I recently got my hands on three (yes, THREE) Lisa 2/10s. I have some problems that I could probably figure out on my own, but it would be nice to have some additional input from people with more experience. All three keyboards have been fixed by replacing the foam pads, and all three Datapower 1.8A power supplies have been completely recapped, both electrolytics and safety film caps.
Lisa #1: Started up, but I got that classic fish smell from leaky electolytics in the power supply. I recapped the power supply, and the computer works fine now. Even the Widget boots and has a bunch of games on it. I played a few games of Solitaire to celebrate my accomplishment. I didn't win a single time.
Lisa #2: The power supply worked for a while, then it died while I was swapping out and cleaning some memory boards because it gave me a memory error. The recap didn't do anything, so I put the known working power supply in it temporarily. It turned on and the memory errors have been fixed, but the Widget tries to boot for about three minutes before giving up. I hear the head clicking in a consistent pattern, but it doesn't sound that unhealthy. The computer doesn't give me an actual error message, it just prompted me for a boot disk. When I inserted a boot disk, it just immediately gave me a disk read error. I went back to the power supply problem and found a blown fuse, so I'm currently waiting on some to come in the mail.
Lisa #3: This one needs extensive work. It already wasn't in good shape by the fact that it's missing its anti-glare screen and the Widget drive has been removed. It's been using an EMAC 20D instead, but it's also missing a SCSI card. The power supply never worked, and after a recap, it's still broken. I hear a slight hissing sound from the power supply when I press the power button. I put the working power supply in this one as well, it also starts up, but it gives a memory error and the screen is all sorts of messed up. The best way I can describe it is that there are three squished images that are stacked vertically. It's still usable enough to test the rest of the computer, but I'm guessing that the video card needs to be recapped. I'll order the caps when I find out what's wrong with the third power supply so that I don't have to put in two separate Mouser orders. I also read that sometimes memory errors can cause screen instability, so I'll have to look into that a little bit more to make sure that the video card actually needs to be recapped. Because of the lack of a usable hard drive, it immediately prompted me for a boot disk, but the disk wouldn't go in. The floppy drive mechanism was all gummed up, and I just got it moving again, but I still need to fix all of the other problems in order to test it. I tested the power supply again and it does produce the standby +5v, but I still get that hissing sound. I also need to get a SCSI card to use the EMAC, I've been thinking of building this instead of spending a bunch of money on a genuine one: https://github.com/alexthecat123/Lisa-GALSCSI-Card. (If you're wondering, I bought all three of these computers, plus three mice, three keyboards, a Lisa 2 manual, a MacWorks Plus 1.1 manual, the EMAC 20D drive, some cables, some MacWorks Plus floppy disks, and some original reciepts, all for less than what one of those orignal SCSI cards would cost.)
Now for my actual questions: How do I fix the Widget and floppy drive problems on Lisa #2, and how do I fix the power supply issue on Lisa #3?
Lisa #1: Started up, but I got that classic fish smell from leaky electolytics in the power supply. I recapped the power supply, and the computer works fine now. Even the Widget boots and has a bunch of games on it. I played a few games of Solitaire to celebrate my accomplishment. I didn't win a single time.
Lisa #2: The power supply worked for a while, then it died while I was swapping out and cleaning some memory boards because it gave me a memory error. The recap didn't do anything, so I put the known working power supply in it temporarily. It turned on and the memory errors have been fixed, but the Widget tries to boot for about three minutes before giving up. I hear the head clicking in a consistent pattern, but it doesn't sound that unhealthy. The computer doesn't give me an actual error message, it just prompted me for a boot disk. When I inserted a boot disk, it just immediately gave me a disk read error. I went back to the power supply problem and found a blown fuse, so I'm currently waiting on some to come in the mail.
Lisa #3: This one needs extensive work. It already wasn't in good shape by the fact that it's missing its anti-glare screen and the Widget drive has been removed. It's been using an EMAC 20D instead, but it's also missing a SCSI card. The power supply never worked, and after a recap, it's still broken. I hear a slight hissing sound from the power supply when I press the power button. I put the working power supply in this one as well, it also starts up, but it gives a memory error and the screen is all sorts of messed up. The best way I can describe it is that there are three squished images that are stacked vertically. It's still usable enough to test the rest of the computer, but I'm guessing that the video card needs to be recapped. I'll order the caps when I find out what's wrong with the third power supply so that I don't have to put in two separate Mouser orders. I also read that sometimes memory errors can cause screen instability, so I'll have to look into that a little bit more to make sure that the video card actually needs to be recapped. Because of the lack of a usable hard drive, it immediately prompted me for a boot disk, but the disk wouldn't go in. The floppy drive mechanism was all gummed up, and I just got it moving again, but I still need to fix all of the other problems in order to test it. I tested the power supply again and it does produce the standby +5v, but I still get that hissing sound. I also need to get a SCSI card to use the EMAC, I've been thinking of building this instead of spending a bunch of money on a genuine one: https://github.com/alexthecat123/Lisa-GALSCSI-Card. (If you're wondering, I bought all three of these computers, plus three mice, three keyboards, a Lisa 2 manual, a MacWorks Plus 1.1 manual, the EMAC 20D drive, some cables, some MacWorks Plus floppy disks, and some original reciepts, all for less than what one of those orignal SCSI cards would cost.)
Now for my actual questions: How do I fix the Widget and floppy drive problems on Lisa #2, and how do I fix the power supply issue on Lisa #3?
