SC:

<http://geektechnique.org/projects/asante.html>

The latter two have DB25 SCSI ports making them easy to connect to a
Classic II.   They may not have RJ45 jacks, but they will have AUI
ports and AUI to 10baseT transceivers are cheap and plentiful.

I do not know if they will transmit TCP/IP packets.

I know of no serial port to ethernet adapter.  Either of the Mac's
serial ports can be configured to act as a LocalTalk network port and
there are LocalTalk to Ethernet bridges available, again by the three
companies mentioned above.  Asante made the AsantePrint originally and
then slimmed it down to the MicroAsantePrint.   Then later they
dropped many of the fancier network utilities that one would probably
never use at home and changed the name to the AsanteFast.   The latter
came out about when the iMac came out.   There was still a lot of
LocalTalk in use at that time and the iMac was the first Mac with no
LocalTalk support, but it had built-in ethernet, so the AsanteFast was
a convenient way for folks to get the iMac on their old LocalTalk
networks.

However, IIRC the Localtalk/Ethernet bridges only bridge AppleTalk
packets, and not TCP/IP packets.

The Mini EN/SC is somewhat hard to find.But there were a lot of
them, way back when.  The MicroAsantePrint or AsanteFast should be
pretty easy to find.   I haven't kept track of current pricing.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Quadra 610 screen (Mac to VGA adapter)

[Jeff Walther]

Hi Joe,

Here's the link to the message:



Jeff


On May 4, 2:30 pm, Joe Scott  wrote:
> Jeff,
> I'm having trouble tracking down last Friday's postings, and I'm in
> need of a couple of these adapters.
> Please email me if you have a chance. Thank you!
> isit...@yahoo.com
>
> Joe
>
> >>> The original poster could take a look at last Friday's postings
> >>> to the
> >>> LEM Swaplist, where he'd see that I'm selling the Mac to VGA
> >>> adapters
> >>> for $4.50 shipped (w/in USA), probably considerably less than the
> >>> parts to DIY one.  So unless he just wants to build one for the
> >>> fun of
> >>> it...
>
> --
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Re: Flash on Vintage Macs

[Jeff Walther]

On May 6, 1:22 pm, Wolf  wrote:
> how about SCSI to IDE instead? those adapters aren't too bad to get
>
> then from IDE to Compact Flash, which is extremely easy

Some folks over on 68kmla.net have gotten this working.  There seems
to be some importance in the CF card chosen, IIRC.

The Acard 7720U (SCSI to IDE bridge) was available on Ebay for about
$40 shipped ($30 + $10 ship) up until a year or so ago.
Unfortunately, that source has dried up.   Now they are hard to find
for much less than list price although they do turn up not
infrequently.

The thing needs a four pin floppy drive power connector (the type of
power connector used on PC floppy drives) to power it.  So typically,
one wants a power adapter which plugs into a hard drive power
connector and splits into another hard drive power connector and the
four pin floppy connector.

If you get a new one it will come with the necessary power adapter.
If  you buy a used one, it's worth paying a bit of attention to the
power adapter issue.   They're not expensive, only a couple of bucks,
but shipping can ding you, such that you could get a good price on a
used 7720U and then find that you've spent $10 more getting the power
adapter.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Hissing speaker Mac Portable

[Jeff Walther]

On May 13, 8:11 am, Britt Dodd  wrote:

> On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 8:12 AM, Nico Vanden Eynde  wrote:

> > There’s static/hissing noise coming from the internal speaker of my Mac
> > Portable.

> I dunno. That's actually what ive been working on for quite a while.
> I've repaired about 15 motherboards for Portables, and I'm still
> trying to nail down the speaker thing. My speaker doesn't even work
> anymore. I think I'm going to look at the ICs next.

I don't know if it's related

The Outbound Laptop Model 125 has a DA called HissFix which apparently
fixes a hissing problem with the speaker.   Could you be missing some
software component that the Portable expects?

The Laptop Model 125 is also a ~15 MHz 68000 based machine and was
introduced in 1989.

Jeff Walther

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Re: WTB: 68040 heatsink, IIci power supply

[Jeff Walther]

On May 13, 8:17 pm, MacFergus  wrote:
> Hey, Vintage People:
>
> Anybody got a spare heatsink & bracket for a 68040 type processor --
> the sort found on upper-end Quadra and LC logic boards?  I'd consider
> buying entire boards, or a working 33MHz or better 68040 processor if
> you got it.

You could just purchase an appropriate sized heat sink from an
electronics supplier such as Mouser or Newark.  Get one of the kind
with adhesive backing, so that you don't have to worry about how to
mount the thing to the chip.   Any 80486 sized heat sink will do, as
long as it isn't too tall for  your environment.

> Also looking for a replacement Power Supply for a IIci -- the Astec
> AA15830 with the 8-pin connector underneath.

You can also use the power supplies from the:  IIcx, IIvi, IIvx, Q700,
Centris 650, Q650 and PowerMac 7100.   Also, on the bench with the
logic board out of the case, the power supply from a IIsi will work
for testing purposes.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Flash on Vintage Macs

[Jeff Walther]

On May 13, 3:48 pm, Powerbook Project 
wrote:

> Interesting to see this topic come up once again.   My friend said the issue
> is not the engineering but low production volume will make these cost
> prohibitive.  Need to determine how large the market is for obsolete SCSI,
> is it thousands, or hundreds of thousands?  If there is large enough market
> that can be quantified, I will pursue this further and try to have these
> manufactured.

It is difficult to know the size of the market and even more difficult
to reach the entire market.  There are old computers other than
Macintoshes which enthusiasts are still using, which makes a wider
market.   There is also some kind of music production equipment which
uses SCSI drives.  When I had forty of the AEC-7720Us to sell I sold a
number of them to folks with some kind of musical equiment.   Can't
remember what the machines are called now.  It wasn't synthesizers.

My experience in this kind of thing, is that if you invest a
substantial sum, don't expect to get it back quickly.   The people who
buy this stuff for old equipment come by in dribs and drabs over long
periods.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Mac Plus flyback transformer?

[Jeff Walther]

On May 28, 1:07 am, Mac128  wrote:

> And finally this spreadsheet by James Wages with all the replacement
> part numbers.
>
>  http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AnmQLg8d1xThcE96S1Z0S3oxOUFiM...

And don't be too quick to remove your old flyback.   As far as I can
tell, there is *no* source for replacements other than cannibalizing
other machines at this point.  At least, if someone knows of a source,
I wish they'd let the rest of us in on it.

Jeff Walther

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Re: SE/30 floppy 'Simasi'

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 13, 9:42 pm, "Ryan C. Underwood"  wrote:
> I have an SE/30 that has been cleaned and had caps & battery replaced, and it
> boots and works fine -- except, when a floppy drive is plugged in.  In
> that case, I get a Simasi pattern.  The same drive works on another
> SE/30.  Wondering if I have a bad floppy chip, but has anyone else seen
> this?
>
> --
> Ryan C. Underwood
> runderwo(at)mail.win.org

If you have a voltmeter, I would hook it up to your 5V supply and see
if it drops significantly below 5V when the floppy drive is plugged in
and during the boot process.  Similarly for the 12V supply.

It could be that there's a short on the floppy drive, or it could just
be that your supply is already marginal (maybe only delivering 4.9V or
something) and the floppy drags it under the operating range of the
logic board.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Centris 610 won't boot, ? disk icon

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 22, 9:40 am, Alex Barnes  wrote:
> I have an LC that is doing the exact same thing. It's not the PRAM
> battery, or the logic board, or the HDD. The floppy drive must be
> dirty because right before my LC died it stopped reading floppies.

Another possibility, in both cases, is that the electronics on the
hard drive (or CD-ROM drive) died in such a way that the SCSI bus is
munged.

Now the original poster mentioned that he tried removing the hard
drive, but I'm not sure if he tried booting from the CDROM drive at
that time.  Even if he did, the hard drive may have been providing the
termination to the SCSI bus, so he would have had a termination issue
without the hard drive.

One should remove the hard drive, make sure termination is provided,
and try booting from the CDROM.   And the reverse, disconnect the
CDROM drive, make sure termination is properly provided and try
booting from the hard drive.

Of course, if the floppy is working on the original poster's machine,
he should try just unplugging the SCSI cable(s) altogether and see if
it will boot from a floppy.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Compact Flash on a Plus.

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 20, 9:18 am, Charlie  wrote:
>  I am attempting this holy grail
> of modifications for storage and noise reasons, and because my 20mb
> Qisk is on it it's last legs.
>
> I have obtained over the last couple of months an new SCSI drive
> enclosure, a SCSI to IDE converter, an IDE to CF adaptor and a 1GB CF
> Card.
>
> I put this lot together, plugged it in to my Plus (well you gotta
> try :-) booted from floppy and tried to run drive set up. No dice, No
> supported SCSI device detected.

I would start by getting the SCSI => IDE adapter to work with a
regular old IDE drive on your Mac Plus.   Once you've got that
working, switch out the IDE drive for the CF adapter.   That way
you're only rasslin' one alligator at a time.

I have also seen reports that the brand of CF card you use may matter.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Best NuBus Video card ?

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 3, 7:14 pm, Kevin Kelley  wrote:
>  I have a mac IIci with one last open NuBus slot (other two have audio
> media and Ethernet). I was wondering if anyone can recommend a NuBus
> video card that can support better than the on board Video quality? I
> am new to old macs and use them in my studio for interfacing with
> vintage audio equipment. I am running system 7 software and now
> (thanks to this list) have 68megs of RAM.
>  Any advice would be preferred.

What you actually asked is a bit different from your Subject line's
question.

The fastest NuBus video card ever produced is, as PM wrote, the
Thunder IV GX series, but also the Villagetronic MacPicasso 340 (not
the 320).  He/she mentioned the Thunder IV GX 1360 and the 1600, but
the 1152 and the Radius Thunder 24GT are the same card, just with less
VRAM (1152) and less VRAM & no DSP daughter card (24GT).

So:

Radius:
Thunder IV GX 1600
Thunder IV GX 1360
Thunder IV GX 1152
Thunder 24GT

Villagetronic:
MacPicasso 340

Raster Ops may have had a really fast card too, but I'm just not
familiar with their product line.

While the Radius and the Villagetronic are about tied for overall
performance, they excel in slightly different tasks, so one may be
faster for some purposes and hte other faster for other purposes.

Now, in the body of your message you asked for something faster than
the built-in video.   Many cards fit that criteria.

The consumer level Radius cards which were contemporaneous with the
Thunder IV series are good solid cards which will outperform the on-
board video.   These were the Radius Precision Color Pro 24 series.
There were a number of them with different VRAM amounts and so
different resolution and color depth abilities.   The Radius Precision
Color 24 is an earlier less capable card.  Note the "Pro".

E-Machines made the Futura II series at about the same time.  Those
are also good cards. Note that they are not the same as the Futura
series (no II).   Lowendmac claims that the resolution is set with a
rotary switch, but that is not true on the Futura II series.

Okay, that should give you plenty to look for.   There are any number
of other usable cards.  These were the last generation of NuBus cards
made and sold.

Jeff Walther


However,

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Re: Mac IIcx Power Supply

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 10, 11:40 pm, Matt Rhinesmith  wrote:
> Hey all, I have a Macintosh IIcx with no power supply. Does anybody here have 
> a
> pinout of the connector or a guide to converting a regular ATX PS? I'd like 
> to get this guy working.

I haven't seen the pinout on line, but it might help to know that it's
the same pinout as the IIcx, IIsi, IIvi, IIvx, Quadra 700, Centris
650, Quadra 650 and PowerMac 7100.

For that matter, the power supply from all of the above, except the
IIsi would work on your IIci.

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Re: Mac IIcx Power Supply

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 11, 11:05 am, Jeff Walther  wrote:
> On Aug 10, 11:40 pm, Matt Rhinesmith  wrote:
>
> > Hey all, I have a Macintosh IIcx with no power supply. Does anybody here 
> > have a
> > pinout of the connector or a guide to converting a regular ATX PS? I'd like 
> > to get this guy working.
>
> I haven't seen the pinout on line,

Replying to myself...

Gamba had a schematic of the IIci power-on circuitry on his site which
includes a listing of the power supply connector pins:

<http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/images/macIIcisch.GIF>

Look in the lower left hand corner of the diagram.   My only doubt is
whether the IIci power supply connector is really only ten pins.  I
thought it was more.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Mac IIcx Power Supply

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 12, 12:18 pm, "J. Alexander Jacocks"  wrote:

> It seems to me that a PicoPSU to IIcx/IIci/etc. cable would be a very
> useful thing, since a PicoPSU can fit in almost any power supply
> casing.  If I still had my IIci, I might have made one...

Yep, that would be cool, especially if, as Glen is experiencing, all
the old PSs are dieing about now.  I have not tested any of mine in a
couple of years.  I had one or two "new" service part ones in boxes,
but even an unused PS can die if the capacitors leak.

