Elfen
Well-known member
As a favor to dad, I recapped his IIfx for him. It was just two (2) caps - 47µf @16 cans that goes bad, they are on the right side, one under the power switch and another by the top RAM SIMM Sockets. They are very tight spots to solder in.
I'll post pics later, but in the very least the can caps have another cap area for a larger sized cap to go on. But I ran into problems.
1) Those leaky caps were glued down on top of being soldered on! I had to use a finger nail to pry off the plastic disc the cap rested on and there were two tiny red glue tabs. They were almost impossible to clean off! Scraping of off with a screw driver or pick proved difficult and I almost cut a trace further down on he board when the tool slipped off the dab of glue. So I left it there. I them desoldered the solder from the removed cap area and from the adjacent cap space. It definitely needed some cleaning with q-tips and acetone, and the goo spread to a large are for such a tiny cap - 4in sq (2in X 2in)!
2) Dad got the caps from Trag, THANKS TRAG! But because of the tightness of the area (and the large soldering iron dad uses) soldering it where the old cap was proved difficult. But soldering it on the adjacent space was perfect, though tricky. Tricky due to the space I worked in and the size of the iron. But I got them in there!
I found a couple of batteries and reassembled the IIfx. After plugging it in, it took a while for for it to turn on. In fact it would not turn on at all. So I tried jumping it with a third battery. Nothing. Then the phone rang and I had to answer it. I came back and pressed the power button before giving up on it. It turned on with a "BONG!"
Without a hard drive, it gave the flash "?" in a Disk Icon, so it works! I managed to get Norton's Emergency Boot Disk to get it running. So it does boot, though the floppy needs a cleaning and lubing.
Yay me! Dad is going to be so proud, though mad that I did it because he wanted to do it. But at least I got it going and I have not fixed a Mac since the late 1990s!
Notes:
Just 2 leaky caps killed this machine. 1 is by the power switch and a lead from the power switch goes to it, so that has something to do with it. It's hard to imagine that something so small can takedown the whole machine, but it did. Then again, it was a 10¢ switch panel light bulb that took down a whole jetliner!
The space was tight, but then again, the soldering iron was big, so I need to get dad a smaller iron.
Needs:
It's going to need its floppy cleaned out, another floppy added, and a hard drive. Other than that, it works! RAM is unknown as Norton's Emergency Boot Disk does not show that information.
Any hints as to what system to put on it? And where to get RAM for is since its so specifically oddball.
Again, I'll post pics up later.
I'll post pics later, but in the very least the can caps have another cap area for a larger sized cap to go on. But I ran into problems.
1) Those leaky caps were glued down on top of being soldered on! I had to use a finger nail to pry off the plastic disc the cap rested on and there were two tiny red glue tabs. They were almost impossible to clean off! Scraping of off with a screw driver or pick proved difficult and I almost cut a trace further down on he board when the tool slipped off the dab of glue. So I left it there. I them desoldered the solder from the removed cap area and from the adjacent cap space. It definitely needed some cleaning with q-tips and acetone, and the goo spread to a large are for such a tiny cap - 4in sq (2in X 2in)!
2) Dad got the caps from Trag, THANKS TRAG! But because of the tightness of the area (and the large soldering iron dad uses) soldering it where the old cap was proved difficult. But soldering it on the adjacent space was perfect, though tricky. Tricky due to the space I worked in and the size of the iron. But I got them in there!
I found a couple of batteries and reassembled the IIfx. After plugging it in, it took a while for for it to turn on. In fact it would not turn on at all. So I tried jumping it with a third battery. Nothing. Then the phone rang and I had to answer it. I came back and pressed the power button before giving up on it. It turned on with a "BONG!"
Without a hard drive, it gave the flash "?" in a Disk Icon, so it works! I managed to get Norton's Emergency Boot Disk to get it running. So it does boot, though the floppy needs a cleaning and lubing.
Yay me! Dad is going to be so proud, though mad that I did it because he wanted to do it. But at least I got it going and I have not fixed a Mac since the late 1990s!
Notes:
Just 2 leaky caps killed this machine. 1 is by the power switch and a lead from the power switch goes to it, so that has something to do with it. It's hard to imagine that something so small can takedown the whole machine, but it did. Then again, it was a 10¢ switch panel light bulb that took down a whole jetliner!
The space was tight, but then again, the soldering iron was big, so I need to get dad a smaller iron.
Needs:
It's going to need its floppy cleaned out, another floppy added, and a hard drive. Other than that, it works! RAM is unknown as Norton's Emergency Boot Disk does not show that information.
Any hints as to what system to put on it? And where to get RAM for is since its so specifically oddball.
Again, I'll post pics up later.
