Welcome back! And great rational for a theme! We all saw computers working and never gave a thought about the labour it takes in keeping these machines working.
Thanks for your videos Jason! From a fellow Aussie who loves his early Macs (mainly from a nostalgic point of view) but knows next to nothing about electronics, I find your videos extremely informative from start to finish, and I will have the confidence to maintain my Plus should it fail.
It is very nice to see you making videos again. I really enjoy your content. It always brings back so many memories. I know that Apple wasn't doing too well back in the late 80s/ early 90s but some of the machines they built were just outstanding.
Fantastic video! We had a 512K, and would get the "Sorry, A System Error Occurred" message more times then I can count-right from the beginning, when I first started using it. I've had someone suggest that it was because the 512K had no fan, but I don't whether not that's true.
Great info! The video was a little wordy, though, but I'm really looking forward to the next video! I have a Performa 630 and hadn't heard the capacitors can become a problem. You can see my Performa on my UA-cam channel!
Great videos! I have an interesting problem. I recently acquired a beautiful Macintosh SE SuperDrive from July of 1990. It boots absolutely fine and will work completely fine for 5 minutes but like clockwork after the 5 minutes it will shut off then power cycle continuously- it will shut off, the screen will come on, do it’s classic beep, then shut back down; and it will continue this loop until I flip the power switch off. If I try to turn it back on it will work for less than the 5 minutes depending on how long it has been sitting. Due to this behavior I am assuming the PSU runs into a failure mode after it reaches temperature. I figured you may know more and have ideas of how to rectify the situation. (Oh and the fan also spins up and down with the power cycles which hints that the issue is power)
Hello there ! Great vid. I found the first Mac computer we had home when i was a kid, in my parent's attic, and it seems to suffer from the capacitor-leakage-problem. It's a LC "1". I am not that at ease with technical english (I'm french), so i am not sure about being accurate. Since the capacitors are a bit messy, is there a list / schematic somewhere where i can find the proper name/reference of capacitors, should i want to replace one ? Thanks in advance - Pierre
Its not just the SMD capacitors that fail, most capacitors made in the early 90s failed. Apple and Sega used the same brand capacitors I noticed, so that is part of the problem. Poorly made cheap caps both THT and SMD. An easy way to check if a capacitor is failing is to use a multi-meter with a capacitance setting (not all of them have such a setting, so beware), and just measure the capacitance. If it's lower than it should be, the cap is bad or going bad.
So why not replace the bad old capacitors with newer surface mount capacitors? Why use only radial through-hole caps? Why not replace all the capacitors found on the board including the axial through-hole variety.
OK, Love your series but there needs to be some better explanation here. You described a capacitor as a storage device which is an electrolytic capacitor. You correctly identified them being used to smooth out voltage fluctuations. Regular capacitors however are used to pass Alternating current, such as sound, and block DC Current as from a power supply. They are booth made by placing two sheets of conductive material as close together without touching as possible. The way to keep them apart is using an electrolyte. The charge is not stored in the electrolyte but on the surface of one of the conductive materials. OK, now capacitors have a shelf life. That life is about 20 to 25 years for electrolytics and up to maybe 30 for paper and oil regular capacitors. I rebuild electronics from 1922 (radios) to current time, Computers etc of at least 20 years old. I never turn them on till the capacitors are replaced. Yes you can test them but that takes time. You find all or most all need replacing anyway. The reason to not turn on before the caps are replaced is simple, as capacitors get old they leak. Some of the DC gets through them and changes the operating parameters of the circuits they are in. In a Power supply that can literally over tax you power supply and result in damage. Its not just old Mac. its old anything electronic that has this problem. Some of the newer types of capacitors made might last up to 10 years longer due to better manufacturing ways with better components. I am sharing this as I got out of the first part of the Video that Mac have bad caps. That is not the most correct way to put it. All caps are bad when they hit 20 years. Yes I know of some and me included that have found some that last longer, but I have also found out getting them out and new ones in will over time same a lot of time and Headache.! Good Job on this series and I am enjoying it.
Good to see your return, Jason. Literally you are keeping me from sleeping right now, so that means something
welcome back. great memories of these macs
Welcome back!
And great rational for a theme!
We all saw computers working and never gave a thought about the labour it takes in keeping these machines working.
HE'S ALIVE, AHHH! Happy days!
I miss Jason's Macintosh Museum. Jason didn't post for almost 9 months, Because the room is renovated for a better filming. :-)
I waited nearly 9 months fur a new video... Finally, a new video!
So nice to hear you ordering FOCUS again :)
Great tips there Jason. I love that you include some bloopers so we can have a bit of chuckle. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for your videos Jason! From a fellow Aussie who loves his early Macs (mainly from a nostalgic point of view) but knows next to nothing about electronics, I find your videos extremely informative from start to finish, and I will have the confidence to maintain my Plus should it fail.
Welcome back sir.