The only issue I see with such an adapter cable is that it would need
a small circuit board or box to house an inverter.  The Macintosh
models power on by bringing 5V to the Power-On pin.  The ATX power
supplies hold the "power-on" pin at 5V when off and ground it to turn
the supply on.

Unless I have that backwards

Jeff Walther

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Re: SE/30 taking offers

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 22, 9:09 pm, Jeff  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My SE/30 needs a new loving home. Packaging and shipping will be $50.
> It has 32mb ram, and a cabletron ethernet card.
>
> There are a few things wrong with it. There is some screen burn, as
> seen in the pictures. This is less noticeable when the screen is on.
> The hard drive does not spin up (stopped about 2 years ago). Lately it
> is not booting at all (4 months ago), no disk with a ? mark shows up,
> just a grey screen. The logic board caps have never been replaced, I
> believe this might get it booting again.

> I'm posting on this list, because I really want someone here to take
> it, and get it working again.  If you're interested, please contact me
> off list. I'm located in Austin, TX if you can pick it up to save the
> packaging and shipping costs.
>
> Thanks,
> Jeff

Hi Jeff,

I am in Austin, TX but don't especially need another SE/30.
However, if you do not find someone else to take it/ship it from you,
I would be willing to take it.

Jeff Walther
t...@io.com

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Re: Questions about a Hard Disk 20

[Jeff Walther]

On Sep 3, 1:18 am, Mac128  wrote:
> You're screwed. THe rive is fried.

To elaborate a bit...

The drive mechanism in those things is non-standard.  It is not just
SCSI or IDE with a funny connector.  And it doesn't seem to be MFM nor
RLL, although I couldn't swear that it's not the either of the latter
two.   So there's no available replacement drive mechanism once the
drive develops unrecoverable problems.

It is one of those things which would be cool if some hobbyist would
reverse engineer and build a replacement out of modern CF cards and an
FPGA or microcontroller, though.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Compact Flash replacement for 3.5" HD?

[Jeff Walther]

Nico Vanden Eynde wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In an SE/30, I have an Acard SCSI to IDE adapter connected to a Transcend
> SSD IDE of 8GB with SLC chips. It works like a charm, is very fast and of
> course noiseless. The only disadvantage is that you don't have the HDD
> activity led anymore.

According to the documentation for the 7720U, JP3 on the SCSI to IDE
adatper is an activity LED connector.  So you could hook up an LED to
that pin location and have your activity LED back.

> You do need extra brackets from 3.5 to 2.5" to fit the 2.5" SSD drive and an
> IDE adapter from 3.5" to 2.5" as well.

I have a bunch of 3.5" to 2.5" adapters with rails left over from when
I was selling 7720Us.  Fewer folks wanted the adapter than I
expected.   I'll sell them at $7.50 shipped within the USA.  These
include the 3.5" IDE connector to 2.5" IDE connector adapter board
with power connector, and rails which bolt onto the side of a 2.5"
drive to make it fit in a 3.5" drive space.

Outside the USA, $6 plus actual postage.

Jeff Walther
t...@io.com

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Re: ci board

[Jeff Walther]

Stuart Kurtzer wrote:
> I have three now defunct ci boards if anyone wants them.  Otherwise
> they're in the trash on Monday.

Where are you located?  Or more precisely, but less relevant to other
list members, what do you estimate shipping to 78759?

Jeff Walther

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Re: Looking for L2 pot of Mac Plus Analog board

[Jeff Walther]

Doug McNutt wrote:

> OK. I have one in my hot little hands. It came off an SE analog board that 
> did have a bad
> flyback. It measures 40.8 michohenries with the core centered and 13.2 
> microhenries with
> the core removed. And, the core still turns in it's plastic pipe.

Interesting.   That makes me wonder if the SLOT TEN-2-10 on this page
would work as a substitute.


I don' t see anything about what current it will support though,
unless that is contained in the Q number?

It's been a long time since I did inductors and I can't find my
Electromagnetics book

Jeff

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Re: logic board capacitors / Re: Mac Classic II parts

[Jeff Walther]

On Nov 5, 12:51 pm, Doug McNutt  wrote:

> It appears that the leaks, as opposed to explosions, allow acid to exit the 
> aluminum case via the elastomeric plug that allows the two leads to get to 
> the circuit board. Apparently a little bit of pressure permits leakage where 
> aluminum or copper meats the plastic. High pressure due to electrical abuse 
> will break the can at the the top, away from the circuit board, where scratch 
> marks are deliberately  made for the purpose. In either case the capacitor 
> fails as an electrical component.
>
> But it's the effect that the spilled acid has on the circuit board that I 
> worry about. The electrically conductive acid can be seen for centimeters 
> around the capacitors on a board if you look closely and that's why the 
> washing machine is often a temporary solution without changing capacitors.
>
> Storing the circuit board upside down might allow acid to flow by gravity 
> around the outside of the capacitor and possibly drip off the end far from 
> the circuit board. But then it's also possible that surface tension would 
> dominate and the circuit board would be affected anyway.
>
> I think I'll turn my collection of SE/30's over until I get aroundtuit.

I've taken to removing the old capacitors and spraying the board with
circuit board cleaner when I get "new" boards now.   I usually don't
have time to put new caps on right away, but at least this way I'm not
storing boards with leaking caps.  Unfortunately, there are several
boxes of boards and many full machines already in the attic with caps
still installed.   I need a roundtuit too.

Jeff Walther

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Re: The forgotten, fat generation of Mac Portables

[Jeff Walther]

On Nov 9, 11:05 am, "Dr. Hawkins"  wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 8:44 AM, Dan  wrote:
> > <http://www.reghardware.com/2010/11/09/macintosh_portable/>
>
> Some things it got wrong:

That video connector is not for a VGA monitor as some might assume.
If one connects a VGA monitor there one will probably blow out
internal components.   That port was a proprietary monitor port which
basically output the raw LCD panel data.   I think there were some
rare adapters which could interpret it and convert it to something a
monitor could understand.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Mac Plus value

[Jeff Walther]

Nat Hall wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 12:54 AM, Ron Soderblom wrote:
>
> > I am trying to determine what my mac plus and imagewriter II printer
> > are currently worth and seeking a buyer.
> >
> >
> I can't answer that, but I will say one thing: never, EVER use eBay BIN
> listings as a guide. A quick search reveals a yellowed Mac Plus, without
> keyboard, mouse, or any other peripherals, sold AS-IS (untested), for the
> bargain price of $341.96. Another listing features a Plus "complete" with
> keyboard and mouse for a mere $400.

Ebay is a strange and sometimes irritating place.   I once bid on a
Fujitsu Magneto Optical Drive (DynaMO:  think ZIP drive with six times
the capacity per disk and infinitely more reliable and media priced
the same per piece).  I think I bid about $25.   I was outbid.   A few
hours after the auction, the winning bidder had the gall to spam me
about  his online store which was full of MO drives all priced for
several hundred dollars each.   So the guy outbids me and then tries
to sell me the item in question for thirty times what I bid on it.

His business model seemed to be to buy all of the MO drives that ever
showed up and monopolize the supply.  I already had three of the
drives and occasionally find them at Goodwill for $10, so I happily
ignored him.  I hope he's choked on his businees strategy.

> As for the ImageWriter II Well, I'm pretty sure the IW II shipped more
> units than any other printer in the history of mankind so you probably
> shouldn't expect much there. On the other hand, if your unit is mint and
> still with the original packaging it might be worth a small chunk of change
> to some collector type on the lookout for a pretty looking IW II to round
> out his collection.

The IWII can sell for a nice chunk of money if it includes a working
Cut Sheet Feeder.  Of course, in those circumstances, one can just
sell the Cut Sheet Feeder by itself, and let the buyer find an IWII
lying in a ditch by the road or sitting on a shelf in an old
warehouse.

I, of course, have an IWII with the Cut Sheet Feeder, the LocalTalk
Option, and the MicroSpot MacPalette II extension (print driver) that
allows the four color ribbon to dither millions of colors.I think
I use it about once a year.   Nevertheless, I have spares for the
major circuit boards and the print head sequestered in the attic for
that day when it fails to power up and print right.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Mac Plus value

[Jeff Walther]

James Fraser wrote:
> Hello,
>
> --- On Wed, 11/24/10, Jeff Walther  wrote:
>
> >A few hours after the auction, the winning bidder had the gall to
> >spam me about  his online store which was full of MO drives
> >all priced for several hundred dollars each.   So the guy
> >outbids me and then tries to sell me the item in question for thirty times 
> >>what I bid on it.
>
> I'm guessing this was quite a while ago.  Fairly recently, (2008-ish?  
> Anyone?) eBay took it upon themselves to conceal bidders' identities.

Yep.  I'm not sure how long ago.  I didn't put a time stamp on my
memory.  And with the modern storage devices, MO is not nearly as
attractive now so I can't imagine shopping for another drive now
days.  Nevertheless, a nice SCSI MO drive isn't a bad thing to have
with a vintage Macintosh.  It is vastly better than an old ZIP drive.


> Anyhow, IIRC, wasn't the cut sheet feeder prone to jamming?  I'm dredging the 
> hoary vaults of memory here, but I believe I messed with one a few times 
> way-back-when, and the game just didn't seem worth the candle. Although, to 
> be fair, I always had an unhappy penchant for printing out hard copies mere 
> minutes before I desperately needed them, so just about -any- delay in the 
> output was maddening. :)

I've never had any trouble with mine.   But who knows what the average
experience was like.   After I hooked mine up I pretty much never went
back to the form feed paper.
> > colors.I think I use it about once a year.
>
> I have to ask: what application calls for such a setup on an annual basis? 
> [scratches head]
>
> (You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I am curious.)

It's not an annual event.  I just figure I use the printer about once
a year.   It's probably silly because I have a postscript laser
printer and a Localtalk <=> ethernet bridge, so it's not like the IWII
is providing functionality that I don't have in another newer better
printer.

> >Nevertheless, I have spares for the major circuit boards and the print >head 
> >sequestered in the attic for that day when it fails to power up and >print 
> >right.
>
> I'm guessing you acquired all this stuff quite some time ago, as I can't 
> imagine how long it's been since Apple was offering spares for the IWII.  @_@

Most of it I obtained from a university auctioning off old stock from
their computer service center.

Jeff Walther

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Re: 64MB RAM LC 575

[Jeff Walther]

On Dec 8, 12:17 pm, Neo Winston  wrote:
> Friends,
>
> I'd like to put on a 64MB RAM module on my LC 575, and I know that it handle 
> only single-banked SIMMs.
>
> Could any friend please point me out an eBay auction for that, because I'm 
> confused with so many options to chose from.

The LC575 is nearly identical (is identical?) in architecture to the
LC475/Q605.   I would be very surprised if a  two bank 128MB SIMM
would not work in there.   I've had the Q605 up to 260MB using  a SIMM
tree and a pair of 128MB SIMMs.  Of course, then I couldn't close the
lid...

These part numbers are for fairly common 64Mb and 128MB 72 pin SIMMs
which work in the Mac.  D4893 ,D4290 ,KMM53632000.   If I remember
correctly, the first and last are HP and Samsung part numbers for the
same 128MB SIMM.  The middle one is an HP part number for a 64MB
SIMM.   Note that these 128MB SIMMs do not work in the 6100 (at least
not for me), I think, because the RAS lines are paired backwards to
how the 6100 pairs them.   But that shouldn't matter for you.

Here's a 128MB SIMM on Ebay for $15.99 with free shipping.   The Item
Description says "ECC" but it's not.   It's just plain vanilla parity,
which the Mac will happily ignore.
<http://cgi.ebay.com/128MB-ECC-SIMM-KMM53632000AK-6U-D4893-69001-/
110542177748?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19bcd3c5d4>

And a little google searching turns up many reports of 128MB SIMMs
working in the LC575.

The only thing to watch out for is whether the SIMM is too tall for
your case.

Here's a shorter 64MB SIMM, but the seller doesn't provide
information, nor a clear enough photo for me to be certain that it's a
good choice.  My main concern is that it should only have eight chips
on it.  If it has sixteen, (another eight on the other side) then this
one may not work:
<http://cgi.ebay.com/64MB-EDO-non-Parity-72-Pin-SIMM-Memory-Upgrade-/
380297121499?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item588b798edb>

Jeff Walther


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Re: Macintosh SE FDHD screen jumbles when initializing drive.

[Jeff Walther]

On Dec 15, 7:53 am, chrisA  wrote:
> > And all of the 1 MB SIMMs I've been using
> > have 2 chips on them.
>
> I nearly posted about this yesterday, but assumed you'd got 8 or 9-
> chip SIMMs since they worked in the IIci. I tried a couple of 2-chips
> in my SE once, and it did not like them.

I have never had any problems using two-chip SIMMs.  I suspect that
the problem is limited to a very small range of the two chip SIMMs.

Logically, two chip SIMMs look just like eight chip SIMMs to the
computer.   The only issues might be electrical, in that perhaps two
chips don't load the address busses with enough impedance and the bus
rings (signal reflections) or something.

