khannonnd
Well-known member
So this week I got quite the Apple III haul -- Two Apple IIIs, an external Disk III, 2 Monitor IIIs, a Profile HD, and a silentype printer, and a Titan "III to IIe" emulation card for a combined $150. I also got some Apple II related stuff for like $30 extra.
One Apple III seems to have some issues -- It will turn on and the speaker will make a little "put put" sound, but the disks won't spin up and nothing appears on the screen.
The other Apple III appeared to be better (would spin up looking for a disk and display "Retry" on the monitor). However, when using it, I smelled something off, like burnt capacitors. I removed the PS and, sure enough, it looks like long ago a capacitor went. I sent the PS off to Uniserver to be recapped, and I will definitely keep it as an example of the "original" PS, but I think for my actual usage I will get UltimateMicro's "Universal" PSU kit.
Fast forward to this evening, though. I wanted to generally test the system, and I am an impatient person, so I didn't want to wait for the recapped PS or the new Universal PS kit. SO I opened the PS on the "broken" Apple III (the one that doesn't do anything). In that PS, all the caps looked good (and that PS is slightly newer, coming from an A3S2 machine rather than the other one which is from an A3S1 machine). So I threw that PS into the "working" Apple III. I made a diagnostic disk via ADTPro on my IIc and it worked (see attached picture)! I ran the diag program for about 15-20 minutes
Then I started smelling something. I looked behind the machine and saw smoke wafting out the AC outlet. I shut the machine off and unplugged it. After the smoke cleared (literally), I opened the PS and *the same capacitor* that went off on the first PS had now blown.
Lesson learned. I can wait for the Universal PSU kit, lol.
I had a couple of questions relating to my experiences so far:
(1) The Apple III that only went "putt putt" -- Anyone know what symptoms might suggest? Since the PS was literally minutes away from going, is it possible it was a PS issue and that system was more vulnerable to it? Neither machines had a card in any slot.
(2) On the working Apple III, when I first put the diag. disk in it, the drive would spin the disk up, but ultimately not load anything, invariably going to the "Retry" prompt. When I got the machine, the disk door was slightly askew. I wonder if the head or something got out of alignment. Are these things reparable? If so, do you know anyone who repairs DIsk IIIs? Ultimately, I swapped the internal disk drive out of the "broken" Apple III and put it in the "working" Apple III and it loaded the disk no problem.
(3) The working Apple III was working fine *as the PS was smoking.* I shut it off within 10 seconds of "smelling" something wrong. Is there a major risk that I have damaged any component inside the machine?
One Apple III seems to have some issues -- It will turn on and the speaker will make a little "put put" sound, but the disks won't spin up and nothing appears on the screen.
The other Apple III appeared to be better (would spin up looking for a disk and display "Retry" on the monitor). However, when using it, I smelled something off, like burnt capacitors. I removed the PS and, sure enough, it looks like long ago a capacitor went. I sent the PS off to Uniserver to be recapped, and I will definitely keep it as an example of the "original" PS, but I think for my actual usage I will get UltimateMicro's "Universal" PSU kit.
Fast forward to this evening, though. I wanted to generally test the system, and I am an impatient person, so I didn't want to wait for the recapped PS or the new Universal PS kit. SO I opened the PS on the "broken" Apple III (the one that doesn't do anything). In that PS, all the caps looked good (and that PS is slightly newer, coming from an A3S2 machine rather than the other one which is from an A3S1 machine). So I threw that PS into the "working" Apple III. I made a diagnostic disk via ADTPro on my IIc and it worked (see attached picture)! I ran the diag program for about 15-20 minutes
Then I started smelling something. I looked behind the machine and saw smoke wafting out the AC outlet. I shut the machine off and unplugged it. After the smoke cleared (literally), I opened the PS and *the same capacitor* that went off on the first PS had now blown.
Lesson learned. I can wait for the Universal PSU kit, lol.
I had a couple of questions relating to my experiences so far:
(1) The Apple III that only went "putt putt" -- Anyone know what symptoms might suggest? Since the PS was literally minutes away from going, is it possible it was a PS issue and that system was more vulnerable to it? Neither machines had a card in any slot.
(2) On the working Apple III, when I first put the diag. disk in it, the drive would spin the disk up, but ultimately not load anything, invariably going to the "Retry" prompt. When I got the machine, the disk door was slightly askew. I wonder if the head or something got out of alignment. Are these things reparable? If so, do you know anyone who repairs DIsk IIIs? Ultimately, I swapped the internal disk drive out of the "broken" Apple III and put it in the "working" Apple III and it loaded the disk no problem.
(3) The working Apple III was working fine *as the PS was smoking.* I shut it off within 10 seconds of "smelling" something wrong. Is there a major risk that I have damaged any component inside the machine?