Vintage Mac Update: Doing the Wash

The sound on my Mac Classic doesn't work and my hard drive is no longer recognized by the machine.  I think the hard drive issue might be due to a loose ribbon cable connecting the drive to the motherboard. The sound issue is likely due to leaking capacitors on the mother board (see post on Leaky Caps).

Today, I had a little free time, so I decided to open up the Mac Classic and check out what was inside.  My first challenge in doing so was that I didn't have a Torx T15 screwdriver that was long enough to loosen the screws in the top of the case inside the handle.  Therefore, a trip to Sears was in order to buy the Craftsman 6" Torx screw driver part # 48171 for $6.99.  My local Sears had the item in stock so I was in and out in a flash. (That's important to me because I hate going to the mall!).

I was scared to open the Mac Classic because it has an old-school CRT inside.  CRT's potentially retain high voltage that might kill you.  I encourage you to search this topic and be knowledgeable before you root around inside the Mac.  Don't do it just because I did!  After researching the subject, I rightly or wrongly concluded that I could remove the motherboard without killing myself.

Flickr photo credit: markltb

When I pulled the motherboard out of the Mac, it actually looked pretty clean.  The PRAM battery was dead as I mentioned in a previous post.  How did I know this?  The clock doesn't remember the time and the Mac doesn't remember any settings.  That's how you know.  Fortunately, the battery (1/2 AA size) hadn't leaked or become corroded.  Still, I pulled it out to be safe.  I'll order another online if I can get the Mac working otherwise.

Several websites recommend that you remove all the old capacitors from the motherboard and replace them with new ones made from a different material that doesn't contain liquid.  You can find several websites discussing this.  Others have suggested that the Mac starts working again if you give the motherboard a good cleaning.  Some people suggest putting the motherboard in an empty dishwasher (without detergent and without using the dry cycle).  I didn't see my wife going for this, so I opted to immerse the board in some warm water with a little dish soap and used an old toothbrush to clean around the capacitors.  I am now drying the board thoroughly before I put it back into the Mac.  I dried it first with a paper towel, then used the blow dryer and now I have it propped up in front of a fan.

I'll report back on how it works!

Links: Washing memory board, Bringing a Zebra Motherboard Back to Life, Repairing a Macintosh SE/30 with No Sound

UPDATE: As much as I hoped my Mac Classic would start from the hard drive with a resounding beep, that didn't happen. In fact, there was no change. I get some sound when I plug a speaker into the 3.5 mm jack on the back of the Mac but nothing from the speaker itself. I can live without sound. It's not like the Mac Classic will run iTunes! But, swapping floppies is the reason hard drives were invented. I'm going to look for a replacement hard drive for the Mac Classic.

Vintage Mac: Leaky Caps

Owning an old Mac is complicated. I was prepared for the software side of things. I was even prepared for hardware compromises and incompatibility in my quest to use a Mac Classic in 2011. What I hadn't considered is the physical deterioration of old electronics after 27 years. Now that I've had an opportunity to become acquainted with my Mac Classic, I'm discovering that things aren't working all that well.

One obstacle is that my hard drive is only recognized periodically. Whenever I first remove the Classic from its bag and boot it up, I get prompted to enter a floppy with a system disk. After the system boots from the floppy the hard disk still isn't recognized. Yet, after several restarts or passage of time (I'm not sure which) the hard drive suddenly reappears and tests out with no errors. I am not sure why I'm experiencing this behavior. It wasn't doing this when I first got the Classic. It started after I re-initialized the hard disk and installed System 6.0.8 instead of System 7.1 that it came with.

Another problem is that the PRAM battery is dead so it doesn't remember settings. I can buy a new battery so that's not a major problem. A third more serious issue is that I have no sound. I didn't even notice it at first and it wouldn't be that big of a deal except that it is a symptom of leaky capacitors on the motherboard. Some people suggest removing the leaky capacitors and replacing them. That process requires a steady hand and quite a bit of soldering. That's a skill I don't have. I never realized that these electronic components fail with age. Another potential solution to the problem is to wash the motherboard in the dishwasher! It sounds crazy but people say that washing the gunk from the leaky capacitors off the motherboard fixes sound and video problems the leaking causes. I'm hesitant to open up the Classic to remove the motherboard, however, because the CRT contains high voltage. It's just not worth it for me to get electrocuted so I can play with an old Mac. I'm just not confident that I know what I'm doing to risk it. I've already learned a lot from this process. A big lesson is that if you want to work with vintage computers you need to be comfortable taking them apart and soldering.

