Aftermac's Personal Computer Cache

One of my on-again, off-again, side-projects has been getting my Apple //e setup as a dumb terminal for OS X. I've been tinkering with this for about 9-years now, but never really had a setup I was happy with. I occasionally re-visit the project, but could never dedicate the time to get it right. In my ideal setup, I wanted one monitor that handles multiple devices (Atari 7800, G5, Apple //e, etc...). For the most part my Dell 20" LCD has served me well, but o ne source of dissatisfaction with regards to the Apple //e is how it handled the composite video output in 80-column mode. The video would twitch every few seconds which is very annoying and tough to read. About a week ago, the display started to fail. The screen would go black after several minutes of use. I suspect that the inverter is failing, but don't want to just throw $100 at a hunch. For $150, I decided to replace it with a 22" 1080p HDTV instead of a new monitor, primarily because of the variety of...

It has been five months since the passing of Steve Jobs. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I was a bit distracted when Mr. Jobs passed and I wasn't able to give the proper respect that someone would expect to give to the passing of one of their idols. For as long as I live, I will never be able to forget the date Steve died. The next day my wife gave birth to our first children, twin boys, on 10/6/2011. March 2012 marks 15 years since I first learned that Apple acquired NeXT and Steve Jobs would be returning to the company. It's hard to believe that much time has gone by, but I remember it very well. Back in 1997, although I had only been using Mac's for about four years (and only owned one for two years) I was very staunch in my belief that the Mac was the superior platform, and could never see myself as a Windows user. I was a senior in high school at the time, and had carefully woven my way into a position where I was doing all of the technical support for m...

It's been two years since my last post. Not too long after I started this blog, I decided to remodel my office... and my basement has been a disaster ever since. Fortunately, the construction is nearing an end, so I hope to be able to post on a more regular basis. All of the old shelving was ripped out, new flooring was added, the walls and ceiling were painted, new track lighting was installed, a network rack is being installed, and new shelving is being constructed - including an additional 12 feet of desk space. I'm definitely looking forward to completing this project and being able to enjoy my collection again... Before: After:

Broken. Eventually, I was going to pull out a computer that legitimately didn't work. I knew they were there. At least this one is my "spare" Classic II. Still, I can't help but feel bad for it. If I had to make a guess, I would say this Mac is the victim of bad capacitors on the motherboard. Since, this is a spare computer I really don't have anything to lose by washing the motherboard to remove the conductive fluid from the leaking capacitors. As of this writing, I have removed and (my wife) washed and rinsed the motherboard. I am going to let it dry for a while - possibly a couple weeks, to make sure there is no water left to short out the components and cause more damage. I'm not really confident that washing the board will allow the computer to boot, but again I have nothing to lose. Either way, the capacitors need to be replaced. I'm not sure if I'll do this or part out the computer for spare parts for my other Mac's or just put it on the she...

Well, this one is a bit embarrassing... I had this computer sitting on the shelf with a tag that read: "Power, Chime No Video, No Boot" An unfortunate misdiagnosis on my part. I pulled the SE off the shelf as part of this project, since it is one of my non-working machines that I am most interested in getting running. So, I plug it in, hook up the keyboard and mouse, and fire it up. Sure enough as my trusty note said, the fan spun up, the computer chimed, but the screen stayed blank. I give it a light tap on the side... Still nothing. Then I notice the HD light start flashing. That doesn't sound like "No boot" to me. I give the brightness knob a turn. At first there is no change in the screen, but as I keep turning the screen brightens up to reveal a Macintosh System 6 desktop. Hmm. Well, then. How could I have made a mistake like this?? I must have been hastily testing it and not really thinking about what I was doing. Regardless, I am thrilled relieved that i...

Just a quick video of my collection and the cramped quarters in which it resides. I have another 6 computers that are not in the video, but you get the point. :)

Might as well start with what's out in the open. This Classic II has been sitting on my workbench with its guts exposed for so long, that I don't even remember what I was doing with it when I opened it up in the first place! I'm not even sure if it works... First things first lets give it a visual inspection to see if everything is hooked up. Hmm... the motherboard is partially pulled out, but it looks like all the connections are hooked up... HD, floppy, power supply, battery is installed... A keyboard, mouse, and power cord are already hooked up, so lets see if it works... Lo and behold, it fires right up! Looks like it has a ton of extensions loaded. After the parade of icons finishes and the desktop loads, I opened "About This Macintosh". This particular Classic II has System 7.1 loaded, with 4 MB RAM, and a 40 MB HD - that is practically full! The screen is exceptionally sharp and clear. There is software for sharing DOS files, Microsoft Word 4.0, FileMaker P...