It is very nice to see you making videos again. I really enjoy your content. It always brings back so many memories. I know that Apple wasn't doing too well back in the late 80s/ early 90s but some of the machines they built were just outstanding.
Welcome back Jason!
Glad you are back!
you're BACK :DDD
it's great to see you back!
HEY! Welcome Back, Jason!! :)))
Welcome back Jason. You didn't post videos for almost 9 months. :(
Don't forget to upload Common issues of Apple Macintosh Systems Part 2 Electrolytic capacitors replacement of LC III.
he's back!
Welcome back!
Steve Jobs likes this. Welcome back Jason .
welcome back
welcome back!
Welcome back!!! :)
Awesome, I missed these vids! "FOCUS!" :)
Fantastic video! We had a 512K, and would get the "Sorry, A System Error Occurred" message more times then I can count-right from the beginning, when I first started using it. I've had someone suggest that it was because the 512K had no fan, but I don't whether not that's true.
I forgot to say that we either got the 512K in late 1987 or 1988; I can't remember.
Don't forget to upload Macintosh Centris 660AV, it's demonstration, full tour and disassembly.
I have a Macintosh Classic with no sound. Please show how to fix that particular kind of Mac in the next video!
great video!
Great info! The video was a little wordy, though, but I'm really looking forward to the next video! I have a Performa 630 and hadn't heard the capacitors can become a problem. You can see my Performa on my UA-cam channel!
Same with my power mac 6100
My Macintosh SE FDHD displays a small white dot on the middle of the screen when turned on, can you help me?
Amazing new video :)
Great videos! I have an interesting problem. I recently acquired a beautiful Macintosh SE SuperDrive from July of 1990. It boots absolutely fine and will work completely fine for 5 minutes but like clockwork after the 5 minutes it will shut off then power cycle continuously- it will shut off, the screen will come on, do it’s classic beep, then shut back down; and it will continue this loop until I flip the power switch off. If I try to turn it back on it will work for less than the 5 minutes depending on how long it has been sitting. Due to this behavior I am assuming the PSU runs into a failure mode after it reaches temperature. I figured you may know more and have ideas of how to rectify the situation. (Oh and the fan also spins up and down with the power cycles which hints that the issue is power)
Hello there ! Great vid. I found the first Mac computer we had home when i was a kid, in my parent's attic, and it seems to suffer from the capacitor-leakage-problem. It's a LC "1". I am not that at ease with technical english (I'm french), so i am not sure about being accurate. Since the capacitors are a bit messy, is there a list / schematic somewhere where i can find the proper name/reference of capacitors, should i want to replace one ? Thanks in advance - Pierre
Its not just the SMD capacitors that fail, most capacitors made in the early 90s failed. Apple and Sega used the same brand capacitors I noticed, so that is part of the problem. Poorly made cheap caps both THT and SMD. An easy way to check if a capacitor is failing is to use a multi-meter with a capacitance setting (not all of them have such a setting, so beware), and just measure the capacitance. If it's lower than it should be, the cap is bad or going bad.
My sega genesis died from that issue, replaced them and that got it working.
Quadra 650/700/800/900/950 have SMT mobo's but no bad caps on them.
So why not replace the bad old capacitors with newer surface mount capacitors? Why use only radial through-hole caps? Why not replace all the capacitors found on the board including the axial through-hole variety.
Jason, where could I buy Macintoshes cheap in Australia or anywhere else
OK, Love your series but there needs to be some better explanation here. You described a capacitor as a storage device which is an electrolytic capacitor. You correctly identified them being used to smooth out voltage fluctuations. Regular capacitors however are used to pass Alternating current, such as sound, and block DC Current as from a power supply. They are booth made by placing two sheets of conductive material as close together without touching as possible. The way to keep them apart is using an electrolyte. The charge is not stored in the electrolyte but on the surface of one of the conductive materials. OK, now capacitors have a shelf life. That life is about 20 to 25 years for electrolytics and up to maybe 30 for paper and oil regular capacitors. I rebuild electronics from 1922 (radios) to current time, Computers etc of at least 20 years old. I never turn them on till the capacitors are replaced. Yes you can test them but that takes time. You find all or most all need replacing anyway. The reason to not turn on before the caps are replaced is simple, as capacitors get old they leak. Some of the DC gets through them and changes the operating parameters of the circuits they are in. In a Power supply that can literally over tax you power supply and result in damage. Its not just old Mac. its old anything electronic that has this problem. Some of the newer types of capacitors made might last up to 10 years longer due to better manufacturing ways with better components. I am sharing this as I got out of the first part of the Video that Mac have bad caps. That is not the most correct way to put it. All caps are bad when they hit 20 years. Yes I know of some and me included that have found some that last longer, but I have also found out getting them out and new ones in will over time same a lot of time and Headache.! Good Job on this series and I am enjoying it.
Work on that long overdue Power Macintosh 7200 and part 2 video before 2017!
WB!
he's back!
Welcome back!