Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Apple 15" Multiscan Focus, LaserWriters
The private school project is now complete. It consisted of 12 7100's with 17" monitors and ink jet printers, plus 24 6100's with smaller multiscan monitors sharing a LaserWriter. There were 3 Apple 15" multiscans with bad focus. To deal with these, I drilled a hole in the case so the focus adjustment could be made without removing the back. The hole needs to be drilled 4 1/4 inches to the right of the top right corner of the rectangle that encloses the power cord.
I did sell the SE ethernet card mentioned earlier. The mailing label was the last thing my LaserWriter Select 360 printed properly. Now I just get a grid of squares on the right side of every page. I reconnected my old LaserWriter Plus which I have to single-feed, but I really want to try to get the 360 going again since it is such a nice printer when working. And to make the Plus useful as a backup, I really need to replace the pickup rollers which have turned to goo. I've got 2 more sets but don't know how to disassemble/reassemble.
The private school project is now complete. It consisted of 12 7100's with 17" monitors and ink jet printers, plus 24 6100's with smaller multiscan monitors sharing a LaserWriter. There were 3 Apple 15" multiscans with bad focus. To deal with these, I drilled a hole in the case so the focus adjustment could be made without removing the back. The hole needs to be drilled 4 1/4 inches to the right of the top right corner of the rectangle that encloses the power cord.
I did sell the SE ethernet card mentioned earlier. The mailing label was the last thing my LaserWriter Select 360 printed properly. Now I just get a grid of squares on the right side of every page. I reconnected my old LaserWriter Plus which I have to single-feed, but I really want to try to get the 360 going again since it is such a nice printer when working. And to make the Plus useful as a backup, I really need to replace the pickup rollers which have turned to goo. I've got 2 more sets but don't know how to disassemble/reassemble.
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Since my last post, I set up and delivered 5 more 6100/66 systems to the school and repaired another 15" multiscan. I'm using the 15" now, since my old AppleVision 1710 gave out. It gave me some warning, making odd zapping sounds and screen glitches for a few days. Then there was a fairly loud snap and it was gone. This 15" occasionally has some kind of brief screen glitch which I have not seen in this model before.
I think I've sold an ethernet card for an SE. I keep the cards I find in case anyone wants them, which doesn't happen very often. I've also had requests for an SE/30 ethernet card and a SE/30 itself this month; we will see if those sales go through. I've sold 4 or 5 SE/30's in the past few years and have over 20 of them left, but most have logic board problems. Maybe someday I will get the capacitors replaced which seems to cause most of the logic board problems, such as no sound.
I think I've sold an ethernet card for an SE. I keep the cards I find in case anyone wants them, which doesn't happen very often. I've also had requests for an SE/30 ethernet card and a SE/30 itself this month; we will see if those sales go through. I've sold 4 or 5 SE/30's in the past few years and have over 20 of them left, but most have logic board problems. Maybe someday I will get the capacitors replaced which seems to cause most of the logic board problems, such as no sound.
Friday, July 11, 2003
Yesterday I repaired another Apple 15" multiscan monitor. I've done 6 or 8 of these now. The fixable symptom is loss of one color, sometimes intermittent. The fix is to re-solder bad connections on the vertical circuit board attached to the back of the CRT. The problems to overcome are opening the case (insert small screwdriver in upper holes and gently press down) and removing the metal shield box around the circuit board (it is held together with solder!). Then I can usually spot the bad solder joints by eye. After re-soldering, I test it before re-assembly (warning: this could be dangerous).
When working properly, this monitor produces a great picture, and the multiscan capability means you can easily switch between low res 640x480 for edutainment titles and 832x624 for web browsing. Some systems support more modes. I used 6 of them in a mini-lab at one school and am setting up a full 24-mac computer lab in another school using primarily this monitor.
When working properly, this monitor produces a great picture, and the multiscan capability means you can easily switch between low res 640x480 for edutainment titles and 832x624 for web browsing. Some systems support more modes. I used 6 of them in a mini-lab at one school and am setting up a full 24-mac computer lab in another school using primarily this monitor.
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Today I delivered 12 PowerMac 6100/66 systems from RD&S in Orlando to a private school where they will become half of a computer lab. The RD&S group (http://www.flmug.org/rds/) is partly responsible for my hobby of fixing up old Macs. It's been my opinion that the group collects too much and does not donate enough, but they have let me organize this school donation so that makes me happy.
To finish the Mac lab I need to prepare 11 more, preferably the same model (6100/66 with 15" multiscan monitor). I thought the monitors would be the hardest part, but now it seems we are just about out of the adapter to plug a monitor into a 6100. I'll be looking for more of those, and also any 6100AV models which don't need the dongle next time I visit the shop.
To finish the Mac lab I need to prepare 11 more, preferably the same model (6100/66 with 15" multiscan monitor). I thought the monitors would be the hardest part, but now it seems we are just about out of the adapter to plug a monitor into a 6100. I'll be looking for more of those, and also any 6100AV models which don't need the dongle next time I visit the shop.
Friday, July 04, 2003
I've finally found the driver software for the Dove Marathon 020 accelerator. This add-on board for the Mac SE makes it 3-4 times as fast as the original 68000 chip, but seems to be limited to System 6. The files are named MaraThon 20X/256-4M (control panel) and MaraThon 20XE INIT. I'll be sending them to the Mac Driver Museum soon.
I plan to set up all three of the boards I have in SE FDHD models with 4M accelerator RAM, 2 internal floppies and an internal 250M hard drive. They will get System 6.0.7 and lots of the old System 6 software which I have not played with in a long time.
I plan to set up all three of the boards I have in SE FDHD models with 4M accelerator RAM, 2 internal floppies and an internal 250M hard drive. They will get System 6.0.7 and lots of the old System 6 software which I have not played with in a long time.
