AppleColor High-Res (M1297) Tear Down

[Concorde1993]

Hi Everyone,

I had an unfortunate accident with my M1297 monitor early last year. I was cleaning my workstation when one of the legs on my desk buckled causing the monitor to fall. While the CRT and its internals were undamaged, a small part of the front bezel broke off on the bottom left corner. Naturally, I would like to replace the front bezel as the unit is in very good condition for its age. However, I need to know if I can remove the chassis as one part without having to remove the EMF shield and the other high voltage goodies. From what I can see inside, there are four screws attaching the chassis to the front bezel. Can it be that simple?

 

[Fizzbinn]

The Apple Service Source manual may have what you are looking for on take-a-part advice:

https://www.applerepairmanuals.com/the_manuals_are_in_here/AppleColor_High_Res_RGB_Mon.pdf

 

[Concorde1993]

The service manual is written to take everything part piece by piece. I don't want to do that as I want to avoid touching the high voltage stuff. 

 

[Concorde1993]

I just want to know if I can pull up the CRT assembly off the front bezel in one piece 

 

[EvilCapitalist]

Based on the service manual it appears that you should be able to do that, as everything tied in to the internal chassis is only tied in to the bezel via the four CRT mounting screws:

 

[Concorde1993]

The chassis is now removed from the front bezel. The only problem I incurred while carefully lifting the chassis was the CRT board separated from the neck of the CRT. So now the pins from the picture tube are no longer connected to the CRT board. I doubt I damaged the picture tube as I did not hear anything shatter and all of the pins appear to be intact. 

Here are some pics of the monitor in its current state and the damaged bezel:









I'm still on the lookout for a replacement bezel, so if anyone has one for a M1297 in good condition, please PM me. 

 

[Concorde1993]

I reached out to the Apple Rescue of Denver which has several M1297 and M0401 monitors listed on their site. Apparently they cannot sell the bezel separately as the case needs to be intact to recycle the monitor. I'm not criticizing their policy as I am totally oblivious to U.S. law, but can anyone from Colorado chime in? 

 

[Fizzbinn]

Could you mail the Apple Rescue of Denver folks your part so they can swap? Or do you think they are saying their recycler won't take a monitor with any broken/chipped plastic? (If so could you superglue the broken piece back on before sending to them for the swap?)

 

[Concorde1993]

Here's the email: 

"Just selling any part of a monitor case isn’t likely going to happen. We can’t recycle them without a case."

Doesn't make any sense to me. Are the recycling laws in Denver that strict? 

 

[cruff]

Here's the email: 

"Just selling any part of a monitor case isn’t likely going to happen. We can’t recycle them without a case."

Doesn't make any sense to me. Are the recycling laws in Denver that strict? 

It isn't a law that I'm aware of, it is probably a requirement of the company doing the recycling. For example in Boulder County, you can drop off your electronics for onsite disassembly and recycling, and the description of the process doesn't mention anything about intact housings. There is an extra charge if the CRT glass is broken, so perhaps something similar applies in the Denver metro area.

 

[EvilCapitalist]

Here's the email: 

"Just selling any part of a monitor case isn’t likely going to happen. We can’t recycle them without a case."

Doesn't make any sense to me. Are the recycling laws in Denver that strict? 

I can't imagine you're going to be able to find someone, business or otherwise, who will cannibalize a functional monitor with a good bezel because they'd have to just throw away the remainder.  It would be very difficult to ship the remaining pieces of the monitor and the market for the internal parts just doesn't exist.

As far as recycling, I know at least where I live they've gotten much pickier about what they accept for electronic recycling at the county transfer stations.  I used to be able to take loose boards, empty cases, and loose cables but now they've tightened it up to be a limit of 10 "large" items a day, which the last time I was there they said constituted anything desktop/tower size or larger, and they couldn't accept loose items.  Even trying to recycle bare-bones cases (maybe with just a power supply left inside) I ran into some trouble.  They also specifically posted on the county website:

What happens to the electronics after they are collected?

When possible, electronics are refurbished and/or resold. In some cases, electronics are disassembled, sorted by material (metals, plastics, glass, etc.) and sold on the recyclables market. Hazardous components, such as leaded glass in certain computer monitors or TVs, are removed and sent for proper recovery and recycling in a permitted hazardous waste facility.

They said that the limit was put in place to keep from having commercial clients trying to use the electronics recycling program through the county.  Knowing that the county is likely reselling a lot of what gets recycled (I've seen *plenty* of nice things there before) I feel like I should put out CL ads saying I'll pick up computers and whatnot for recycling from people.

 

[Concorde1993]

...And the market for the internal parts just doesn't exist.

There appears to be quite a market here for CRT/video parts, but I can see your point that the practice of removing specific parts for one client would be very cost prohibitive for an electronic vendor (possible massive group buy?)  ;-)  

Anyway, the search goes on. 

 

[beachycove]

Pms sent.

 

[Sideburn]

I’ve got one of these coming and no idea on condition. The connector is rusted i can see that.
Do these commonly need a cap kit? Are there schematics?