Heck, I've built two chip IIfx SIMMs and those work.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Looking for sna.ps

[Jeff Walther]

On Dec 30, 6:26 am, Götz Hoffart  wrote:
> A friend of mine writes me:
>
> --->8-->8-->8---
>
> I recently saved an old AS/400 box from being dumped. Since I'm a long 
> standing Mac user, I'd like to experiment with sna.ps on old boxes of mine. I 
> have a IIfx with a Token Ring board and also the AS/400 has Token Ring. The 
> ring itself works ok for TCP/IP. Can't test more, yet.
>
> I'm searching for the original Apple sna.ps software in any version for 
> getting the two worlds together. Anyone has it? Perhaps this is the wrong 
> place to ask but I'm also searching for the AppleTalk PTF for OS/400 V4R4M0 
> to enable the AS/400 speaking AppleTalk natively.
>
> Thanks!
>
> :wq! PoC
>
> --->8-->8-->8---

This is a good place to ask, although that is an unusual one.

You should also ask on one of the two Classic Computers lists, because
of the AS/400 connection and the software you're looking for is
actually for the AS/400, so Mac users are less likely to have it
archived.

<http://www.classiccmp.org/lists.html>

Jeff Walther

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Re: ImageWriter II Color Driver. (Microspot's MacPalette II)

[Jeff Walther]

On Feb 15, 6:05 am, Pezza_Mac  wrote:
> I am desperately trying to find a copy of a RARE driver for the
> ImageWriter II. The driver allows for properly dithered color printing
> on a Mac.
>
> It came form a company called "Microspot". The product was called
> "MacPalette II".
>
> I have done some small amount of searching and I know that at least
> ONE person has heard of it. Someone who is called "Jeff Walther ".
>
> If you see this Jeff, please help me if you can!

Please keep in mind that there are two versions of MacPalette II.
One is the serial version for use with serially connected IWIIs and
the other is the AppleTalk version for use with IWIIs which have the
LocalTalk option installed.

A fellow on the Classic Computers email list works or worked for
Microspot and he emailed me within the last few years that they still
have a few copies on hand.  I don't remember whether it was the serial
or AppleTalk version and he didn't know pricing.   Microspot is still
in business, so you could email them and inquire.

sa...@microspot.co.uk

They also have phone numbers on the their contact list, but they're in
the UK and it may be an international call.

Jeff Walther

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Re: ImageWriter II Color Driver. (Microspot's MacPalette II)

[Jeff Walther]

On Feb 16, 8:55 am, chrisA  wrote:
> > Got both the LocalTalk and normal serial versions of the driver?
>
> There's only one, and I've no idea which it is. The two docs that come
> with it don't mention LocalTalk or serial connections at all. The
> archive contains:
>
> MacPalette II
> Microspot Backgrounder
> Microspot Print Starter

You can always tell by how it behaves in the Chooser.  Of course, one
must download it first.

If it asks you to choose between the printer and modem port, it is
obviously the serial version.   I'm not sure, but I think the
AppleTalk version will give you an error message if AppleTalk is not
enabled, but in any case, it won't give you the serial port icons in
the chooser window.

Jeff Walther

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Re: ImageWriter II Color Driver. (Microspot's MacPalette II)

[Jeff Walther]

On Feb 21, 1:04 am, Gregg Eshelman  wrote:
> I want to see what a 24 bit color photo looks like printed in color in an IW 
> II. :)

MacPalette II is a bit like the dancing bear.  The wonder isn't that
it dances so well, but that it dances at all.

Which is actually a bit unfair to Microspot.  MacPalette II produces
beautiful output considering that it is working with 144dpi dot matrix
output.   But remember that it is working with 144dpi dot matrix
output

Has anyone gotten it to print text clearly?   I can never get good
text output from the thing, but maybe I've botched a setting.

Jeff Walther

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Re: lost password Macintosh 2si

[Jeff Walther]

On Mar 1, 2:37 pm, Britt Dodd  wrote:
> Oh!!! I know whats going on. Porgrams like FWB could password protect a
> volume. I did this before on accident and it seemed to operate similiarly to
> what you're describing, although im sure 9 other programs did things
> similiarly.

If your hard drive formatting utility was used to set up the drive
with a password, you're probably out of luck.   I don't recall ever
reading of ways to hack around that, although I have a vague memory
that there were some for the older password schemes -- then my memory
tells me that was for the old TI-59 mag strip cards...

Anyway, two things you can do...

If you can remember which hard drive formatting utility was used to
set up the drive, use that to "Initialize" or "Install Driver" on the
drive.   Do not format the drive.   When you're done the drive will
appear blank, but all (or most of) your old files should still be
there.  You can then use something like Norton Disk Doctor to recover
the contents.

You might also try a bootable Norton disk before initializing the
drive to see what it tells you.

Or, you can just use a formatting utility to format the drive.   This
will make the drive usable, but you'll lose the contents for sure.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Thanks to this list, my Quadra 840 might live!

[Jeff Walther]

On Mar 9, 9:25 pm, Jeffrey Shaw  wrote:

> From what I'm reading, I just need to buy a $5 battery. What a relief!

I doubt that will solve the issues.  The power supply in the 840AV is
not one which requires a good battery in order to boot properly.  On
the other hand, it's an easy, inexpensive thing to try first and you
probably do need a new battery.  It just won't solve your booting
problem, probably.

> I was
> afraid I'd have to pay someone hundreds of dollars to replace all the
> capacitors which I'd be willing to do.

If he has the time, Phreakout over on 68kmla.net can do it for
considerably less than that.  Disclaimer:  He'll send you to me for
the capacitors, so I do have a *tiny* (~$10) financial interest in
mentioning him.

> Since I have a real job now, I'm thinking of doing everything I can to
> upgrade my Quadra to the max. I'm looking 
> athttp://lowendmac.com/quadra/quadra-840av.htmlto
> see what I can do.

> What kind of RAM do I get? EDO appears to be the most common type of 72pin
> 60ns memory on ebay. I see that, FPM, and parity. I'm not sure what all of
> these are, or which work.

FPM, parity and EDO will all work fine.  32 MB SIMMs really are the
maximum on the 840AV.  For some machines, Apple said 32MB but 64MB and
128MB SIMMs work, but the memory controller in the 840AV really does
limit you to 32MB SIMMs in the 840AV (and PM7100, and PM8100).


> For nubus cards, I have a FWB Jackhammer, and a Radius Spigot Pro AV. What
> would be some really cool Nubus cards to get for it? Anything that would
> make Marathon more playable would be really cool, but I don't know of
> anything that would do that.

The built-in video is probably going to be your fastest performer for
Marathon.   Max out your VRAM if you haven't already.   The NuBus
interface limits the bandwidth too much on NuBus based video cards and
Marathon is very bandwidth dependent.

For example, in the NuBus Power Macs, even in a PM8100/110, Marathon
does not do very well on a Radius Thunder IV GX (best NuBus video card
ever, except maybe Villagetronic MacPicasso 340).  However, it does
very well indeed from the HPV video card which has a PDS (direct to
processor bus)  interface.   The Thunder IV GX will beat the HPV card
for some QuickDraw based operations, because the Thunder card
accelerates many QuickDraw operations in hardware, but Marathon isn't
about QuickDraw routines. It's about slinging frames across the bus
and out the video card and that's all about bandwidth.

Jeff Walther

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Re: LC580/6500/G3 lost its video

[Jeff Walther]

On Mar 20, 8:28 pm, Bruce - in Orlando 
wrote:

> 4. Since the 580-630 series board had worked "correctly," I assumed
> that its PRAM battery was okay, and plugged that one into the 6500
> board.  Still no luck.
>
> Having gone thru this sequence, I am pretty much left to conclude that
> the problem is on the 6500 motherboard, not on any of the RAM or other
> cards.  Can anybody think of anything else before I turn to the LEM
> swap list for a new motherboard?

The 6500 board requires a 3.3V supply which the earlier chassis do not
provide, IIRC.  I would guess that that is your problem.  You might
check some of the Color Classic sites, where they wedge any newer
board that will fit into the Color Classic.   I think they have some
instructions for mods to handle the 3.3V issue there.  I do not know
the details.

Jeff Walther

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Re: AppleDesign Powered Speakers volume issue

[Jeff Walther]

On Mar 28, 10:14 pm, Glen Waterman  wrote:
> but if the volume of the music is
> very quiet when compared to the rest of a track (say, the first few
> notes of the slide guitar solo in Zeppelin's 'What Is and What Should
> Never Be' for example), the sound will cut out completely.

> Is this a known design/performance issue with these types of speakers,
> or is it just mine?

I don't know about those specific speakers.  However, there were a
number of speaker models from various manufacturers, back in the day,
which had circuitry to turn the amplifiers off and save power if there
was no signal coming from the source.   Some of these speakers had
trouble with low volume passages, and would go to sleep during those
passages, thus ruining the enjoyment of such pieces.

You might try playing the same musical piece with the volume of your
Macintosh set to the highest level (in the Sound Control Panel) and
see if it still happens, if you aren't already operating that way.

Jeff Walther

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Re: how do I find out what specs my mac classic has?

[Jeff Walther]

On Apr 9, 6:24 pm, Gregg Eshelman  wrote:

> Good luck finding a RAM upgrade board if your Classic doesn't have one.
>Apple didn't make as many of the boards as they did Classics.

There were third-party upgrade boards as well.   Typically, with all
three megabytes soldered down to the card and no SIMM sockets.

Ten years ago, I used to see those in the bins at Goodwill all the
time.

But Gregg's primary point is correct.  The RAM upgrade is difficult to
find now.

Jeff Walther

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Retrospect Support Devices By Version?

[Jeff Walther]

Does anyone know of a list/page/site on which one can look up
supported device types by Retrospect version going back to at least v.
4.x?   This is the kind of thing that might have been back on
Versiontracker back before CNET ruined it.Some times this kind of
info gets written into the Wikipedia page, but it didn't this time.

I don't care about specific devices (like brand X, Model Y) but would
like to see things like CDRW support added here, DVDRW support added
there, DL DVD support added sometime later.   BR-RW support added in
version Z.

Figuring out a backup solution which will work with the mix of ancient
and not as ancient stuff running the particular OSs I run is like a
logic game and one driving factor is support for particular backup
hardware.

Specifically, I'm considering dumping DAT because the older affordable
drives are (compared to today's hard drive capacities) too slow and
the newer faster drives are too expensive.

I'm considering building an optical media storage box with four or
eight drives, either DL DVD-RW or BR-RW, but I suspect that the latter
would require too new of a version of Retrospect.   I'm not sure the
dual layer support is old enough either.

Retrospect will go on to the next piece of available media when it
fills one up, so if one has several drives, Retrospect will
automatically fill each piece of media present.   While one must still
switch media, this allows a much longer time between media swapping,
although one must swap several pieces instead of just one.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Retrospect Support Devices By Version?

[Jeff Walther]

On Apr 16, 11:28 am, Powermac  wrote:
> DDS3 (12/24GB )/4 (20/40GB) drives and media are cheap and will backup
> anything "classic" just fine. I started using AIT drives but I don't
> know if they are supported by retrospect (50GB native/120GB
> compressed). It is easier just to dump all your user files to a main
> server (I use an old Compaq server) and then backup from that or just
> mirror it.

DDS3 is too slow.   I have a couple of HP DDS3 Autoloaders (six tapes
each) but the data rate is just too slow for the size of modern hard
drives.

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Re: Retrospect Support Devices By Version?

[Jeff Walther]

On Apr 16, 9:38 am, Dan  wrote:
> At 10:05 AM -0700 4/15/2011, Jeff Walther wrote:
>
> >Does anyone know of a list/page/site on which one can look up
> >supported device types by Retrospect version going back to at least
> >v.4.x?
>
> Two minutes on Roxio's site got me 
> this:http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/retrospect/support/device-support.html

Yeah, that thing is broken for most of the searches I tried.  No
matter what limits I put in, it kept coming up with 2000+ results.
It worked okay when I asked just what Blue Ray support there was, but
didn't give any info about which version of Retrospect had it.  I
think one is meant to assume only the latest.

> But I recall an all encompassing pdf at one time from there.  It had
> all the devices listed and said what vers of Retrospect started the
> support for them.  If you search there, you'll probably find it.

So do I, but most of the old useful information seems to be gone from
Roxio's site.   I was hoping someone might have saved that old PDF.
It makes sense from Roxio's point of view.  There's really no reason
for them to care about anything older than version 8 or maybe 6, but I
have versions of Retrospect going back to 2.   I guess what I should
do is pull down the boxes and look through each package's
documentation.

