Hello to all here and kudos on the great knowledge base that this site is. I'm here as someone who has proudly kept the same Performa 575 chugging along for over 15 years. Recently I started having a problem with a total loss of red hue at the monitor level. This was never a problem up until I recently removed the CRT/analog board case to peer inside, and since the red occasionally flickers back on (restoring normal display) I'm thinking that a connector is just loose somewhere. That and also I'm not really into the idea of having to replace the CRT, but anyway...
Right now the whole computer is 100% disassembled, so that all the decade-old dust can be cleared out (and because it was a fun experiment). I'm hoping that once all the connections have been reseated the missing red will be a thing of the past, but there's one other potential cause I'd like to look into as long as the Mac is in pieces, and that's the possibility of a failure on the analog board. Particularly the power source, as I think it's been responsible for some weird sounds on boot, and it's proven a little tougher to diagnose (at least, for me) than, say, scanning the logic board for busted capacitors.
First off, here's an overview shot of the whole analog board:
http://img203.imageshack.us/i/img0027hk.jpg/
Then there's this, on the power source:
http://img413.imageshack.us/i/img0029tk.jpg/
I'm not sure what this big piece is. I'm guessing it's more complicated than a capacitor. It jumped out at me, however, due to the trace amounts of syrupy stuff on the paper(?) covering. I'm not sure if this is a leak, or if it's supposed to be this way.
Finally, a couple capacitors look like these two:
http://img140.imageshack.us/i/img0032vt.jpg/
Sorta off to their sides rather than standing up. Again, I'm not sure whether this isn't just normal. These two are right above the power source, and there are two more like them near the flyback transformer, as well as a couple others scattered throughout. Also, it might appear that the left one is leaking, but seen from a better angle it appears (at least, to my very untrained eye) to just be red marker.
I'm basically posting these to make sure there aren't any glaring faults. I don't have any experience soldering, so replacing capacitors feels a little far out there, but I figure for the time being it would at least be good to know if something is egregiously wrong. On the other hand, if nothing jumps out from this quick peripheral glance, then I'll probably have this machine sewn back up in a couple days and take care of whatever leftover troubleshooting down the road.
For the record, this was my first computer wayyy back when, and having done all I can to keep it "modernized" (installed an Ethernet card, and there will be VRAM upgrades and a new hard drive in the distant future) I intend to keep it going indefinitely. Though it seems the fan favorite is the Mac Classic (got one of those too and will maybe restore it one day) this Performa has really been a blast to work on. If nothing else, learned more about SCSI than I ever would have!
Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to assist.
Right now the whole computer is 100% disassembled, so that all the decade-old dust can be cleared out (and because it was a fun experiment). I'm hoping that once all the connections have been reseated the missing red will be a thing of the past, but there's one other potential cause I'd like to look into as long as the Mac is in pieces, and that's the possibility of a failure on the analog board. Particularly the power source, as I think it's been responsible for some weird sounds on boot, and it's proven a little tougher to diagnose (at least, for me) than, say, scanning the logic board for busted capacitors.
First off, here's an overview shot of the whole analog board:
http://img203.imageshack.us/i/img0027hk.jpg/
Then there's this, on the power source:
http://img413.imageshack.us/i/img0029tk.jpg/
I'm not sure what this big piece is. I'm guessing it's more complicated than a capacitor. It jumped out at me, however, due to the trace amounts of syrupy stuff on the paper(?) covering. I'm not sure if this is a leak, or if it's supposed to be this way.
Finally, a couple capacitors look like these two:
http://img140.imageshack.us/i/img0032vt.jpg/
Sorta off to their sides rather than standing up. Again, I'm not sure whether this isn't just normal. These two are right above the power source, and there are two more like them near the flyback transformer, as well as a couple others scattered throughout. Also, it might appear that the left one is leaking, but seen from a better angle it appears (at least, to my very untrained eye) to just be red marker.
I'm basically posting these to make sure there aren't any glaring faults. I don't have any experience soldering, so replacing capacitors feels a little far out there, but I figure for the time being it would at least be good to know if something is egregiously wrong. On the other hand, if nothing jumps out from this quick peripheral glance, then I'll probably have this machine sewn back up in a couple days and take care of whatever leftover troubleshooting down the road.
For the record, this was my first computer wayyy back when, and having done all I can to keep it "modernized" (installed an Ethernet card, and there will be VRAM upgrades and a new hard drive in the distant future) I intend to keep it going indefinitely. Though it seems the fan favorite is the Mac Classic (got one of those too and will maybe restore it one day) this Performa has really been a blast to work on. If nothing else, learned more about SCSI than I ever would have!
Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to assist.