Before I Power Up Original Mac???

[TennisDrum]

We are cleaning out a climate controlled storage unit we've had for decades. So, I now have back at my house two early Macs. Looking for any suggestions y'all have on what I should do BEFORE plugging them in and turning them on to see if they even run any more. Claude AI said this was the place to go for recommendations - including possibly getting a recommendation on a local (Dallas) reputable shop that might help. I'm handy enough to launch into opening up the cases and inspect things. But, not going to do any actual electrical work on a board or drive mechanism.

Here's what I have:

• 1984 ORIGINAL Mac (I pre-ordered through the University Consortium at the time).
  • Serial #F4172JYM0001
  • Some number of years later, I upgraded it to a MacPlus, so it has likely had a lot of work done on the inside
  • Pretty sure the internal floppy drive was upgraded at that time too (to 800kb)
  • With it, I have a 45Mb Jasmine DirectDrive external hard drive and a Novation SmartCat Plus 300/1200 modem
• 1987/1988(?) MacPlus
  • Serial #F842C5KM0001A
  • With it, I have a 40Mb Jasmine DirectDrive external hard drive
• 1984 Printer

Photos attached.

THANKS in advance for any help.

 

[falen6]

if you are happy to open the machine first , that would be best

dont just pop the screws and start pulling it apart - watch some videos of others doing it - there are definate things NOT to do when opening

there are many many videos of people doing all of the following

dont use screw driver to pry the back off ........ it will cause permanent damage / dents to plastics ..... use patience ...... watch some videos

when the back has seperated , lay machine face/screen down on a soft/clean surface - lift the back ( bucket ) straight up , slowly - dont hit/break the back of the tube ............... everything with these machines is slow , careful work

*********** DO NOT PUT HANDS NEAR THE FLYBACK TRANSFORMER , OR ITS RED WIRE THAT GOES TO THE ANODE CAP *******
POSSIBLE HIGH VOLTAGE

(Anode cap is the 'suction cup' on the back of the screen - you cant miss it - follow its thick red wire , it leads to the flyback transformer thats soldered onto the analog board , the vertical board at the side - just stay away from the analog board for now )

anyway

this is standard for most macs , but especially for the early macs - WATCH SOME MORE VIDEOS ON THIS

when off , stand machine back upright - start looking in at logic board / cables / drives / connectors for anything obvious - disconnected cables , broken bits of anything

if you get that far ( and you should ) take some more pictures and post them here


chances are they will both probably power up with a beep as they are

but if you have the curiosity , you will see how much more their is to learn about these machines when you take them apart , find faults and fix them ......... there is also the terrible danger of falling into hobby !!!!


watch some videos ........... takes lots of pictures as you go for reference ........ do not rush ............. if your not sure , just ask