Apple IIe - Pop pop, fizz fizz

[funkytoad]

Well that's something no user wants to hear. I picked up my Apple IIe at a recycling event today. I powered it up for the second time ever. Got it all hooked up to the monitor, got it all adjusted to a gray screen with white text reading "Apple II" That's when I hear it. *POP* The image on the screen did not change at all. I quickly unplugged the unit and carried it to the linoleum floor of my kitchen and opened the unit. A small gray wisp of smoke was flowing up from the power source, with that unmistakable sickeningly sweet smell of fried electronics. Now I am left scratching my head. What just happened?

Now onto my Mac IIsi, lets hope that doesn't blow up

-ft

 

[Patnukem]

I sell lots of IIe's and this only happened to one customer, I think it was caused by the aging caps in it, I was not there so I can not say for sure, another power supply should fix it or you could very easily just swap out the old caps for new ones and see if it fixes it. I have seen several types of power supplies used on the IIe's so it would be hard to find an exact schematic but it should be straight forward.

 

[Bunsen]

As everyone knows, electronics run on magic smoke. When the magic smoke escapes, they don't work any more.

 

[luddite]

Replacement power supplies aren't all that hard to come by, but they'll usually cost you more than a complete IIe.

I've heard that long periods of disuse cause this... if you have computers and monitors in storage you should make a point of powering them up every year or so.

 

[Patnukem]

i could always send you out one for cheap it you need one pm me.

 

[zeem]

The mains RFI filter capacitor has exploded, caused by a period of disuse.

The component is completely non-essential to the unit's operation, and you can safely continue to use it in its present condition. The only thing is that the capacitor ejects a load of gunk over the circuit board when it goes, so it'll smell funny for a while.

I've had this happen to loads of stuff, including my IIe, one Mac Plus, several BBC computers, and even a portable VHSC tape deck's battery charger.

Replacement parts are incredibly cheap and very easy to replace. Replacing the power supply when one of these fails would be like buying a new car when the ashtray is full.