Flummoxed by Mac Classic II Problem

[anothrgrnworld]

So after days of waiting for my Macintosh Classic II which was shipped to me via Parcel Post I finally got it!

It started up perfectly the first time but after that every other time or so I would flip the switch and simply get a black screen.

Now it is constantly and the computer won't start up at all.

I can hear the hard drive spinning and doing its thing but I get no startup bong and no display whatsoever.

I also hear the occasional clicking noise when I hit the power but it hasn't done that at all today, just a bit yesterday.

This site http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~shamada/fullmac/repairEng.html#BlackOut has some information pertaining to Mac SE/30s but it doesn't seem very pertinent to my particular machine.

Any insight in this matter would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[tomlee59]

The "leaking capacitors" problem afflicts many compacts. A standard troubleshooting step for these models is to open up the Mac and carefully inspect the logic board for telltale smudges around the many electrolytic bypass capacitors (and around the battery). My guess is that you will see what many others have seen.

Do a search on this Forum for "leaking capacitors" and you'll get approximately 1.43 zillion hits. The solution to the problem is outlined pretty well in many earlier posts.

Good luck!

 

[anothrgrnworld]

Thanks I did do that and cleaned up the smudges and it seems to be working better albeit still intermittently. Now sometimes when I boot it I get no sound and the disk drive doesn't work correctly so I'm positive that it is the logic board. What are the values on the capacitors? Those are some smalllll solder joints!!

 

[Unknown_K]

I recapped my classic II, its not that hard to do.

 

[joshc]

I recapped my classic II, its not that hard to do.

Uh, although true, saying that and nothing more is not very helpful for anothrgrnworld. I'm pretty certain he didn't come here for someone to tell him if its easy or hard. He wants some sort of guidance. The Macintosh Classic II board has several surface mount round can type capacitors which are a common cause of failure on boards of this age. They can be replaced with much more reliable tantalum capacitors - you can buy a set from trag on the forums, take a look in the Trading Post. You will ideally need a temperature controlled soldering iron, a fine soldering iron tip, lead/tin solder with flux core. If you use the search feature of the forum, you'll come across plenty of tips and tricks in regards of the best way of removing old capacitors, and how to solder the new ones correctly. Good luck!

 

[anothrgrnworld]

Thanks for the tips! I contacted trag so hopefully he gets back to me soon! I searched around but couldn't find a tutorial on how to do this efficiently. Could you possibly point me in the right direction?

 

[joshc]

Thanks for the tips! I contacted trag so hopefully he gets back to me soon! I searched around but couldn't find a tutorial on how to do this efficiently. Could you possibly point me in the right direction?

These two sites have lots of information on soldering surface mount components properly:

http://www.curiousinventor.com/guides/Surface_Mount_Soldering

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/04/surface_mount_soldering.html

To remove the old caps, the method I use:

http://450.servehttp.com/reference/caps/

Just please be careful is all I can say, and good luck. :b&w:

 

[JRL]

There is also this guide provided by fellow member Osgeld here:

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10940

 

[tomlee59]

And no matter what method you use, practice on some junk boards first. Once you've gained some proficiency with your technique, then go to work on your Mac.