 

[Juror22]

I have seen only a couple of these listed across the various forums (across the years) with issues, so I'm going to draw the conclusion that they are either built like tanks... or not.
From my own personal experience with them, mine have not required recapping... yet.
I have two of my own that over their life have seen use in a college lab, been in controlled storage for many years, been in my garage (which was definitely not controlled storage for about 4 years) and then when I moved, only then did I realize what I had frittering away in the garage. So after the move, I was able to take better care of these. They have been cleaned up, retrobrited and occasionally they get to pair off with one of my Macs to show off what a Sony Trinitron can do.

As for the rest of your questions asked and unasked...
1) schematics around? - not that I am aware of, although according to another forums posting many of the Sonys in the same family were similar and I have downloaded the Sony CPD 100ES display manual (for the adjustment procedures, even though I didn't need them) I doubt that the schematic is the same, but some of it could be similar. I'm not going to be opening mine up to check unless something goes wrong with one of them...
2) The connector rust could be from almost anything - I can guarantee it is not from a Maxell battery explosion! but no idea, other than that, so you will have to open it up, when it arrives, to check it out. Fortunately, there is a Service Source for the monitor, which is available online and will aid you in taking the monitor apart, and performing the reassembly and minor diagnostics. If you end up needing one of those connectors, shoot me a line and I can send you one. I just replaced one on a Duo Minidock I've been restoring with the same symptom - it was rusted away and I should be posting some pics in a few days time, but they came in a lot of 10 and I will never use that many, so I don't mind sharing.
3) The plastics should be ok. mine were fine and are still not brittle, but the little panel in the back has tabs that can break off if you are not careful, so be careful with that. I also saw that you were missing the rubber feet according to the picture of the bottom of the monitor (the plastic tabs were just sticking out) so you will need to get some rubber feet or replacements on there quickly to avoid snapping those off, since they were not designed to take that weight alone.

Also, no mention of opening up a monitor should be made without the standard warnings about high voltages when working on CRT's, please follow the rules/guidelines for discharging them and don't take shortcuts. If you need them spelled out, just ask, since I'm sure there are lots of folks willing to quote (and argue about) how best to do it, so please be safe.

 

[Sideburn]

Thanks for the info.

I received the monitor the other day. The front bezel didn’t survive the trip and cracked on the top left.

But worse, on power up the screen is light purple / magenta ish and there are retrace lines running down it.

Trying to find info on what might be the cause or where to start looking.

* I have worked on many crt’s and know how to safely discharge and test them.

 

[jmacz]

I have two of these monitors, one is an M1297 and the other a M0401. The M0401 is on its original caps still and working like a champ. The M1297 had issues when I bought it from an e-waste center. There was some slight distortion on the screen not caused by the geometry pots. I visually inspected the caps and they physically looked good but when I tested some using an ESR meter, some were out of spec. I ended up recapping the whole thing (around 80+ caps) and it fixed the distortion. My post about it here:

AppleColor High Resolution Monitor Weird Distortion

Finally found a DB15 cable (with all the pins) to test an M1297 AppleColor High Resolution Monitor with my Quadra 700. Everything looks good and the monitor seems to work.. but I've got this really strange distortion in the left corner.. it's like the top 3-5 rows of pixels are shifted to the...

68kmla.org

I am not familiar with the lines you are seeing. But for the color, it’s possible someone played with the R.BKG or R.DRIVE pots (only reachable if you open it up). Be careful if you do.

 

[Sideburn]

I have two of these monitors, one is an M1297 and the other a M0401. The M0401 is on its original caps still and working like a champ. The M1297 had issues when I bought it from an e-waste center. There was some slight distortion on the screen not caused by the geometry pots. I visually inspected the caps and they physically looked good but when I tested some using an ESR meter, some were out of spec. I ended up recapping the whole thing (around 80+ caps) and it fixed the distortion. My post about it here:

AppleColor High Resolution Monitor Weird Distortion

Finally found a DB15 cable (with all the pins) to test an M1297 AppleColor High Resolution Monitor with my Quadra 700. Everything looks good and the monitor seems to work.. but I've got this really strange distortion in the left corner.. it's like the top 3-5 rows of pixels are shifted to the...

68kmla.org

I am not familiar with the lines you are seeing. But for the color, it’s possible someone played with the R.BKG or R.DRIVE pots (only reachable if you open it up). Be careful if you do.

Ahh I saw your distortion post earlier when I was searching.

First I need to get one of my IICX boards running so I can even test the monitor. But I could open it up and inspect the caps in the meantime. I hope it’s just a cap and not a hard to find chip or something.

 

[volvo242gt]

It almost looks like the tube got damaged in shipping. Once had a Sony 20" TV fall off a table with similar visual effects being present for the rest of the time it was used. A shame, since the TV worked very well and had great image quality prior to it landing face-first on a hardwood floor.

 

[Sideburn]

Hmm well I hope not. Need to find a way to rule that out.