Jeff Walther

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Re: vintage macs

[Jeff Walther]

On May 24, 1:38 am, "spokaneval...@juno.com" 
wrote:
> I have some old machines in a storage shed
> mac classic, mac plus. classic ll etc
>
> let me know if you are looking for any older macs

It is a good idea to list your location with such offers because the
shipping costs are often as much or more than the machine is worth.
Folks who are local to you will therefore be more interested.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Macintosh SE/30 does not boot + burning smell

[Jeff Walther]

On May 23, 6:21 am, N3C14R  wrote:
> Hello!
>
> Well recently I was given a free pristine SE/30 Mac that had been in
> storage in my family for roughly 20 years. Tried booting it up today
> but the first thing I noticed was some weird back and white
> checkerboard patterns and a faint burning smell which slowly gotten
> stronger until I switched it off.
>
> I tried turning it on for a second time but it displayed some vertical
> lines along with the burning smell, then I switched it off.
>
> But on the third time it made a repetitive sparking sound along with a
> thin vertical line that fluctuates every time the spark sound occurs,
> a bit like a heart rate monitor. Now it keeps doing that every time I
> turn it on.

The SE/30 has three (repairable) primary components, the analog board,
the logic board and the power supply.  It sounds to me like your
analog board and possibly power supply definitely need repair, and if
poor voltage from the power supply isn't causing your checkerboard
problem, then your logic board probably needs its thirteen
electrolytic capacitors replaced as well.

Here's a pretty good site about SE/30 repair:

<http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~shamada/fullmac/repairEng.html>

Another one:

<http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/se30repair.html>

Gamba passed away in 2007 and his page is up as a memorial, so don't
try to email him with questions, but it is still an excellent
resource.  The links from it are evaporating with time though.

Also, lots of SE/30 repair discussion on http://www.68kmla.net in the
Compact Macs forum.   Just reading the old threads in there could keep
you going for many hours.

If you're more of a book person, look for Larry Pina's "Macintosh
Repair and Upgrade Secrets" which covers the Mac SE.  The SE has all
the same guts as teh SE/30, except that the logic board is different.
Also, "Mac Classic & SE Repair and Upgrade Secrets" and "The Dead Mac
Scrolls".   These are all out of print and can be expensive, but are
often found at affordable prices.   You might also check your local
library for them.

Jeff Walther


Jeff Walther

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Re: Video memory chips in Macintosh SE/30

[Jeff Walther]

On May 31, 12:29 pm, Abel Ortiz Monasterio 
wrote:

> On May 31, 2011 2:34 AM, "QuoVadis"  wrote:

> > I've had, for some time now, a Macintosh SE/30.

> >When investigating the video
> > problem further (and some Googling) we discovered that one of the
> > video RAM chips had a short between pin 1 & 2. Probably because of
> > leaking caps, possibly washing the logic board.

> Does any one know if the part for the Mac SE will work?  I might have one
> around

First, please trim your quoted text, most especially including the
footer.   Second, this is the last top posted message to which I will
reply.   I fixed your quoting so that your message is bottom posted.

Third, no.  The SE uses system RAM for its video memory.  The SE/30
has what amounts to a very simple PDS video card on the logic board
with independent logic and its own VRAM.   There is no corresponding
part on the SE.

For the original poster, what are the part numbers on the video chips
again?   I know I had some "watched" on Ebay several months or years
back.  I don't remember if the seller shipped internationally or
not.   There are several different manufacturers for those video
chips, so you actually have a number of choices as to exact part
number.   I doubt that the parts are manufactured any more, so you're
probably looking at either finding old stock, or good reusable pulls.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Video memory chips in Macintosh SE/30

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 8, 6:09 am, QuoVadis  wrote:
> I've opened this SE/30 so many times that I need no more than a
> minute, these days.
>
> The numbers on the chip, from top to bottom:
>
> TMS 4461-15NL
> HHP 9022 9091S
> SINGAPORE
>
> Next to this, a logo is printed with a T in it, so I'm guessing that
> TMS is the name of the manufacturer.
> If anyone has any leads, I'd be glad to know!

I believe that was Texas Instruments, but as I wrote earlier, the
equivalent part was manufactured by several companies.

Searching on Ebay turns up several options, but these two appear to be
the most affordable:

<http://cgi.ebay.com/ONE-TI-TMS4461-TMS4461-15NL-RAM-IC-BOX-64-/
370267157659?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5635a4749b>

<http://cgi.ebay.com/TMS4461-12NL-TI-256K-Video-RAM-MB81461-
HM53461-53461-IC-/370290762883?
pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56370ca483>

They both have several available.   Pricing and shipping are slightly
different between the two, so you could choose the one that works best
for you.   Note that the second one lists several equivalent part
numbers.  That's useful.

Heck, may as well list them here:  53461, HM53461, M5M4C264, MB81461,
uT42C4094, MN47464, TMS4461

I'm going to list the sellers too, as Ebay listing expire after 90
days, so if someone looks up this posting more than three months from
now, it could be useful.   insa_electronics, ellyexcess

Jeff Walther

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Re: Video memory chips in Macintosh SE/30

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 9, 1:58 am, QuoVadis  wrote:
> Jeff,
>
> Thank you for your response! I'm going to see if I can get them to
> ship the chips across the pond (Europe).
>
> Should they not be willing to ship internationally, would it be
> possible to install a larger memorychip that has the same pin layout?
> Or would that not work with the installed Video ROM or graphics chip
> (if any)? Just a thought, as 1MB chips are possibly easier to come by.

I don't think you'll have any trouble getting at least one of them to
ship internationally.   One of them specifically discusses
international shipping in his Item Description, and I think he's
already in Europe.

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Re: Stubborn IIci

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 15, 7:12 pm, Lloyd Gold  wrote:
> Chances are very good that the only thing wrong with it was the battery.
> That is exactly what happens when the battery dies... 'course, the more ya
> mess with it the more chance of something else going wrong!

Not on the IIci.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Stubborn IIci

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 16, 9:20 am, Iamanamma  wrote:
>  I can't swipe the battery
> from the spare for the same reason.  It's in use.  Unfortunately, I am
> fresh out PRAM batteries of the 1/2 AA size, so I ordered some.  When
> I get them in, I will let you know how things turn out.

It won't make a lick of difference, unless your problem was caused by
a mis-seated power supply and when replacing the battery, you put the
power supply in correctly.  :-)

The problem is almost certainly leaking capacitors.   The evidence can
be really hard to spot.   It can be as subtle as a slightly darkened
area on the circuit board that looks like someone spilled a little
cola which has dried on.   In my experience, to be certain, one must
take the logic board out and observe it at an oblique angle to a light
source to really spot whether there is leakage.

But, in any case, there are some capacitors under the power supply
which are actually involved in the power-on circuitry -- not just
normal bypass capacitors.  Once those caps lose their ability to hold
a charge, the machine will no longer power on.

In bad cases they will corrode copper and solder on pads/pins or in
vias (holes in circuit board connecting top layer to bottom layer) and
cause electrical opens which are really hard to spot with the eye.
Back around '97 my IIci had this exact problem.  I had to bypass a via
with a little wire wrap run from upstream and downstream of the
corroded via.

Of course, you might just have two bad power supplies.   You don't
have a IIcx, IIsi, IIvi, IIvx, C650, Q650, Q700, or PM7100 logic board
that you could use to test the power supply do you?

Jeff Walther

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Re: Stubborn IIci

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 15, 4:25 pm, Dan  wrote:
> At 1:23 PM -0700 6/15/2011, Iamanamma wrote:
>

> >SO, does anyone know what to do to check the power supply to make sure
> >it's the problem?
>
> >OR do you folks something else catastrophically wrong with this little
> >old workhorse?
>
> Replace the PRAM battery.

The battery has no effect on whether the IIci will boot up.   It
affects other models, but not the ones which have the power supply
used in the IIci.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Stubborn IIci

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 16, 1:16 pm, John Carmonne  wrote:
> On Jun 16, 2011, at 11:10 AM, Jeff Walther wrote:

> > Of course, you might just have two bad power supplies.   You don't
> > have a IIcx, IIsi, IIvi, IIvx, C650, Q650, Q700, or PM7100 logic board
> > that you could use to test the power supply do you?
>
> > Jeff Walther
>
> Thanks for that info Jeff I didn't realize the MOBO's used the same PS.

The IIsi uses a different power supply, but it has the same power
supply connector and pinout, so one can test the other power supplies
with a IIsi logic board that has been pulled out of the case and vice
versa.   Otherwise, all those models use the same power supply.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Stubborn IIci

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 16, 2:43 pm, Dan  wrote:
> At 11:03 AM -0700 6/16/2011, Jeff Walther wrote:
>

> >The battery has no effect on whether the IIci will boot up.   It
> >affects other models, but not the ones which have the power supply
> >used in the IIci.
>
> My IIci does not boot with a dead/low/no battery.

Your power supply may not be providing proper 5V trickle.   There may
be other things that could cause that, but this seems the most
likely.   I can think of a test (see if the PRAM settings are retained
without the battery, but with the machine shut down but plugged in).
However, there's no way to do the test because you can't get the
battery out and back in without removing the power supply.  Sigh.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Strange Sound after Startup Chime (Dying Capacitors)

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 25, 7:28 am, "Wesley Furr"  wrote:
> GroanLOL!
>
> Do they tend to leak due to use (heat) and age, or is just being old enough
> for them to crap out?  I've got a little collection of old computers, just
> wondering if they are likely failing even though they are just sitting
> around 99.99% of the time (or more).

Yep, the caps can leak just sitting around.  I'm not sure if heat
accelerates the process.

I've taken to at least removing the old SM electrolytic caps before
storing a machine away, if I don't have time to do a full replacement
job.  No point in saving a machine or logic board for later, if when I
take it out again, the traces and vias on the logic board have been
eaten away by leaking capacitor goo.

On a similar note, always, always, always remember to remove the logic
board battery before storing a machine.  If you think capacitor goo is
damaging, leaking batteriesUgh.

Sometimes it doesn't take much age at all.  I have a IIci which had
capacitor damage back around '95 - '97.   I don't remember the exact
year, but I remember where I was living...   Leaking capacitors took
out a via and a couple of traces on the logic board and that was back
when a IIci was actually worth some money.   I was able to fix it by
cleaning it, tracing the damaged connections and bypassing with some
wirewrap, and replacing the dead caps.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Strange Sound after Startup Chime

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 25, 4:42 am, Gregg Eshelman  wrote:
> --- On Fri, 6/24/11, Duncan Mac Dougall  wrote:
>
> > Sounds like cap rot. The SMT electrolytic capacitors used in just
> > about anything electronic from the late 80s-mid 90s are at
> > the end of their lifespan. They will leak, causing the machine to
> > malfunction at best and corrode the motherboard at worst.
>
> To the tune of "Bad Boys" the COPS theme song... ;)
>
> Bad caps, Bad Caps
> Whatcha gonna do, Whatcha gonna do,
> When they leak that goo?



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Re: Strange Sound after Startup Chime (Dying Capacitors)

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 26, 11:33 am, Britt Dodd  wrote:
> They all go bad after a long lifetime. The plaugue happened when I was
> working at a computer repair shop. I went from seeing very few problems
> caused by capacitors to resoldering caps and replacing motherboards almost
> daily. The formula messup might have been bad for consumers, but it
> certainly was good for repair shops. Anything recent from around 04-07 would
> have this specific problem, but yeah overall after 10-15 years capacitors
> are just done.

All kinds of devices exhibit these problems.  As Britt wrote, the caps
have a limited lifetime.  This is also true of the tantalum caps that
make good replacements.   While the tantalums eventually wear out
also, they have a longer lifespan, and they don't leak corrosive goo
when they die.

I've also repaired three different VCRs which started behaving
erratically by replacing the caps in the power supply unit.  There's
an outfit on the web that sells rebuild kits for the power supplies.
One day the VCR just stops responding properly to the remote, or
starts responding erratically.  Usually there'll be one or two
instances of unexpected behaviour before it goes completely.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Stubborn IIci

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 24, 8:31 am, Iamanamma  wrote:

> > Of course, you might just have two bad power supplies.   You don't
> > have a IIcx, IIsi, IIvi, IIvx, C650, Q650, Q700, or PM7100 logic board
> > that you could use to test the power supply do you?

> I think you are probably right about the capacitors.  I replaced the
> PRAM battery, and it had a big fat zero effect, so  I took another
> look at the motherboard in full sunlight, and there is sticky brown
> gunk at the base of most of the caps.
>
> I have 3 IIsi's and a couple of 7100s,  I've never tested a power
> supply from one Mac model in another Mac model.  Is there anything
> special I should know, or is it simply "take old power supply out, put
> in the one to be tested?"

For the 7100s it is that simple.   The IIsi's use a different size of
power supply and it will not fit in the IIci case.  Nor will the IIci
supply fit in the IIsi case.   But the IIsi and IIci use the same
power supply connectors and arrangement of voltages.

So, if you use the IIsi, you must take the logic board and power
supply out of the case and set the power supply on the logic board
connector.  You may need to arrange some way to support the power
supply (put a book under one edge) to keep it stable atop the logic
board with the connectors mated.

