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Quiet Volume in Classic II

I acquired a Brand new in box classic II today. I am literally the first person to open it. Never been turned on before. The volume on it is barely audible. Other than that it works perfectly. Any ideas? I dont think it could be caps since it was NEVER USED. I really dont want to take a chance at ruining it by replacing caps since i cant solder well. Its gotta be something else.

 

Concorde1993

Well-known member
Sounds like the capacitors to me.

I dont think it could be caps since it was NEVER USED.
Btw, capacitors leak electrolyte fluid with age. So just because the computer was never used/is in mint condition doesn't necessarily mean that the capacitors are good. In fact, a computer that has never been used is probably more prone to mechanical failure than a computer that was used more often as the components have never been sufficiently "exercised." It's like leaving a car in a garage for twenty years. Chances are it is not going to start, or function at all. I personally would recommend leaving the unit alone, considering it appears to be in mint condition, as you stated in the Trading Post forum. Just keep it as a show piece, and find another Classic II that has had more use, but has not been over abused.

 

JDW

Well-known member
It doesn't matter if it was never used. Think about how many years that thing has been in the box. Personally, I would like to have a mint condition "show piece" that actually works well, so I would advise replacing the caps or paying someone to do it. Because if the leaked fluid remains on the board, it could eat through traces and create a new set of problems for you in the future. Give this some serious consideration.

 

JDW

Well-known member
Never mind I got a long screwdriver. Upgraded the ram while I was in there and put in a 500MB SCSI drive. There is no Capacitor juice at all on the board, I spent an hour under a magnifying glass looking for it. Sound volume is fine from the headphone port. Tried a speaker from an old Speak n spell and it is louder. I guess its just the speaker in this mac must be quiet. or my hearing is going. either way its not the caps. using different speakers is much louder and the headphone port is loud as well.

 

JDW

Well-known member
You won't find leaked fluid if you look for it even with a 4x loupe. I know because I tried the same thing in vain. Then I slapped myself in the face, did the cap job, then found to my delight the cap job worked.

I know you still don't believe me even now, so please think about it logically. How old is that computer? How many years do you honestly think that a fluid filled "anything" can retain that fluid? And even if the fluid is retained, those fluid filled caps have degraded over the years. The only caps that don't are the ceramic and tantalum caps on the board. And that is precisely why we use mostly tantalum caps to replace those fluid filled caps -- all but the two big axial caps, which cannot be replaced by tantalums simply because tantalums don't come in such big capacitance sizes.

I know you don't want to do the work. Neither did I. But the fact remains that it must be done, whether you or someone else does it. I would do it for you, but I live in Japan and the cost of shipping would be problematic. But there are others here on 68kMLA who do such jobs for a fee. Just post a request and I am sure one of these dexterous friends will give you a quote. And once the job is done, you won't have to pay anyone to do it again. True, the two axial caps will need replacing again some day, but those would be easy enough for you to do. Even so, I doubt you would need to replace them for another 15 to 20 years.

 

J English Smith

Well-known member
jp, I'm just curious, where did that Mac come from or where had it been? It is always so weird to me to think of items that were that expensive (back in the day) never getting use at all...?

 

Concorde1993

Well-known member
I bought a torx opening off EBAY in the past, the exact same style as you see in this auction:
I've got the same one for my Compact Macs. It "unofficially" came with a Mac Plus (the seller must have forgot to remove it from the carrying bag/case, since when I opened the bottom zipper compartment, I noticed it there). It's very useful not only for the Compacts, but for removing the screws on the B & W G3s, and the G4 cases.

 
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