Printing on Vintage Mac

I have a Mac Classic but I don't have a vintage printer. since word processing is what my Classic does best, I need a way to create output. One way of doing that is to save documents as RTF, transfer them on a Floppy to my MacBook Air and print them by launching Word on the Air. But, With some Googling, I found another way. On the Classic, I selected LaserWriter as my printer using Chooser control panel. Next, I print on the Classic using the normal print function for my Classic application. When the print dialogue pops up, choose print to postscript file. Next save the postscript file to a floppy. My Air can read from but not write to a diskette formatted on the Classic. I can copy the postscript file to my Air from the floppy. If I add an EPS extension to the postscript file, it will open with Preview when I double click on the file after an automatic conversion to a PDF. As the final step, I can either keep the output as a PDF or I can print it to any printer that is accessible to my Air. I realize not everyone will go to this much trouble just to use a vintage Mac, but I'm enjoying this trip down memory lane.

I Take on a Vintage Mac

My New (to me) Mac

I've been thinking about getting a vintage Macintosh computer after starting to read Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs.  I came to the Mac with the introduction of the colored iMacs.  I bought my first Mac because I was moving my family to Canada for work, and my teen daughter wanted me to buy one of those cool green iMacs for her to use for school work.  It was my first time to get hands-on with a Mac for any period of time though I worked at Peat Marwick which used Macs in its audit department. I liked that first mac so much, I decided to buy a blueberry iMac for me.  From that moment, I was hooked! A steady stream of iBooks and Powerbooks followed. When I started my own CPA firm in 2005, I decided to go all Mac hardware, outfitting the office with iMacs and Mac Minis, even a Mac Mini server.  Yet, I missed those first Macintoshes.

As I read the Steve Jobs biography, it dawned on me that I could probably find an inexpensive classic Mac on eBay for a nominal price. So, I started to check out the auctions in the vintage computing section of eBay.  I guess I wasn't the only one who got energized about vintage Macs by reading the Jobs biography.  Either the Macs were being sold for parts or working systems were being priced at hundreds of dollars as collectibles. I bid in several auctions only to have them get out of control in the waning seconds.

I was so close to buying an SE 30, the high point of the compact Mac line this morning.  I had been sitting on a winning bid of $202.50 and my maximum bid was $261.50. With $35 shipping, I realized I was overpaying for computers that probably most often end up in garage sales or being dumped at Goodwill.  But, I wanted it.  The final price on that Mac, set in the last seconds was $355.  The other auctions I've been watching for this particular model were "buy it now" listings at $349 and $499.  No way I was paying that much!

On Facebook and Twitter, I posted messages asking if any of my friends had old Macs that they would consider selling me.  After all, I belong to the Apple Corps of Dallas, the oldest MUG in the world. Surely, there were packrats among this group of Mac super fans. As luck would have it, the monthly meeting of the ACD was this morning.  I haven't been to a meeting in probably a year, but the program by HP on their ePrint capabilities sounded interesting, and I thought I could make my plea at the meeting.  To my surprise and undying appreciation, an ACD approached me at the meeting and said that he had seen my post on Facebook.  He'd gone up to his attic, found his old Macintosh Classic, and brought it to the meeting. He gave it to me! Gave it!  How awesome is that!

About the Mac Classic

According to lowendmac.com, the Mac Classic was the white Macbook of its day, the first Mac to be introduced for less than $1,000.  Released in October 1990, the Classic in its most basic configuration came with an 8 MHz 68000 CPU, 1 MB RAM, a SuperDrive (1.44 MB Floppy to you and me), and a space to mount an internal SCSI hard drive.  The upgraded Classic came with 2MB memory and a 40MB hard drive. My classic has the 40MB hard drive and was apparently upgraded to sport 4MB RAM.  Keep in mind, I'm talking megabytes, not gigabytes of RAM and hard disk space. One feature that is unique about the Classic is that it contained a "secret" ROM based boot up to System 6.0.8 that can be accessed during startup by pressing Option-Command-X-O.

