Mac Plus Ticking Sound

[Frobozz]

My Mac Plus has been having some hardware issues. Screen would stay black for 30 mins or so, until it warmed up. Fixed that finally this morning by reflowing about 15 joints. Floppy lost its gear, and burned out something in the ejector motor. Haven't fixed that, but swapped in a floppy from an 800k external drive, after also fixing ITS gear. Maybe making a critical gear out of Cheerios wasn't a great idea, I dunno.

Using Mac Plus today for the first time in a week, it's great, except: I notice a ticking sound. Maybe 2 per second. I did hear this a couple weeks ago when I had the cover off. DOn't remember ever hearing it before then.

I don't know what that is, but sounds ominous. Something on the analog board about to blow and give up the magic smoke?

 

[nathall]

The bomb is ticking...

 

[Frobozz]

Huh. I'm trying to get this bare drive (now external) working, and I just noticed it is ALSO ticking. Probably in unison with the sound from inside the Plus. err, what?

 

[robin-fo]

If everything else is working normally, a ticking noise from the floppy drive is normal IIRC. There is nothing you can or need to do about it.

 

[cheesestraws]

Maybe making a critical gear out of Cheerios wasn't a great idea, I dunno.

I'm pretty sure this is intentional risk management. That gear is acting like a fuse. Its job is to fail if the whole thing jams up, because it's a cheaper and potentially less dangerous failure than the motor burning out. Note that it's made of a different plastic to the others around it - I think this is a deliberate design decision.

I don't know what that is, but sounds ominous. Something on the analog board about to blow and give up the magic smoke?

It's generally pretty hard to blow those machines up catastrophically. I'd suggest trying to work out exactly where the ticking is coming from, but I wouldn't necessarily treat this as evidence that anything is about to go bang. You probably don't need this warning, but do be careful sticking your head next to a running power supply; I'm not totally sure how it would feel to get the mains on your earlobe but I'm fairly sure 'not pleasant' is a safe assumption.

 

[Frobozz]

ok, thanks. I'll pop a couple pills and call it a day.

 

[LaPorta]

Ticking from these machines and drives with no disk inserted is normal, expected behavior. It should disappear once a disk is inserted.

 

[Frobozz]

I guess I’m deafer than I thought. I have never noticed it before. My amigas… now THOSE click every second or two unless a floppy is in. But those are an actual mechanical part moving.