68kMLA Classic Interface

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Posted by: AusNick on 2010-03-21 00:46:59
A few days ago, I got my hands on a Classic II with an allegedly dead hard drive.

Replacing the drive was no problem, plenty of spares.

Powered the beast. Yaaaaaaa!………No startup chime, stripes with some garbage, it finally settled on a checkerboard. 🙁

So I hit the internets, a google search pointed me to… these very forums with a reason why, and a solution. (Yay for us.)

Anyone want the classic II to fix, or turn into a MacBong or speaker enclosure or something?

There's software on floppy disk that came with them machine.

Today I scored a G4/400 and CRT studio monitor, has two hard drives, an Airport card and a SCSI card, and two of the four RAM slots are filled, as to the other specs, I no know. Looks great beside my other G4 tower. Keeping it, too.

Mum went a bit thermonuclear > 🙁 … , so I promised to get rid of stuff, like most of the PCs and stuff taking up room, plus there's a couple of G4 cases and a few incomplete or troubled iMacs, and other stuff I haven't sorted through yet. Just seen it, grabbed it, or rescued it. Machines, software, books…

Deal is, if you can get down to Frankston, let me know, real soon if possible, otherwise stuff will go into the recycling or to op-shops in the near future.

I hate to see some of this stuff go, but I seriously need space. :'(

Optionally, if you do lob in, and have something you don't want that I can use, swapage. I'm a collector of brassware, so…

Come on down.

Posted by: Quadraman on 2010-03-21 00:59:34
Check the RAM. The checkerboard is different from the lines that you get with simasimac. Cleaning the connections with a pencil eraser and reseating the memory sometimes makes the checkerboard go away.

Posted by: AusNick on 2010-03-21 02:17:43
Thanks Quadraman, I'll do that. I had plans for the machine.

Nick

Posted by: Dog Cow on 2010-03-21 12:20:47
Sometimes if you leave it on for a long time (and we're talking anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours) it will just "mysteriously" chime and start up. I've done this on an SE/30 and a Classic, so it's battle-tested.

Posted by: AusNick on 2010-03-21 23:08:58
Methinks the classic II is slightly dead.

Pulled the thing apart again, the motherboard was fairly free of dust. Examined the RAM and connectors, no tarnishing or discolouration.

Could be leaky capacitors, or just flux on the solder pads, I couldn't quite tell. I've seen enough leaky caps to know the difference.

Put everything back together, powered the machine.

Same thing, vertical bars with a little garbage, but this time I did notice a low volume, varying high pitch squeal from the speaker. It was probably there before, but last time I powered the machine, there was other background noise.

Powered down, waited a minute powered back up, ceckerboard pattern as last time.

Could it be the Power/Sweep board has had it? (as per diagnosis from the Classic II ASM)

RAM and connectors were good, as noted above. PRAM battery was as flat as a tack.

So, is machine dead? salvageable for parts?

Nick

Posted by: Paralel on 2010-03-22 00:25:25
I have a classic II that had a similar problem, it was cap leakage.

Posted by: LCGuy on 2010-03-22 00:45:32
Sounds like typical symptoms of capacitor leakage. My Classic II gave me the jailbars a few years back, washed the board and although the sound never returned, the machine was as good as new, until the analog board shat itself a couple of years later 🙁

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