Search results

When you attempt to format a floppy with your iMac, you should be presented with a pull-down menu with several options. Did you check for these?

Porter's question is a particularly relevant one. The Mac Plus does not supply termination power. Termination resistors perform two functions -- they reduce transmission-line reflections from bending the bits, and they also provide a DC return path to assure proper logic levels. The DC, in turn...

The tape trick only tells the drive (and OS) that it is dealing with double-density media, and only works reasonably well if the disk has never, ever been formatted or otherwise written on as a 1.4MB disk. You can avoid the hassles and unreliability of the tape trick simply by using 720K PC...

Common problems include stripped threads and cracked/detached posts. I will defer to our resident chemist, equill, but I've enjoyed some success with reattaching detached posts using acetone as a solvent and simply keeping the parts pressed together. No doubt there are better ways (and the...

I would offer quite different advice. To get this particular connector to solder properly requires a fairly robust iron. Small, low-wattage types will struggle to get the pins hot enough to solder well. A cold joint is a poor joint, so you can't skimp. Indeed, the high failure rate of this...

In addition to wav/aiff, you also have the option of MP2 (MP3's predecessor), as well as IMA 4:1. These compressed formats take up considerably less HD space, so if that's a concern, these ancient, but still serviceable, formats might be worth taking a look at. MP2 at 128kb/s is quite tolerable...

Unfortunately, this does not work. An 800K Mac floppy requires a quite different physical formatting than 1.4MB ones. Newer drives (and this includes all USB external units, and anything that shipped in the OSX era) simply lack the hardware to support 800K disks.

They're "available" in the sense that they exist. :) The normal sources are parts scavenged from other units. There are three chips in toto -- two ROMs, and one "SWIM" chip. You need all three to enable use of a Superdrive. The ROMs could, in principle, be cloned fairly easily (because they...

The PRAM battery is a NiCd, so no need to worry about lithium. However, cadmium is none too good for humans (and nickel isn't benign, either). Casual exposure is unlikely to be a problem, but do minimize contact. No need to get too obsessive about it; just exercise "prudent avoidance" and you...

Try the things mentioned in the doc first.

Unfortunately wackymacs is right. You have killed something on that analog board, and possibly also damaged the crt (bright flashes emanating from within a crt are a very bad thing). Debugging that new problem (which is almost certainly more complex than the original one) on top of what you were...

The clicking sound can be many things, ranging from a floppy disk mechanism attempting to do something, to a power supply in self-protection mode. For some general compact-Mac troubleshooting hints, you might want to take a look at http://68kmla.org/files/classicmac2.pdf. It might not help at...

In the time you've taken to post repeatedly, you could've soldered every joint on the analog board. :) You've been given lots of good advice, why not take it? Solder -- don't just "reflow" -- the specific connections that have already been pointed out to you. The yoke connections are the...

Lack of vertical deflection in a compact Mac is almost always caused by a poor connection. Resoldering (with fresh solder) the yoke connector should be performed as a matter of course. After doing so, pull out the cable and inspect the mating surfaces for oxidation, burning, etc. Repair/replace...

Once you get around to opening it up and taking a look around, post back with your findings. It may be fairly simple to put the magic smoke back where it came from. A bad solder joint at the deflection yoke connector can often cause things to heat up to the point of smoking. It's readily...

If you own (or have access to) another keyboard, give that a try first. You never know; perhaps your keyboard is the problem, and not the computer proper.

Um...no. :) I guess he didn't read the subject line, and didn't realize that the OP was asking very specifically about 8.6 and 9.x-compatible alternative PDF readers. AFAIK, there aren't any, but would be delighted to learn otherwise.

Given that he's gotten it working now, this is now somewhat irrelevant. But to respond to your comment, he was already talking about servicing the unit, replacing the PSU, swapping boards, etc. So given that, recommending that he make some simple measurements first was a logical one. Also, you...

Floppy drives suffer many indignities at the hands of users, and at the hands of time. First try cleaning the drive (yes, you'll have to open up the Mac to do a proper job). Gently clean the heads. Make sure that dust and/or gummed-up lubricant is not inhibiting moving parts from doing what...

Rather than guessing, why not just *measure* the power supply voltages? That way, you can quickly rule out/in the "dead PS" hypothesis. And I'm not precisely sure what you mean by "hearing the crt". Could you say a bit more about what you are actually hearing? There is a gentle "staticky"...