I would first test the donor machine, to make sure that both
components are, in fact working.   Then you can use the logic board
and power supply from the donor machine to test the complementary
component in your machine-under-test.

When testing outside the case, I usually start with a logic board with
a bit of RAM installed.  Don't connect a storage device.Connect a
monitor.  Definitely connect a speaker.   Possibly connect a keyboard,
but one can use the switch at the back of the logic board to turn the
machine on.

Power up and listen for the start up sound.  Watch the monitor for the
gray screen and then floppy emblem with question mark.Rinse,
repeat.

Make sure you haven't set the logic board on a conductive surface...

Jeff Walther

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Re: Strange Sound after Startup Chime (Dying Capacitors)

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 26, 1:15 pm, "Wesley Furr"  wrote:
> How do you manage to replace those puny little surface-mount jobbies though?
> Through-the-board electrolytics aren't a problem, I've done a number of them
> over the years...

There are two types of surface mount capacitor on the boards.   The
first type are the tiny little "chips" that look a lot like surface
mount resistors.  These are ceramic surface mount capacitors and do
not need to be replaced.  I'm not sure if they have a practical
lifetime limit.

The other ones are the problem, the surface mount electrolytic
capacitors.  They look like tiny silver oil storage tanks.   Little
upright cyclinders.   Apple typically used 47uF 16V caps all over the
place plus a few other either 1 uF 50V, or 10uF V.These
are the ones that need to be replaced.   There are a few boards with
odd values like 22uF.

The easiest way to remove them is to get two soldering pencils and
apply one to each lead on the cap until the solder is fully melted and
the capacitor will lift up without applying any substantial force.
Getting impatient and forcing the cap up leads to lifted pads and torn
traces.

I use a pair of 15 watt soldering pencils from radio shack for this
( < $10 each) but 15 watts is a little underpowered.  It takes a
little longer than optimum to heat the caps enough to remove them.   A
pair of 25 watt or even 40 watt might be better.

After removing them, apply some liquid solder flux (comes in a bottle)
to the old solder and use desoldering braid and a soldering pencil to
clean the remaining solder off of the copper pads.   I find that the
Chemtronics brand of desoldering braid (available at Digi-key) works
the best for me.

After removing the old solder, clean the board.  I use a spray flux
remover, but isopropyl alcohol works fine and even soapy water would
do the trick.   After cleaning, rinse the board with distilled water
and let dry.

To replace the caps, first "tin" one pad with a bit of solder.
Tinning is just the act of melting a little solder onto the pad.
Then place a cap on the pads (one tinned, one not) using a tweezers,
and hold the cap down with a small flat head screwdriver.  Then with
the hand that is not holding the screwdriver, apply the soldering
pencil to the tinned pad until that end of the cap sinks down to the
pad.   Be sure to heat both the pad and the terminal on the cap to
solder melting temperature with the pencil.  Proper heating of both
surfaces is essential to good solder joints.

Remove the soldering pencil.  A few seconds later, remove the
screwdriver.   You now have a cap held down on one side.  Solder the
other side normally.   Repeat until all the caps are replaced.

This really isn't difficult.

The place most folks run into trouble is in trying to remove the old
caps with just one pencil.   They get one side hot, then try to heat
the other side, by which time the first side has cooled, and
eventually, they either lift a cold side, tearing a pad or trace or
bending something that shouldn't be bent, or they get the whole
assembly so hot that again, they lift a pad or trace.

Patience is also key.  Very key.  Essential.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Super clean (but slightly sick) Mac Plus

[Jeff Walther]

On Jun 27, 11:56 pm, poopoopoopoo  wrote:
> I picked up a very clean Mac Plus with all the trimmings - 40mb CMS

> I did a bit more housecleaning before I reassembled it. It booted
> right up but after awhile now it randomly reboots. I am beginning to
> suspect bad RAM.

Most likely the power supply is marginal and every time an event draws
a little too much power the voltage dips below the level that will
support the CPU, and it resets.

See this document for details:

<http://68kmla.org/files/>

In brief, you'll want to measure the 5V supply with a voltmeter and if
low, measure the 12V supply (they're linked rather than individually
regulated).   If they're both low, then you can adjust the internal
pot. to raise the 12V back up to nominal and get the 5V back up as
well.   If the 12V is nominal and 5V is low then some components need
replacing.   If adjusting the pot. won't bring the voltage back up to
nominal, then some components need replacing.

Jeff Walther

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Re: More vintage Mac woes - CRT blanking out

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 2, 1:46 pm, Elliott Price  wrote:
         -Elliott
>
> On Jul 1, 2011, at 10:03 PM, poopoopoopoo wrote:

> > So, my 'little old lady' Mac Plus suddenly has developed an issue
> > where the 9" CRT will black out. A light smack on her sides will bring
> > it back to life for a few minutes, sometimes a couple hours. Probably
> > a short or worn solder joint somewhere. Can anyone give me an idea
> > where to start to look and how? I'm beginning to obsess on getting
> > this old, clean Mac in top running condition. It's almost there, but
> > every time I fix one issue, something else pops up. Pleas help!
> > Thanks in advance.

> My Plus had this problem, and it's actually the video connector on the analog 
> board.
> There's a row of pins, and then a blank space and one isolated on the end. 
> This is
> the pin that tends to be loose.  After re-soldering that, mine works great.
>
> I can provide pictures of the connector if it helps.

Concur.  Given your symptoms, it's almost always that pin.  Find the
cable that connects the logic board to the analog board.  The pin
described above is on the analog board connector for that cable.
IIRC, it is the furthest toward the rear of the machine on that
connector.  The connector is oriented horizontally.   But even if I'm
misremembered front and back, it's the one isolated pin after the
blank position on the connector.

Desolder the pin (remove old solder with a sucker or desolder braid)
and resolder the pin.

Jeff Walther

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Re: C1 capacitor substitution?

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 6, 3:01 pm, "Nico Vanden Eynde"  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm afraid both of them are not suitable to replace the original 3.9uf BP HF
> capacitor.
> You really need both Bi-polar and Highfrequency since the capacitor is in
> the video circuitry to the tube.
>
> I'm using this one to replace the original capacitor: Digikey part
> PF2395-ND, a Panasonic 3.9UF 250V Metal Polypro cap.

How do you specify "high frequency" in terms that capacitor
manufacturers use?   For example, I don't think it's one of the filter
boxes on Digikey's selection tool for capacitors.

Tom Lee suggests using four 1uF 50V (or higher V)  ceramic capacitors
in parallel in place of C1.  It makes a lot of sense.

Jeff Walther

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Re: C1 capacitor substitution?

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 7, 3:39 pm, "Nico Vanden Eynde"  wrote:
> Hi Jeff,
>
> On the Digikey website, you can search for high frequency capacitors : it's
> in the "features" column when you go to the capacitors catalog.
> High Frequency capacitors can handle frequencies of over 1000 Khz, so they
> are typically found in sweep/video circuits of tube monitors/tv's. Most high
> frequency caps are also high stability one's, including the one I suggested,
> so they can handle higher currents  and remain very stable ( 5% tolerance )
> even on their maximum operating temperature.

Ah, thank you, Nico.  That is good to know.  I somehow always
overlooked the "features" column on the selection list.   That will be
very very handy in the future.

Jeff Walther

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Re: SE/30 - Another mind bender for vintage Mac gurus

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 13, 9:45 pm, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:

> I get a black screen. Nothing. The HDD indicator light flashes but it
> doesn't fire up. If I wait 2-3 hours (it seems) it will boot right up
> again and run all day.

Does it bong?  Or is it silent?

Jeff Walther

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Re: SE/30 - Another mind bender for vintage Mac gurus

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 14, 11:01 am, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:

> On Jul 14, 10:53 am, Jeff Walther  wrote:
>
> > On Jul 13, 9:45 pm, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:
>
> > > I get a black screen. Nothing. The HDD indicator light flashes but it
> > > doesn't fire up. If I wait 2-3 hours (it seems) it will boot right up
> > > again and run all day.
>
> > Does it bong?  Or is it silent?

> Forgot to mention, there is very low audio output on it so I can't
> hear anything. I'm pretty certain it's silent. No bong.

If the sound output is poor then the logic board needs to be
recapped.  You may have other issues with the power supply or the
analog board, but your logic board definitely needs a cleaning and its
capacitors replaced, so I'd start with that and see if it solves the
issue.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Macintosh IIci with a leaking battery

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 15, 11:15 am, "Gorka L Martinez Mezo"  wrote:
> A few months ago I purchased through LEM swap a nice Macintosh IIci.
> Afer a quick check, I hooked an ADB keyboard and an
> Apple color display and fired it up. However, nothing happened.

> I was suspecting some
> kind of problem with the PRAM battery,

While you do need to clean the goo from the leaked battery, replacing
the PRAM battery will not fix the IIci.  The IIci does not rely on the
battery for booting.  Other models do, which causes "replace the
battery" to be common advice, but the IIci doesn't care whether the
battery works, nor whether it is installed, for booting purposes.

Do not solder in a replacement battery.  Replacement battery holders
are available and will be much more convenient the next time it is
time to change the battery.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Total sadness - I killed my near mint Mac SE/30. RIP.

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 18, 7:48 pm, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:

> On Jul 18, 7:42 pm, James Fraser 
> pcil...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Hello,
>
> > >I suppose I'll hang onto it in the event someone might be able to bring it 
> > >back
> > >to life. I can't believe it. Shes gone. :( There is no way I can trace the 
> > >tiny
> > >leads back to C6.
>
> > Perhaps someone else has both the tools and expertise to do so.  You might 
> > want
> > to try a "WTB: SE/30 logic board repair" post on LEM Swap:

> Thanks, I will surely try that. I feel like I lost an old friend
> today. lol.

It is usually possible to route around a lifted pad and reconnect the
capacitor terminal, assuming the pad itself isn't repairable.   These
kinds of things are almost always fixable.

I'd get yourself over to 68kmla.net and read up on the topic in the
compact mac forum.   There's even a pad lifting thread.  And I think
one fellow has a schematic, or at least, has mapped out what all the
capacitor terminals connect to.

There are also a few folks there who will do repairs for a reasonable
fee.   I don't, because I don't have time.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Motherboard capacitor list for Mac Plus

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 21, 12:09 am, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:
> So does anybody have a breakdown list of capacitors that are on the
> motherboard (not analog board) of a Mac Plus?

The Mac Plus does not have any surface mount electrolytic capacitors
on its logic board.  It's too old.  There might be a few axial
electrolytics on there, but I've never heard of anyone needing to
replace them.

Jeff Walther

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Re: IIci vs. SSD

[Jeff Walther]

Britt Dodd wrote:

> On Jul 21, 2011 7:30 PM, "Wesley Furr"  wrote:
> > > Personally, I would just try it with an IDE Compactflash adapter and
> > > card...pretty cheap and you can get cards of just a few Gb (or less).
> >
> > > Does anyone have source for cheap SCSI to IDE adapters?
> >
> > I have several different types of IDE-SCSI adapters

> Those cards are insane. I'd love to get my 6100 working but there's no way I
> can justify 200 for a SCSI to ide card

Just a few years ago they were available for ~$40.   Apparently the
huge supply dried up.

By the way, Britt, see the message above?  See  how the quoted text is
trimmed?  See how there's no sign of the list footer quoted?  See how
the thread of the message flows downward in the order that people
read?

This is how to post a readable message.   Your top posted messages in
which ** YOU FAIL TO TRIM ANY QUOTED TEXT AT ALL** are rude and
inconsiderate to other members of the list.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Motherboard capacitor list for Mac Plus

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 22, 1:14 am, James Fraser  wrote:
> Hello,
>
> >The Mac Plus does not have any surface mount electrolytic capacitors
> >on its logic board.  It's too old.  There might be a few axial
> >electrolytics on there, but I've never heard of anyone needing to
> >replace them.
>
> Wait, so, the Plus does -not- suffer from the leaky caps problem and only
> machines from the SE onward suffer from this? @_@

No on the logic board.   The Analog Board, the vertical board on the
left side, has several radial electrolytic capacitors which wear out
with time.   It also has a number of rectifiers, a transistor, and
even a resistor or two which are subject to failure.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Email netiquette (Re: IIci vs. SSD)

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 24, 5:42 pm, Joshua Juran  wrote:
> On Jul 24, 2011, at 12:15 PM, Jeff Walther wrote:
>
> > By the way, see the message above?  See  how the quoted text is
> > trimmed?  See how there's no sign of the list footer quoted?  See how
> > the thread of the message flows downward in the order that people
> > read?
>
> > This is how to post a readable message.   Your top posted messages in
> > which ** YOU FAIL TO TRIM ANY QUOTED TEXT AT ALL** are rude and
> > inconsiderate to other members of the list.
>
> Maybe you should be blaming the software vendors whose mail clients  
> invite users to post this way by positioning the cursor *above* the  
> quoted reply,

They certainly popularized and contributed to the problem, but people
have the ability with a tiny bit of effort to be considerate.