Lowendmac.com calls the Classic a "compromised Mac" because of its pokey 8 Mhz processor.  The website applemuseum.bott.org  notes that the case, processor and basic configuration of the Classic are the same as the original compact Mac models. The website calls the Classic a slightly faster Mac Plus with a different name. This Mac was introduced after the SE 30, the zenith of the compact macs. In contrast to the Classic, the SE 30 had a 16 Mhz processor and buss, based upon the upgraded 68030 Motorola chip. According to applemuseum.bott.org, Apple somewhat hastily issued the Classic in response to criticism that Macs cost too much (sound familiar?), but the public didn't like Apple's solution of cutting specs. As a result, the company discontinued the Classic a year later and replaced it with a more robust Classic II. Still, it was clear by this time that Apple and perhaps the public had lost enthusiasm for the compact Mac form factor. The Classic and Classic II were making way for the Performa line with separate color monitors and CPU consoles. The last of the Compact Macs would be positioned at the bottom of the Apple food chain.

My Classic is running System 7.1 operating system.  According to MacTracker (an iPhone app that tells these things), the Classic originally shipped with either System 6.0.6 or 6.0.7.  The Mac also contained Microsoft Works 3.0 (upon which I started typing this document), AOL (ack!) and another communication program called First Class (the ACD bulletin board used to run on that application as I recall).  I promptly deleted AOL and First Class to free up drive space.  Cosmetically, the Mac is in really nice condition and David included a keyboard and mouse.  The Classic isn't the Mac I was planning to buy on eBay, but as a free Mac, I'm going to give it a go.

Setting up My Mac

Even though my Mac was in use before the Internet became popular, there are awesome online resources maintained by vintage Mac enthusiasts. Lowendmac.com is one such resource, with specs of old Macs, plus numerous articles about setting up and using vintage Macs of all types.  Another website called System 6 Heaven (euronet.nl/users/mvdk/system_6_heaven.html) makes the case that Macs using the 6800 chip run much faster on System 6.0.8 than with system 7. An article on lowendmac.com ("Which System Software is Best for My Vintage Mac?") also suggested using System 6.0.8 on the Classic. Since my Classic was unbearably slow with System 7.1, I thought I would give System 6 a try, but how?

At this point, my main method of moving files on to and off the Classic are by 1.4MB floppy disks. The Classic doesn't have an Ethernet port or a wireless card.  There are some ways to connect a Classic to a network but I don't have the appropriate hardware to implement such a connection at this time.  I found some old forgotten floppies in a drawer and I have a USB floppy drive that I purchased long ago and stuffed into another drawer.  My Classic has the 1.4MB "superdrive" (ha!) whereas the original Macs used 800K floppies that modern computers can't read. Unfortunately, my main computer is a MacBook Air with OS X 10.7 installed.  If I initialize a floppy disk on the Classic, The Air will read it but can't write to it.  Floppies that I initialize on the Air are apparently unreadable on the Classic (even if I choose FAT format). There went my master plan up in smoke!  Thankfully, I still had a Titanium Powerbook G4 in the closet with OS 9.2 installed.  Since the TiBook has wireless card, ethernet, and USB connections, I can move files to the TiBook from my Air and then swap floppies between the TiBook and the Classic. I'm starting to see why people either have no old Macs or a bunch of them.  It apparently takes a village of vintage hardware to move files back and forth between the ages.  It starts sounding like a "how many people does it take to change a light bulb" joke.

