Boctor

I was poking at 7.1.1 Pro out of curiosity, since one of my disk images had it for some reason. (I'm already sold on 7.1 with the System Update and everything, very aware of Pro's reputation and status.) However, I noticed that the startup time is abysmal, even on zero-wait Mac II-family emulators. Even After Dark screensavers seem to hitch a bit, indicating context switches to some kind of background process. What did they stuff the System File with? Is this the true power of PowerTalk?

My SE/30 logic board (my only LB not washed/recapped solely by me) is riddled with residual corrosion. I can smell it when reflowing. It's my fault for believing the person who sold it was a professional in the first place, but this was ~10 years ago, when I would've made all these same errors. Should I dare trying to lift every single SMT component with hot air? Go for a Reloaded PCB?

Disappointingly, it seems like flashing a Dell-branded OEM Rage 128 Ultra with the PowerMac Rage 128 Pro VBIOS does not automagically work. I didn't expect it to, but it was at least worth finding out.

Would it be wise to preemptively recap a PM7200 logic board ASAP? Nothing's gone bad yet. I'm unsure if this is as urgent as with the woefully leaky, late-80's SMT electrolytics, which seemed to go bad much sooner (and with more of a mess) than later-generation ones. I know the need for new caps is an eventuality, but it may be a while before I can break out the soldering tools again.

Managed to ruin the ends of three traces while removing dead mask ROMs, only on the final chip. Everything was going smoothly until the last possible moment. At least the bodge wires will end up snugly pinned beneath the DIP socket, but it'll be weeks before I forgive myself for blemishing such a pretty logic board...

My "new" IIci's soft power was stuck always signaling on, but I found the three micro-breaks in the relevant traces. Wish I'd spotted them during the board washing, but oh well. Humorously, both could've been fixed by simply bridging pins, but I wanted to make this look as elegant as I could, so as not to confuse any future owners.

Got a hold of a cheap IIci and made the logic board sparkle again. Lifted dull-looking chips, cleaned the legs and pads, drag-soldered back fresh. Nice new caps, no broken traces in the acid zones, power circuit works. However, either the ROMSEL circuit or the ROM chips themselves are again bad, like in my IIcx, though the machine works great with a slot ROM. Am I cursed to irradiate every mask ROM I touch?!

I'd seen mentions of cursors flickering on some Macs because of time/RTC related problems. After taking a closer look at the RTC circuitry in my cheap Mac IIcx, sure enough, it's not the video card! After scraping, tinning, and meticulous bodging, it's all right.