> I don't like top-posting either,

My main point, which others seem to miss, was the excess quoted
text.   He quoted everything including the list footer.   I only
mentioned the top posting because that typically leads to the
incredibly inconsiderate practice of quoting without trimming.

> but your response was inappropriate.

You may be right.  I was certain that Britt had been told about this
before, but perhaps I was mistaken and this was the first time.

If so, I apologize.  I should have sent a private message instead.

I've been reading this list for a long time and notice that every
single one of his messages always contains all the text from any
previous messages.   Apparently, I reached some tipping point, but
you're right, I should have acted more reservedly if that was indeed
the first time.

>  Flaming people for being ignorant was something you  
> could get away with a couple decades ago

On LEMlists there is no ignorance excuse.  The guidelines you agree
that you have read when you sign up clearly instruct folks to trim
quoted text.

> If you really want people to stop top-posting, get Google, Apple, and  
> whoever else to fix their email clients.

As long as there are folks who consider it their right to be
inconsiderate, that will be a lost battle.  The clients contribute,
but the apologists who try to justify not taking a moment to make
their messages readable are the real problem.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Superdrive - need a bridge system from Plus to vMac

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 25, 8:44 pm, Zonebob  wrote:
> Hi, I'm trying to get some 800k disks and some data that's on my
> venerable Mac Plus (bought it new in 1987, 2.5M memory upgrade) into
> another computer, so I can run it on Mini vMac, to save wear on the
> Plus.
>
> To do this, I dug my PowerMac 6100 out of the basement and fired it
> up.  But it promptly died.
>
> I'm hoping to find a system on Ebay with the old Superdrive that can
> handle both 800k and 1.4M disks, to do this job.  Does anyone know
> where there's a list of all models with this drive, so I'll know what
> to bid on?

The 6100 probably just needs a new battery.   It is one of the models
which will not start up properly without a good 1/2AA battery
installed on the logic board.

It is also possible that the heat sink grease between the heat sink
and CPU has dried out, but if that were the case, the machine would
probably boot up, and run for a few seconds before going wonky.

Every Mac from the beginning through the Beige G3, except the Mac 128,
Mac 512, Mac 512KE, Mac Plus, early Mac SE, and Mac II, had a
superdrive floppy drive.The Blue and White (Smurf) G3 and iMac is
when floppy drives stopped being included.   Any G3 or G4 or later
machine, except the Beige G3 will lack a floppy drive.

As Joshua suggested, something in a "pizza box" would be convenient.
That would be the LC, LC II, LC III, LC/Performa 475/476 or the Quadra
605.   The LC 475, LC 476, Performa 475, Performa 476 and Q605 are
essentially the same machine with slight differences in the case,
IIRC.

However, you may be able to get your 6100 working just by changing the
battery.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Superdrive - need a bridge system from Plus to vMac

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 27, 6:56 am, Bob Clark  wrote:
> Thanks!  I'll see if I can do the grease replacement.

Radio Shack stocked  the grease in a little blue and white tube (about
1.25" long) on a card as recently as a year ago.  I don't know if they
still carry it.  Ahh, looks like they do, according to their web site,
so the local stores may have it as well.  "Heat Sink Grease (6g)
Model: 276-1372  | Catalog #: 276-1372"  $3.29.   Seems to be red and
white instead of blue and white now.

It is much easier to do the grease replacement if you remove the logic
board.   This allows you to pop/push the heat sink clips out from the
back of the logic board.  Otherwise, you must pry on them from the top
and try to pull them toward the CPU and up.   When popping them out
from the back, it works pretty well to pop them in diagonally opposing
pairs.

Do not put any downward pressure on the heat sink nor the CPU.  One
common failure mode for 6100 logic boards is for the CPU to crack --
usually from someone being a mite careless while installing or
removing the heat sink.

The old heat sink grease can be removed with isopropyl alcohol and
some kind of swab.  Be careful not to leave fibers behind, and do not
brush the old grease onto the pins of the CPU.  The grease can be
electrically conductive and if you get it on the pins it can cause
shorts.  I know this from painful experience back when a PPC NuBus
machine was still worth some money

Clean the old grease from both the CPU and the heat sink.

When replacing the heat sink grease, only apply it to the little
rectangular die in the center of the CPU package.  This is the portion
of the CPU that makes contact with the heat sink.   Remember, the
grease is only there to fill the tiny imperfections between the two
flat surfaces.   It is not a gap filler.   So only apply a little dab
to the top of the die -- not enough to run off.  You do not want the
stuff running off onto the CPU pins.

Then carefully lower and align the heat sink so the clips are resting
in their holes and then push them in.  You'll have to push on the heat
sink a little to seat it, but be gentle!

Old CPU grease is a very common problem in the 6100 and 7100.  I had a
7100 once that I had already sold to someone (locally) come back
because it was freezing up.   I reinstalled the OS and changed cables,
etc. all the usual stuff and it would still freeze up after a
while.Finally, once, I saw some video artifacts on the screen
before the freeze, and I knew from experience that those artifacts
were a sign of the CPU overheating.   Then I thought to replace the
heat sink grease and all was well.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Anyone make an affordable SCSI CF/SD replacement?

[Jeff Walther]

On Jul 29, 11:10 am, hartonj  wrote:
> Well, it helps to have access to the SCSI specifications, which are
> not free and may not be available. If anyone could reproduce this 
> ->http://micha.freeshell.org/pcmcia_drive/index.phpit could be
> interesting. Presumably a CF to PCMCIA adapter could be used in such a
> device. It would probably be of more benefit if someone could figure
> out how to boot Mac OS from a LC PDS/Nubus/PCI drive controller. Then
> you could use any kind of drive available provided that you could get
> an appropriate controller built for your expansion slot.
>
> http://68kmla.org/wiki/SCSI_hard_disk_replacement_options

I have some of the SCSI documents here:
<http://www.prismnet.com/~trag/Standards/>

Unless someone is going to do all the design and assembly free of
charge, one quickly finds that the unit price of these projects
quickly approaches the price of what is commercially available.

Even if you assume there is a market for 100 of something, the printed
circuit board alone will still run $10 - $20 (depending on size and
layers).   Add some kind of microcontroller or FPGA for another $10.
Connectors, either SCSI or PDS can add up.   And then one usually
finds that there are a handful of other chips at $.50 to $2 each that
are needed to tweak and/or isolate the buses, and before you know it
the parts alone are up in the $30 - $60 range.

And that's not allowing anything for assembly.   Soldering this stuff
together and testing it easily runs to an hour or two per unit for a
simple project.   One can pay for assembly, but that adds to the cash
outlay, and the units still need testing.

So the person doing the project is looking at putting in $3000+ up
front plus a huge amount of time and effort with no certainty that 100
of them will sell.  Even if one writes the time off as good-hobby-fun,
It make sense to try to get one's money back out of the first 50
units.

And now the price is up at about the same price as the expensive stuff
already on the market

I'm not saying this is a good thing.  I'm just pointing out the
unfortunate economics of these kinds of projects.

If one can be reasonably certain of the demand, it's easier.   If the
volumes were larger, it would be much easier.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Using a Mac Classic II as a terminal

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 11, 8:19 am, QuoVadis  wrote:
> I had always thought one needed to swap ROMs to get at all 128MB RAM.
> Or was it the MODE32 extension that made all 128MB available?
>
> But, correct me if I'm wrong, swapping the ROM with that of a IIfx
> makes it true 32-bit, without having to load any extensions. Is that
> correct?

Correct.   One may install 128MB of RAM in the SE/30 but it will not
use more than 8 MB as system RAM as long as the machine is in 24 bit
addressing mode.   The ROM of the SE/30 does not support 32 bit
addressing, so one must either install the extension Mode 32, or swap
the ROM with a IIci, IIsi, or IIfx.   All the IIfx's had their ROM on
a SIMM, so that's the easiest to find.   Some rare (early?) IIsi's had
their ROM on a SIMM so there are some of those modules floating
around.

The IIci never had its ROM on a SIMM, but at least one has been built
using IIci code and it works.  I only mention the IIci because it's
the earliest machine with 32 bit clean ROMs (or did the IIfx predate
it?).

Jeff Walther

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Re: Help! Mac IIci and Apple MultipleScan 15av monitor

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 11, 6:29 am, QuoVadis  wrote:

> I have found that very same fact. No monitors I tried with my IIci
> worked with the internal video card, only with NuBus cards. I tried
> the LCD monitor thinking "why not", but never expected to hear the
> relais click and actually see something on the screen in proper
> proportions and refreshrate.

The Viewsonic 6e worked with the IIci's built-in video.   That's a 14"
color display from around 1992 - 1994, somewhere in there.

Interestingly, (at least to me), Apple's own 14" Basic Color Monitor
does not work with the built-in video on a Mac IIci.   At the time
Apple sold a 14" Trinitron (Macintosh Color Display), a 14" shadow
mask display with .26 or .28 pitch (Apple Color Plus 14" Display) and
a 14" shadow mask display with .39" pitch (Apple Basic Color
Monitor).The first two work with the IIci's built-in video.  The
third does not.

Anyway, point is, some third party displays work with the built-in
video on a IIci.   At least one of Apple's own monitors does not.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Apple //e with a 5260?

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 12, 9:03 am, Matt  wrote:
> Unfortunately the IIe card will not work in ANY PowerMac because none
> of them support 24-bit memory addressing.
>
> To kindly correct a previous contribution to the list, the Vectronics
> site lists PowerMacs in the "except" group (it won't work).
>
> http://www.vectronicsappleworld.com/appleii/appleiiecard.html

The cutoff point in time was between the Quadra 605 (works) and the
Quadra 630 (doesn't work).  And as Matt mentioned, the important
qualifier is that the Q605 can boot in 24 bit mode and the Q630
cannot.

Anything later than the Q630 is going to be a "cannot".

Jeff Walther

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Re: Mac II battery (where?) Computer won't startup

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 11, 11:39 pm, bigcl...@aol.com wrote:
> Help!   I have  Mac II with a Daystar Digital 50mhz accelerator
>
> The computer won't start. I think it must be the battery.
>
> I can't find the battery.
>
> Anyone know where it is?
>
> I see 2 batteries on the mother board, 3 volt each, kind a purple.
>
> They are soldered in.
>
> Are those the batteries?

Yep, it's crazy, but Apple soldered the batteries in on that model.

I think the holes are the correct distance apart to replace them with
a 1/2AA battery holder like other Macs use:
<http://media.digikey.com/photos/Keystone%20Elect%20Photos/108.jpg>
<http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?
Detail&name=108KK-ND>

It looks like the tabs on that battery holder are 1.16" or 29.46mm
apart.   So you might take a ruler to it, and if that's the distance,
consider installed a battery holder.

Unfortunately, Digikey has a minimum order or a $5 surcharge.   At
least they used to.

Oh, and the cover:
<http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?
vendor=0&keywords=keystone+108c>
although I've never found them necessary.

I have seen the 1/2AA batteries with leads at Frys, in case you want
to keep your Mac II original condition.  If there's not a Fry's near
you, you can probably mail order them.

As Eelco suggested, the problem might not be the batteries.  But all
other forms of trouble-shooting are probably more difficult/expensive
than replacing the batteries.  So I'd start there.

Jeff Walther


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Re: Mac IIci Power Supply repair?

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 12, 10:50 pm, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:

> Long story short, I've heard of issues with IIci PSU's and wonder if
> there is a 'standard' component that might go bad that either I could
> replace or is there anybody out there who can repair these power
> supplies?

I remember back in the 90s there being a few articles about common
IIci power supply failures and I think I remember an article about
what actually fails in the supply, but I don't remember any of the
specifics.

It would probably be a long search, but the information is probably
out there.  As I recall, it was not as simple as, "replace this one
failed capacitor in the PS."   I think there's a rectifier that goes
out too, maybe.  But it was so long ago.

Also, there are four caps (again, IIRC, about four, definitely some
caps) involved in the logic board power-on circuitry.  If those
surface mount caps have gone out of spec. it can result in power-on
problems.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Mac IIci Power Supply repair?

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 13, 10:04 am, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:

> I'm surprised none of the vintage Mac gurus have figured a way to
> adapt a standard ATX power supply to work on the IIci (and others with
> the IIci's power requirements) as the form factor of an ATX PSU looks
> very close.

Electrically, it should be easy.  Physically, it would be a pain,
because the power supply in the IIci is such a special fit and sits
right on top of the PS connector on the logic board.

The most involved part would be that the power-on signal in older Macs
(like everything up to the Beige G3 and perhaps through the G4 line)
is inverted from what an ATX PSU uses.  So one must buy and install an
inverter chip in the power-on circuitry.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Mac IIci sudden shutdown there's got to be an answer!

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 13, 12:11 pm, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:

> I've googled Mac IIci power supply, repair, symptoms, etc. and can't
> find anything definitive.

