Smokerstreet Sound/AC Board Replacement (with Tar Balls)

[Patater]

Howdy all,

I bought a 14" 233MHz Wallstreet (or maybe PDQ, can't tell yet) a few days ago. The machine smells of smoke and most likely belonged to a smoker at one point in its life. Before I opened the case, I could hear some rattling going on inside whenever I moved the machine. It also had a loose power connector, which preventing it from working.

I bought the machine to act as a bridge between older peripherals and data and the modern world of peripherals and data. In order for it to serve this purpose, I had to do some work on it. I replaced the sound/AC board and gave it a bit of a cleaning this morning. During the replacement, I found what was rattling around in the computer: a ball of tar. Unfortunately, the display still rattles so I may need to open it and clean it, too. I share with you pictures of my adventure into the heart of the smokerstreet.

The keyboard and heatsink and modem have been removed.



There are many air holes plugged with gunk.



Even the hard drive got gunked with tar.



I used a toothpick to scrape away the tar.



This is what the power connector's solder joints can look like when the power connector is loose. These are close ups of the bad solder joints on the sound/AC board. Perhaps years of smoke dissolved the solder.



I replaced the sound/AC board with a different board. You can see that these joints have a healthy amount of solder on them and look smooth, without cracks.



Here are some of the treasures I removed from the smokerstreet along with the toothpicks I used during the light cleaning (i.e. scraping away at crap).





The machine now runs happily. However, it is running OS 9 and has a password protected login screen. I can only log in as a child user (Eva or Tabby), as the Mom account is password protected. The child accounts log into "Panels" instead of Finder.



I can see in the Apple menu that the name of the computer is "Steve Landon's Computer", but I can't do too much else with the thing, I think. I want to look in Apple System Profiler to find out what this machine is (PDQ or not). I'd like to backup all this nice software and start fresh, so my plan is to use dd to image the hard drive after I hook it up to a modern computer (with a mini IDE to USB 2.0 adapter). I'll probably run Mac OS 8.6 on the guy, as I have a disc for Mac OS 8.5.

I wonder if there is a Reader Rabbit wad for Doom...

 

[Patater]

I hacked the Mom account with brute force. It didn't take very long. The password was "mom".



Here is Apple System Profiler. I think I have the PDQ because of the L2 Cache.



Unfortunately, I can't look the computer up by the serial number, which has faded off the sticker on the bottom of the case. Apple System Profiler doesn't think a serial number is applicable, but I beg to differ (not available may be a better use of words there). Is it normal for this machine to not say its serial number in Apple System Profiler?

 

[Mars478]

WOW!

Another reason not to smoke my friends.

 

[Bunsen]

"Steve Landon's Computer"

Heheheheheh. Good times. Now let's work out who he stole that machine from.

 

[Mars478]

HOLY CRAP! THE Steve Landon!

How'd you get that?! This guy has been hunted for years!

 

[Patater]

Another reason not to smoke my friends.

You mean, aside from the fact that you'd have to kill them to get them into smokable form?

HOLY CRAP! THE Steve Landon!How'd you get that?! This guy has been hunted for years!

I picked it up (along with the replacement sound/AC board) from this nice fellow: http://myworld.ebay.com/macmetex/. He said that he "picked up on [it]" a while ago and didn't have the time to fix it up. He's based out of Lake Whitney, Texas, USA.

Now let's work out who he stole that machine from.

I did some reading about the guy on Apple Fritter. He doesn't seem like a very nice guy. Do you think that he may have faded the serial number on purpose to hide the computer's origins? I'm not sure how valuable a serial number is in finding computer origins, though. It also seems strange to me that there is no serial number readable by Apple System Profiler, but that might be normal for these types of machines.

And it doesn't look like there is a Reader Rabbit wad, although there is a Barney wad.

 

[Mars478]

DUDE! YOU FOUND STEVE LANDON.

Is there personal info? Let's get this back up.

 

[Patater]

DUDE! YOU FOUND STEVE LANDON.Is there personal info? Let's get this back up.

I'm planning to do a full disk image (even free space), so we may be able to undelete some stuff. There only seems to be some internet and kid software on here.

Most all documents are gone, but there are some (not very good) Kid Pix drawings. The kids didn't even use color. They just scribbled with the thin pencil tool and banged out nonsense on their keyboards. It's awful.

I'm not convinced that this is the same guy you are looking for. This seems to be a family computer (without a Dad login for some reason) and I don't think your Steve Landon is old enough to have two kids. I've heard that Steve Landon is a drinker, but nothing about his smoking habits (although those could be the mom's).

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Well, the Steve Landon was born in 1981, so he's be 28 years old now. Plenty old for two kids, especially young enough to make bad KidPix pictures. (For reference, his last surfacing appears to have been 2004, which is when my now-in-Kindergarten daughter was born.) Heck, a couple people I went to high school with had at least two kids before they were 25; one four by 28.

But, as the Applefritter page says, there are at least 32 "Steve Landon"s in the country, minimum three that are reasonably well known in various industries based on some quick Google searches. This laptop could be from some random other Steve Landon. (Heck, "the" Steve Landon would probably remove his name from any computers before getting rid of them...)

 

[Unknown_K]

"THE" Steve Landon never delivers anything he sold, so that laptop is not his.

 

[Mars478]

What if that ebay seller is steve Landon?

 

[LCGuy]

I doubt it...while I don't know a great deal about foreign eBay sellers, I think macmetex has a pretty good rep, certainly much better than Steve Landon, as well as much better communication skills, from what I can gather. Also, macmetex seems to be in Texas, whereas the Steve Landon was in Michigan...while he could have moved, I highly doubt that macmetex has, or has ever had anything to do with the Steve Landon that we all know about. There is a slight chance that this computer might have passed through Steve's hands at some point....but there's no way in hell that macmetex is Steve Landon. Just no way.

Also, one other thing I'd like to say is that suggesting things like that is generally a bad idea...suggesting that macmetex is Steve Landon when all the evidence points to him not being Steve Landon opens us up to the possibility of being on the receiving end of a defamation suit, something which I don't really want to have happen.

 

[Mars478]

Also, one other thing I'd like to say is that suggesting things like that is generally a bad idea...suggesting that macmetex is Steve Landon when all the evidence points to him not being Steve Landon opens us up to the possibility of being on the receiving end of a defamation suit, something which I don't really want to have happen.

Oh come on... Seriously? This is just ridiculous. If you are so nervous about that you should remove their name from this thread!

As you may recall Steve Landon supposedly ran some kind of computer business from a bus stop. Lawl.

 

[Unknown_K]

A convicted felon too I believe (no not macmetex who I have purchased items from on LEMswap and Ebay with no issues).

 

[Patater]

I agree with LCGuy. The seller I got it from is most likely not Steve Landon. Even the chances of him being a reformed Steve Landon are very very low.

This machine could have been picked up at a police auction or sale of sorts. It is also possible that because it was broken, Steve Landon really did want to get rid of it. As much as it may have seemed inescapable in the past, Steve Landon may no longer be a black hole of Macintosh goods; people can change.

I'm still doubting that this is the Steve Landon's computer. To verify this I'll have to find something that points this is guy on the hard drive or discover the names of his family members and check those against the login screen.

 

[Bunsen]

I can assure you, macmetex is most definitely NOT Steve Landon. I have traded with macmetex on multiple occasions, and he is a helpful, friendly, stand-up guy by the name of Robert. Everything I ordered from him has always arrived, he's been helpful with international shipping, and once when he forgot to parcel an item with my other purchases, he forwarded it to me at his own expense.

Mars478, you need to shut the hell up.