Apple //c with socketed ram chips

[TrueNorthStrong]

Has anyone replaced all of the ram chips onboard an older style //c mainboard? 

I'm going to have to replace at least one chip, and I figured I'd do 'em all at once and solder on sockets to facilitate swapping in the future. 

First, is it wise to replace them all, even if most are functional? 

Second, with the sockets in place is there enough headroom for the disk drive? 

Thanks. 

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Uniserver replaced all the chips on my 128k Mac - which has the exact same RAM as the IIc - even though only one or two were really faulty.

He told me that he used to replace one RAM chip at a time but he also told me that one person kept sending him the same board over and over again because all the old chips failed one at a time. So he prefers to change them all at once nowadays.

So yeah, you're better off replacing them all at once. 80% of them will fail at some point. Putting the chips on sockets is a good idea. Don't have a IIc, so can't tell you if it'll fit.

 

[Gorgonops]

Googling a picture of what a IIc looks like open it *looks* to me like the standoffs the drive sits on are taller than a socketed chip would be, but it is close enough it's probably worth measuring. (There are some crystals on the board not that far from the RAM chips that are also a little taller than a non-socketed IC.)

Personally I'd say, if you're doing this yourself instead of sending it off, it's not worth pulling all the good chips to put in sockets, just let them fall as they may and replace as needed. But then I'm lazy and really hate desoldering.

 

[waynestewart]

Long time ago I had the idea that when I replaced a RAM chip, I'd put in a socket. Then I started having problems with some socketed RAM being to high

 

[TrueNorthStrong]

So, it was hitting the bottom of the drive? If so that's going to be a problem. I didn't account for height when I purchased the sockets, so they're not the slimmest ones out there. It'll take me some time because of the shipping but I'll have it done and report back.