Do an "Advanced Search" in Google Groups and target the comp.sys.mac.*
hierarchy.   Most of this discussion took place before this stupid
html fad fragmented the easy to find Mac community on UseNet.

> Should I be chasing a power supply problem or is the sudden shutdown
> due to bad caps on the board? If it's the latter, I could probably
> recap the board but want to be at least 50% certain that's the issue.

There are some caps which are essential to the Power-on circuitry on
the logic board.  It could be a logic board problem.  In any event, if
there is evidence of leakage, you need to remove the old caps, clean
the board and install new ones pronto, as the leakage will corrode
motherboard bits like chip pins and exposed traces, pads and vias.


Jeff Walther

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Re: SE/30 Capacitor Replacement Service? (also DayStar PowerCache '030 upgrade question)

[Jeff Walther]

:  $2.50 w/capacitor order


I don't make a profit off of this.  I bought several reels of caps and
started distributing them because so many people on 68kmla.net needed
to recap their boards, but weren't comfortable sourcing the parts.

Jeff Walther
t...@prismnet.com



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Re: WTB: MicroMac Performer(Pro) Accelerator for Mac Plus/SE

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 27, 2:47 pm, Todd Brayer  wrote:
> Really? That website is talking about the "Hot New Bondi Blue iMac" and the
> home page was last updated in 2000.

Yes, that website is a zombie.   It's an interesting zombie, but no
products are  available through that avenue.

A Japanese company bought up a bunch of their old stock many years ago
and they still have some of the 68040 upgrades.  I don't know if they
have any of the upgrades for non-SE/30 compact Macs.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Plus Monitor Problem

[Jeff Walther]

On Aug 29, 3:39 pm, MacPlus99  wrote:
> I got a problem with my monitor, on boot the monitor wont turn on and
> to get it on you have to hit both sides at the same time. I'll have to
> do the same thing with I insert a floppy but after I hit it lightly,
> after about 5 min of use I'll have to do it again. Any tips or tricks
> to do to my Plus to make this stop?

What Doug said, and specifically, pin 1 on the cable connector on the
analog board for the cable that connects the logic board to the Analog
board.

So, open up the Plus.  Looking at it from the  front, the analog board
is the vertically mounted board on the left.  The logic board is the
horizontal board at the bottom.  There's a cable which connects the
two.

Where that cable plugs into the analog board, pin 1's solder develops
problems with time.  It's incredibly common.   Pin one is the pin all
by itself after the blank position on the connector.

In order to desolder and resolder it (don't just remelt the solder,
remove the old solder and apply fresh) you'll have to remove the white
cardboard cover on the outside of the analog board.  It's held on with
double sided adhesive foam strips about 1" X 1".

It probably won't stick after you've removed it, but you can (at least
you used to could) buy replacement double sided adhesive foam strips
in 3" lengths at Radio Shack.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Mac IIsi, Unimac Fly adapter, sync-on-green? HELP!

[Jeff Walther]

On Sep 14, 8:28 am, QuoVadis  wrote:
> The problem of the Macintosh IIsi is that the built-in graphics card
> was meant to work with proprietary Apple displays (12 to 14"). Each of
> those monitors had a fixed resolution. For example, a 12" monitor was
> fixed at 640 x 480, a 14" monitor at 864 x 642.

[NITPICK] The 14" was fixed at 640 X 480.  I don't know what the 12"
was.  The 16" (later the 17") was 832 X 624.[/NITPICK]
>
> I have had the same experience with a IIci, which worked fine with the
> monitor belonging to my LCIII, but didn't work with the 14" that came
> with my Power Macintosh 8500.

> I suspect that the monitor that does work on the IIsi is just a 'lucky
> hit'.

Yes.  The IIci and IIsi built-in video has some weird synching scheme
which doesn't work on all monitors.  It's so odd that it didn't even
work on Apple's own "14" Basic Color Display" (shadow mask .39 pitch)
although it worked with the contemporaneous "Apple 14" Color
Display" (trinitron) and the "Apple 14" Color Plus Display" (.28 pitch
shadow mask).

It worked with a number of third party monitors, but it was hit or
miss.  For example, it worked with the Viewsonic 6e, 14" monitor.I
still have one in the garage for that reason.

Your LCD probably just isn't one of the lucky ones.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Good low-melt point solder paste and micro torch?

[Jeff Walther]

On Sep 16, 11:26 pm, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:
> I'm determined to find the most effective way to recap SM aluminum
> caps on these old Classic Mac logic boards.

I've laid out simple instructions on how to do this in this groups at
least a couple of times recently.

> I'd like to have a higher success rate, and I can't do it with a
> soldering iron.

Everyone else does it with soldering pencils, and you can too.
Really, you can.

> Basically, I'm replacing the stock bad aluminum caps (47's and 1uf) on
> portable Macs using standard radial electrolytics by bending the legs
> and soldering them in place on the old pads.

Replace the stock capacitors with surface mount tantalum capacitors.
It will be far far easier than trying to get legs/leads to stick to
surface mount pads.  The pads are not meant to support the physical
stress that leads will put on them.  Putting leaded parts on surface
mount pads is just asking for lifted/torn pads and traces.

> Any suggestions from experienced people would be greatly appreciated.

Replace the surface mount electrolytics with surface mount
tantalums.

Look up the instructions I've posted in these groups a couple of
times.  I'm pretty certain you were involved in one of threads in
which I did.

If you need more advice/ideas, look up soldering or capacitors over on
68kmla.net.  The topic has been discussed in detail over there, with
several different methods of capacitor removal discussed.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Simple, cheap 4.5v PRAM battery for Mac Plus

[Jeff Walther]

On Sep 25, 8:57 pm, "Wesley Furr"  wrote:
> I was moving some computers out of storage in our unfinished upstairs to the
> new storage shed out back, and found that the Lithium CMOS battery in my
> neat old IBM PS/2 Model 60 (monstrous tower that actually has a carrying
> handle!) had leaked and caused a mess inside.  :-(  I think I have another
> somewhere that I can probably swap parts if I want to try to bring it back
> to life...but...left me wondering if I needed to worry in a similar manner
> about the PRAM battery in any of the couple old Mac's I have?

Absolutely.  Always remove any batteries before storing your
computers.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Simple, cheap 4.5v PRAM battery for Mac Plus

[Jeff Walther]

On Sep 24, 10:54 pm, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:
> Batteries Plus carries it - but it's $14. Eveready #523 equivalent.
> That's too rich for my blood.

Frys has a $6 battery which is the right size, but only delivers 3V.
However, I believe that folks have found that 3V is enough to keep the
PRAM and RTC running.   I have not tested it myself.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Latest acquisition - 2 IIci's score! Repair question

[Jeff Walther]

On Oct 1, 8:37 pm, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:

> Question in short, certainly there's go to be bad caps that control
> the power-on situation too - if the audio caps make the audio fail,
> which ones make the power-on circuit fail?

As others have told you more than once, if you're going to replace any
of the caps, you may as well replace them all.  Leaving any of the old
caps on there is just asking for a ruined logic board in the future.

IIRC, the four 47uF caps under the power supply have to do with the
power-on circuit, but that memory is about fifteen years old.

Jeff Walther

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Re: SE/30 help needed

[Jeff Walther]

On Oct 2, 8:33 pm, Andy Stocker  wrote:
> So I have an SE/30, and I have various daystar powercaches that I'd like to
> put inside.  Many of you know that the daystar se/30 adapter is as hard to
> find as plutonium at the corner drugstore, and I don't have the patience or
> bankroll to find and win one at an eBay auction.  It's hard to find, and
> nearly impossible to replicate.

You'll end up having to apply patience to either Ebay sales, or to the
design and construction work to build your own solution.  Ebay sales
sound like less work to me...

> However, a CPU socket adapter looks relatively easy to wire up (my SE/30 is
> socketed).  

Electrically, it's easy.   Physically, the fit is impossible.   There
is room under there for a board to plug into the CPU socket, as proved
by Daystar's CPU socket based upgrade for the SE/30.  However, there
is not room for an adapter board and a PowerCache or Turbo040 on top
of the adapter board or even plugged into the side of the adapter
board.

I took some measurements some time in the last few years, and it just
won't work.

To use this scheme, you'd need to build a circuit board that mates
with the CPU socket and then brings the connections up above the SE/30
metal frame somehow, and then probably connect to another circuit
board which mates with the PowerCache/Turbo040.

You could use three 40 or 50 conductor flat flex cables, but it gets
expensive for three 4" - 6" flat flex cables, six FFC board connectors
and two circuit boards.   Plain old Ultra-ATA cabling would actually
do the trick better (built-in intervening ground wires) and cheaper if
you could find the cable connectors as a separate product.   You need
the blue connector (IIRC).  The grey and black have some pins omitted/
rearranged to support Master/Slave and Cable Select.  If you do find
those cable ends as crimpable separate products somewhere, please let
me know.

I wrote about this pretty extensively either on Applefritter or on
68kmla.net some years ago as "trag".

Ultimately it's probably easier, and certainly cheaper, to just get a
IIsi adapter, reverse engineer the PLD on board and build your own PDS
adapter.

> So, if any of you folks have either a IIX or IICX daystar adapter, I have a
> proposition for you.  I would like to rent it for a week or two, for the
> sake of making a wiring diagram.  

You want the IIcx adapter.  The IIx adapter has a PLD on board.



I do have a IIcx adapter in the attic, but it's packed in the least
accessible reaches up there, and I won't be getting it down any time
soon.  If I do I'll trace out the connections.  It's a good idea, in
any case, to document the connections on these old Daystar adapters.

I think that Bunsen on 68kmla has one, but he's in Australia.

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Re: SE/30 help needed

[Jeff Walther]

On Oct 3, 9:40 am, Andy Stocker  wrote:

>  So the plan is to mount the accelerator
> where the hard drive used to be, and connect it via heavy gage wire to the
> CPU socket using a male DIN connector, an extra 68030 socket, and a bundle
> of ~110 carefully soldered wires.  Normally moving the CPU so far from the
> motherboard would be a problem, but use of somewhat heavy wire should help
> with that.

Actually, heavy wire will make things worse.  It's likely to have more
capacitance and inductance which will create impedance for the
signals.   Your best bet is 110 fine gauge twisted pairs, with each
extra wire being a ground wire.   This would be a nightmare to
connect, but it's probably doable.

Thicker wire has lower resistance to DC signals, but digital signals
are high frequency AC signals, not DC signals.   For AC signals,
Impedance (basically resistance) is proportional to capacitance and
inductance , so you want to keep those two as low as possible in
higher frequency connections.

Or the way I sometimes visualize it is that you have a tiny amount of
time to fill a wire with moving electrons, and the source of those
electrons doesn't have a lot of drive strength.   It takes longer to
fill a thick wire from that trickle of electrons, than it does a
thinner wire.


> > I paid a pretty penny for it, but it works well to not only allow you to
> > install an accelerator, but it also provides a pass-thru slot too.
> >  Something to consider if you are serious about creating your own design.
>
> That's a very nice item to have your hands on.  Unfortunately AFAIK they've
> been sold out for years.  

I could have sworn that Artmix was hawking them on Ebay within the
past year.  Still expensive, but ultimately, cheaper (but not as much
fun) as building your own.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Want to buy Mac Classic

[Jeff Walther]

On Oct 5, 9:52 am, Jim McClellan  wrote:
> I have one for sale that runs perfectly. I'm in the USA though and couldn't 
> even begin
> to estimate a shipping price to Belgium.


The USA Postal Service's website makes it pretty easy.

Figure out what your package would weigh.  (E.g. weigh the Classic and
add a few pounds for packing material.)  Figure out the dimensions --
size of a box you have on hand that would fit the Classic and allow
space around it for several layers of bubble wrap.

Go to usps.com.  Choose "Calculate a Price".

Enter the country, weight, choose package.Enter the dimensions, if
necessary, or distinguish between regular package and "large package"
and presto, the site will give you the shipping options and prices.

You can get a rough idea, just by guessing at the weight and
dimensions and then choosing a few values above and below.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Mac IIci capacitor list

[Jeff Walther]

On Oct 13, 11:54 am, GuyWithGuitars  wrote:
> Wondering if someone could clarify needed caps for a Iici. I see a
> little one, somewhat under the power supply and can't tell if it says
> 10 on it or 1 on it. I see that there are a lot of 47's.

We've seen a couple of different versions.

There are either eight or eleven 47 uF 16V SM caps.   One 10 uF 16V
(not sure about the 16V on that one, but the V isn't critical as long
as it's high enough) SM cap.   One 220 uF 16V (20V?) axial
electrolytic cap.  And three 470uF 16V axial electrolytic caps.

Check the Wiki over at 68kmla.org for more information and some
pictures.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Printer for Mac IIsi Re: MacSE

[Jeff Walther]

On Nov 3, 2:03 am, Gregg Eshelman  wrote:
> --- On Wed, 11/2/11, Ecrayons  wrote:
>
> > Hello all.  I am a non-techi
> > business owner with a Mac IIsi.