I found System 6.0.8 via a link posted on System 6 Heaven pointing to Apple.com, where apparently downloads of several different legacy versions of the Mac OS can be had for free.  To install system 6.0.8, I had to download the .sit files from Apple and decompress them using the free Stuffit Expander.  The .sit file contained disk image files for the various versions of System 6 install disks.  On my TiBook, I could mount the floppy disk images using a utility called Disk Copy and copy the files from the mounted disk image to freshly formatted 1.4MB floppy disks.  System 6.0.8 fits entirely on two such floppies. I was concerned that my floppies wouldn't be bootable on the Classic since I would need to start the Mac from the floppy to re-initialize the hard drive and install the older operating system.  But, unlike Windows computers, creating a boot disk on a Mac doesn't require any special formatting or copy procedure.  I put Disk 1 in my Classic and restarted it.  I had to put my finger over the drive slot so that the Classic wouldn't eject the disk during startup.  The utility to initialize the Classic's hard drive is included on the floppy.  I ran that utility first and then clicked on the installer.  I few minutes later, Iwas running System 6.0.8. The web site was right.  System 6 is way faster on the Classic than 7.1.

The system installation wiped out the one piece of software that was installed on my Mac, Microsoft Works 3.0.  So, I needed to find some applications to install on my Classic via the floppy disk shuffle.  I found links to multiple applications on 68k.preterhuman.net.  Right now, I'm using an early version of Clarisworks (which was later named Appleworks) instead of Microsoft Works.

What next?

I am enjoying using the Classic as a writing tool and as a tangible history lesson of early computing.  I plan to do more tinkering to see if I can come up with a better way to exchange files between my Classic and other Macs. I don't recommend that anyone give up a modern computer for a vintage Mac. But, as a lesson about what was and what is now, getting hands-on with a working vintage Mac really makes the point better than reading a history book.

Lessons From "Vintage Technology"

I've been reading with much interest all the early comments about the MacBook Air.  Some say it's underpowered or doesn't have enough ports or disk drives or whatever.  I'm looking forward to seeing them in Apple Stores so I can make my own call.  In the meantime, I've recently had a computing experience that reminds me to take all these comments with a grain of salt.

This weekend, my daughter came home from college to swap computers with me. She's been using a 12" PowerBook 1Ghz with 768 MB RAM. It has served her well for 2 1/2 years at college, but she's finally hit the wall. In her advanced Calculus class she's using Excel to write formulas and apparently she needs to use the Windows version of Excel.  So, I offered her my MacBook with Vista running in a Boot Camp partition.  I'm back to using the 12" PowerBook while I decide what my next notebook will be.  I say "back" to using it because this was my computer originally. I have had 3 others since then: a 15" PowerBook G4 1.67 Ghz that my wife uses, a white MacBook that my youngest daughter got when her iBook died, and the BlackBook that I sent to college with my daughter. 

I'm thinking about getting the MacBook Air but I'm waiting until I can hold it and decide for myself.  I don't do video editing. I mostly use Safari, Microsoft Office, and QuickBooks. My tax software runs on Windows and I also need to run both the Mac and Windows versions of QuickBooks. For the moment, I'm running all the Windows apps on my office iMac and connecting to it using gotomypc.com when I need to run a windows app on the PowerBook.  

Using this device is reminding me that my needs are simple.  I remember how much I enjoyed the form factor of the 12" PowerBook when I first had it.  I wish that Apple had not retired it and I was hopeful that the MacBook Air would be the reintroduction of the thinner AND smaller computer.   What I'm also realizing is that even with the slow processor and not enough RAM, Leopard runs great for small tasks and  all my stuff (except Windows) is fitting on 60GB with 21 GB to spare.  I've read a lot about the EEE PC and other small computers. If you can find a 12" PowerBook in good condition, it probably is more powerful than Asus EEE PC and has a more usable keyboard and screen.  It probably doesn't cost much more than the EEE PC either.  

What this computer tells me about the MacBook Air is that it is definitely not underpowered for my needs and I can probably make the 80GB HD work.  As much as I'd like to have the SSD, I just can't see dropping another grand right now.  I'm sure that my re-infatuation with the PowerBook won't last and as I keep reading about the Air my gear lust will take over. But, for now, at least, I'm enjoying the time spent with an old friend, my 12" PowerBook.  What's your favorite computer of all times? Leave me a comment or catch me on Twitter as Taxman45.