> > Does anyone know if there are
> > printers that will hook up to my computer?  thanks for
> > any help.

> Find a LaserJet 4M, 4M Plus, 5M or 6M. The M is for Macintosh, which means it 
> originally shipped with the PostScript module installed. Since that's 
> removable you want to verify it's still installed by having the printer print 
> configuration pages.
>

The Laserjet 2100NT also comes with the Postscript option (if it has
not been removed) and has a LocalTalk port built in.   As the 2100NT
is a more recent model, it might be easier to find one in good
condition.   Recent vs. many millions were sold

Jeff Walther

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Re: end of the road for my Color Classic?

[Jeff Walther]

On Nov 4, 2:36 am, sleepymonk  wrote:

> So this is where things stand. I'm holding out hope that I can having
> a working CC without spending any more money, but I'm not optimistic.
> Tonight I might trying washing the logic board in the dishwasher, as
> well as booting with the logic board disconnected and then pushing it
> in shortly after the startup chime (which I had tried with the factory
> HD without success).
>
> Any thoughts? Ideas? Or should I call it a day, put it back on the
> side mantle in my living room, and go the Macquarium (or Macantfarm)
> route down the road? Thanks in advance for your help!

Before giving up I'd take a little visit to 68kmla.net and see if they
can help you in the "compact Macs" forum.  I don't know if you have an
analog board or power supply problem, but someone over there is
certainly more familiar with the CC than I am.

However, you will probably have to spend at least a little more money
somewhere along the way.

Jeff Walther

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Re: end of the road for my Color Classic?

[Jeff Walther]

On Nov 4, 3:28 pm, sleepymonk  wrote:

> Jeff, I registered at 68kmla.net yesterday, but have yet to be
> activated by a moderator. Patience, I guess.


It can take several days to get activated.  The one problem with the
site.  The fellow who maintains it and hosts it does it pretty much as
a labor of love and there's a lot of valuable information there and
some pretty helpful people.

Jeff Walther

P.S.  When posting please trim the quoted text in your message.  And
if you'd consider posting under the quoted text instead of above it
that would be swell but is not required by the list any more.  It just
makes it vastly easier to follow the trail of conversation.

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Re: end of the road for my Color Classic?

[Jeff Walther]

On Nov 5, 1:34 pm, Chris M  wrote:
> all of the leads on circuit boards are either plated if they're steel, or 
> copper (or gold). Water won't do anything to any board I've ever seen. It's 
> just a question of what good it will do.


All of these washing methods work fine, as evidenced by the dozens of
folks who have reported them working over the years.

Hot water spray will loosen and remove residues.  Cold soapy water and
a bit of toothbrush scrubbing works too.  Solvents such as isopropyl
alcohol (no colors nor moisturizers) or spray cans of flux remover or
circuit board cleaner also work well.

I'd be hesitant to use solvents I'm not familiar with, such as the
aforementioned brake cleaner.  It might harm plastic parts/connectors
on the circuit board.

The purpose in cleaning the board is to remove goo that will have
leaked from old surface mount electrolytic capacitors.  The goo that
leaks out of them seems to be mildly conductive and can cause shorts.
It is also corrosive and will destroy leads, traces, vias, and solder
joints on the board if not removed.   But the reason why cleaning
sometimes provides a fix without replacing the caps is that it removes
the goo which is causing shorts, I think.

The long term fix is to replace the surface mount electrolytic caps
(little round metal cans, like tiny fuel storage tanks) with surface
mount tantalum capacitors which will last longer, not leak goo, and
fit on the same size pads.


Jeff Walther

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Re: Just got a Macintosh 128, screen not working

[Jeff Walther]

On Nov 21, 1:18 am, Dylan Woods  wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> I happened to be in the right place and the right time, and found  an
> original Mac 128k in great shape on Craigslist. Unfortunately, the
> screen doesn't work. I can power it on, but it makes the mac bong, and
> it sounds like a crt is turning on, but nothing comes on the screen.
> There is a red light on on the inside.

First thing to try is the brightness knob,.  It's under the front
overhand, on the left side.  Just run your hand under the Mac's front
lip until you feel the knob.  Try adjusting it.   It may just be
turned all the way down.

If that doesn't work, try giving it a gentle slap on the left side.
If the picture flickers for a moment, most likely pin one of the cable
which connects the logic board to the analog board needs resoldering
at the connector on the analog board.  This is an extremely common
failure.

Failing that, the previous poster's advice is good.  Get a copy of
Larry Pina's "The Dead Mac Scrolls" and/or "Macintosh Repair and
Upgrade Secrets".

Jeff Walther

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Re: Just got a Macintosh 128, screen not working

[Jeff Walther]

On Nov 21, 5:54 pm, Dylan Woods  wrote:
> Thank you so much for your help, all.
>
> whacking the left side of the screen does cause the floppy disk
> question mark icon to flash on the screen briefly. I've never soldered
> anything in my life, but am willing to give it a shot.

This is almost always pin 1 on the analog board connector for the
cable that connects the analog board to the logic board.  There are
two circuit boards (well, three if you count the one on the back of
the CRT) in the Mac.  The one on the left side mounted vertically is
the analog board..  The one on the bottom of the Mac mounted
horizontally is the logic board.

There is one main cable that connects the two boards.  The connector
for that cable on the analog board is about 1/3 the board height from
the top, near the middle front to back.  Pin one is the pin by
itself.   There's pin 1, then a blank spot on the connector, and then
the rest of the pins.  That lonely pin is the likely culprit.  Remove
the old solder from it.  Apply fresh solder.  Be sure to get the pin
and circuit board hot enough to melt the solder; don't just dribble
melted solder onto a cold joint.  I find that liberally applying
liquid solder flux helps with both the desoldering and the
resoldering.

The analog board is covered by a white piece of card stock held on by
double sided adhesive foam.  You'll have to remove the card stock.
You can purchase 3" strips of the adhesive foam at Radio Shack.  The
one near me was still stocking it a week or two ago.

> I know that I'm going to need a long torx 15 screwdriver. Do I really
> need to discharge the CRT if I leave it off for a week or so?

Absolutely not.  The danger from discharging the CRT is much greater
than the danger of leaving it alone.  The only time, the only single
time I've been shocked by a compact Mac CRT is when I was trying to
discharge the thing. If I'd just left it alone, as I always do now
days, I would have been fine.  Even so, being shocked by the thing is
not dangerous.  You'd have to have a heart condition or something to
actually be harmed by it.  It's not fun.  But it's not going to stop
your heart.

> When it
> comes to soldering, my Dad is going to borrow some soldering equipment
> from one of his friends at work, does the Mac require some special
> kind of soldering or something? Again, I don't really know anything
> about soldering, so I'm trying to be very careful before I possibly
> permanently damage my Mac.

As someone else mentioned, make sure you're using rosin core solder
for electrical work.  Plumbers some times solder joints, but the
solder and rosin they use is not suitable for electrical work.
Typically, you'd get  63/37 tin/lead solder with a rosin core.  There
are a number of solering tutorials available on the web.  You might
start at the sparkfun.com website and spin outward from there.  The
advice an earlier posted gave about getting your work hot enough to
flow the solder and tinning  your tips and such is good advice.  It's
all about heat transfer, and having a liquid (melted solder) on the
soldering tip transfers heat much better than just two spots of hard
metal intersecting.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Fat Mac

[Jeff Walther]

On Dec 1, 10:31 am, randl  wrote:
> I am the original owner of a Fat Mac. I have not checked it lately
> however, when I stored it, it was working.  I had all kinds of
> software for it (I hope I can find it) and also have a printer for
> it.  The fat Mac is stored in a fat case (the ones that were sold back
> in the 80 to be able to take it to work - which I did).
>
> I am not sure what to do with it right now. I signed up to get ideas.

The first thing I would do is go open the back compartment and remove
the battery.  Then clean the compartment if the battery has had slight
leakage.  If severe leakage, open the whole machine and clean the
analog board before the corrosion goes any further.

If there's no leakage, rejoice.

Jeff Walther

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Re: quick IIci revival methods?

[Jeff Walther]

On Dec 6, 8:28 pm, Dan Kressin  wrote:

> I just tried again, no faint flash.  I took a closer look at the MB and see 
> what I guess could be leakage around the PS-area caps (the small ones, not 
> the 3 big ones).  Cleaned off pretty easy with a q-tip.  Still no go after 
> cleaning.

If cleaning doesn't work, you probably need to replace the caps.  Some
of the caps on the IIci's logic board are an integral part of holding
the logic board in a power-on state, along with a transistor or two.

<http://68kmla.org/wiki/Capacitor_Replacement>   has the basic
information on capacitor replacement.  Various threads in the
associated forums have a vast amount of discussion on the topic.

However, your problem could also be a failed power supply.   Any of
the following will work in the IIci:

IIcx, IIci, IIvi, IIvx, C650, Q650, Q700, PM7100.

You can also use a IIsi power supply to test a IIci logic board if you
take the logic board out of the case.  They use the same power
connector and signal arrangement.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Installing Mac Classic SCSI Hard Drive

[Jeff Walther]

On Dec 8, 5:17 am, 33black  wrote:

> I got a Mac Classic in near mint condition for only $35 from a guy on

> I also ordered System 7, so that's the HD SC I'm working with.
>
> I ordered a passive and active SCSI terminator, not knowing which or
> if I needed either one of those.  I then ordered a 1.2gb internal
> APPLE BRANDED SCSI.  A Quantum Fireball.
>
> Again, HD SC doesn't recognize it.  I've tried terminators on and off,
> every jumper setting I could think of...I'm pretty sure it's just
> supposed to be ID 0.

I will assume that you're booting from a System 7 floppy and using the
HD SC on that floppy with which to attempt to format the hard drive.
Is that correct?

Do you have a way, and space, to add a small utility to your floppy?
I recommend that you download a copy of SCSI Probe and try that.  It
won't format the drive for you, but it will at least tell you if the
Macintosh is communicating with the drive electronics.

The SCSI ID does not matter as long as no other SCSI device is using
that ID.  The Macintosh, itself, uses SCSI ID 7.   The drive should be
terminated, because it is at one end of the SCSI chain.

Jeff Walther

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Re: Capacitor voltage, compatibility & testing

[Jeff Walther]

On Dec 14, 5:53 pm, Doug McNutt  wrote:

> There is one fellow who was selling tantalum capacitor kits made up from what 
> I'm pretty sure were Digikey parts.

That was and is me.   I will probably still be doing that when the
heat death of the universe rolls around.  I bought reels (hundreds or
thousands of caps per reel) of capacitors.

A typical recap job uses about ten 47uF caps plus assorted others.
I've sold about 2000 47uF caps so far.   I think that means that I've
helped fix about 200 old Macintoshes.

I started doing that because:

1)  Many folks have trouble/discomfort figuring out what they need
from Digi-Key's or Mouser's site.
2)  When I started, Digi-Key still had a $5 surcharge on orders under
$25.

At $10 shipped (within USA; $10 + shipping outside USA), I'm not
making money on this, but it means that more old Macs get fixed rather
than ending up in the dump.

I don't sell "kits" as such.  I sell fifteen capacitors of the buyer's
choice for $10 shipped.  Additional caps beyond fifteen are $.50 each.

Most old Macs can be recapped with fifteen or fewer capacitors.

Going back to Jon's questions, as Doug wrote, as long as the capacitor
you use has a higher voltage rating than the capacitor will see in
practice, you're mostly okay.   I've also read an industry white paper
which recommends that the capacitor have a voltage rating about three
times the typical voltage experienced to guarantee longevity of the
capacitor.

So, using a 30V rating instead of 20V is fine.  The Farad rating of
the capacitor is the thing which matters the most.

I should note that for some reason Apple used a 50V rating on their
1uF capacitors.  This must have been some kind of inventory or
availability driven choice, as there's no need for that part to be
rated at 50V.  The replacements I have are 35V, which is ample.

I have the following caps available, which seems to cover most of the
models that folks repair:

=Capacitors===
Surface Mount:
47 uF 16V AVX TAJD476K016R Size D
1 uF 35V KEMET T491B105M035 Size B
10 uF 20V AVX TAJB106M020RNJ Size B
22 uF 25V Vishay 293D226X9025D2T Size D
100 uF 10V Vishay 293D107X9010D2T Size D

Axial (with leads coming out the ends):
220 uF 35V Axial Electrolytic Capacitor
470 uF 16V, 105C Axial Electrolytic Capacitor (approx. 3/4" long X
3/8" diameter)
470 uF 50V, 105C Axial Electrolytic Capacitor (approx. 1" long X 1/2"
diameter)
===

===Rectifiers
MR824 400V, 5A, Fast Recovery -- For Mac Plus Analog Board


==Misc.===
1/2AA Battery Holder $2.50 w/ capacitor order
120 pin right angle adapter for SE/30; AMP/TE Connectivity # 5650874-5
$5 with capacitor order, $10 by itself.


Jeff Walther

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