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VMSZealot
I'm feeling a profound sense of unease about the world. Reading about the bile and horribleness being unloaded on anyone who isn't a) caucasian, b) male, c) straight cis d) reasonably wealthy is enough to make me want to run screaming back to bed. So I did what (I think*) I always do - I bought another computer. Then felt a bit depressed that I didn't do something worthwhile with my money.
* I might be wrong.
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LaPorta
LaPorta
@Snial - UBI would be fine...as long as it is "Universal" - meaning everyone gets it.
Snial
Snial
That’s the idea, saves on all the welfare admin & can simplify tax too. Fixes the state pension crisis. Don’t know when we’ll see it though.
VMSZealot
VMSZealot
Also, it frees people up to get education or work on passion projects. It ameliorates the coming storm of unemployment engendered by AI. I think fears that people will just become lazy are unfounded - but even if they aren’t, why should I care?
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C
This is one hell of a letter to put in the manual for a computer that is literally internally held together with sticky tape (you'll need to click on it to read, sorry)

2025-08-07-0001 (dragged).png
micheledipaola
Hey! Milan Italy? We are neighbours!
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Doctor69
Doctor69
Mi permetto di darti del tu. Non so se dopo Apple II tu abbia utilizzato Macintosh ma in ogni caso: ho acquistato un Applesauce+. Se per caso possiedi software originali da cui poter creare immagini disco per archiviazione/conservazione o utilizzo con emulatori ti chiederei se sei disponibile a una collaborazione. Buona serata e grazie
micheledipaola
micheledipaola
certo! Che cosa avevi in mente? archiviare dischi italiani per preservarli? Io ho almeno un disco Apple II che sembra un unicorno, dove c'è un gioco italiano di strategia che non sembra esistere da nessuna parte, e che archiviare non è facilissimo dato che ci deve essere sopra qualche sistema di protezione... quindi questo sarebbe il mio primo candidato a finire nell'applesauce.
Doctor69
Doctor69
Ciao, scusa il ritardo. Quando vuoi possiamo organizzarci
P
hello, is the Classic II logicboard still available? I am in Austin but travel to Spring sometimes for business, so that might be an option.
finkmac
finkmac
i don't know, sorry!
croissantking
IMG_5420.jpeg

Found this photo from 2003. If I had only known about flux 😢
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Snial
Snial
Then that's very encouraging. My experience with soldering at school in the mid-1980s had led me to believe I couldn't solder at all until I forced myself to learn the basics over 2004-2005. Actually it was more like I'd lost confidence again between the mid 1990s and the mid 2000s.
obsolete
obsolete
When I was young and ignorant, I used plumbing flux, because it was all that was available locally. Oh, the corrosion...

@Snial I didn't think I was any good at soldering either, until I got access to good equipment and materials. Once I was using the good stuff, things I struggled with before became so easy, it felt like cheating. Still does sometimes.
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Pilgrim33
Pilgrim33
Great photo quality for 2003!
Boctor
Would it be wise to preemptively recap a PM7200 logic board ASAP? Nothing's gone bad yet. I'm unsure if this is as urgent as with the woefully leaky, late-80's SMT electrolytics, which seemed to go bad much sooner (and with more of a mess) than later-generation ones. I know the need for new caps is an eventuality, but it may be a while before I can break out the soldering tools again.
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J
joshc
yes, recap it
Boctor
Boctor
All right, thanks for confirming. I checked the values and counted up the caps (plus a couple extra if I goof one up) to put in an order with Digikey. This Mac won't risk rotting out.
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Boctor
Boctor
Still works, thankfully. I was afraid I'd crush the poor PPC601 while working! The HS doesn't even get warm before than the fan can pull air away from it, and the CPU lacks the discoloration/delamination you sometimes see in 6100/7100 boards. Seems like that rotated cooler design was a big improvement. I snuck in a surprise, too: A reflashed/resoldered SIL3112 SATA card, which it happily boots from.

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Callan
And so, the battle begins... This beast has parts... LOTS of parts.

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crazyben
crazyben
@Callan i am not to bad with soldering and don't mind the CPU pins. But i absolutely struggle with soldering U33 and U46 type chips. What is your go to method for soldering these chips?
Callan
Callan
My reply was too long, so I messaged @crazyben. For everyone else the short version is lots of flux. U33's plcc's pads are under the chip so I angle the board an inch or two to give me better access to the pads. Small hoof tip. If not enough heat from that a conical.
crazyben
crazyben
Thank you for the detailed explanation that is very helpful. I think my problem was the size of the iron tip.
S
I've lost count of the compact macs I've received with upper corners broken during transit.
jmacz
IMG_1135.JPG
I was supergluing a cracked corner of a case... the superglue was sitting on the case for about 30 secs when I wiped the excess glue off and noticed brightening. I made a test 'J' next to it, waited 30 secs, wiped it off... Hmm...
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jmacz
jmacz
I normally clean the area, fill it with JB Plastic Weld, let it fully cure/dry, and then use sandpaper (start with 120 grit, go to 240, then 400 <- I stop here as I don't want a gloss finish) to sand it to where it's completely even.
jmacz
jmacz
If the area was already smooth, that's the end of the filling process, but if the area had some texture, I'll try (keyword here being try) to recreate the texture by knicking it with a rounded pointy object (tedious process). But note this filling only works because I usually paint the machines I fix up and want to keep.
jmacz
jmacz
Unlike retrobrite, the super glue will take off logos printed on the cases. It's surprising how fast it works.. 30 seconds and the un-yellowed original plastic shows through. All the texture is still there so it's a light layer being removed by the glue. Not really applicable but interesting.
finkmac
after much messing about I mostly succeeded in performing a polarizer replacement on this 2400c panel

1752123338251.png\

the soap method @jmacz mentioned was indispensable... highly advise removing the backlight first though...not perfect, but sure beats a crackled smelly vinegar panel
RetroTechTom
Not Macintosh related but I finally got my IBM ThinkPad 380ED

I'm waiting for my CD-R's to show up and I will install Windows 95 on it (I'm currently doing a temporary Windows 98 SE install for now)

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croissantking
I asked ChatGPT to show me how Mac OS X might have looked if it were designed to run in 24-bit addressing mode.

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M
IMG_4421.jpgIMG_4422.jpg

A good start! :)

Further testing will be done tomorrow when I can find where the nice radius video card that was on the IIfx went, my LCD really dosen't like syncing to this random toby card I found.........
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Mk.558
Mk.558
Would love to see some benchmarks of that, compared to a FWB JackHammer and stock IIfx. And compared to a standard 040 machine. :)
defor
defor
What's the likelihood of seeing these produced for the Stage II?
M
max1zzz
Unfortunately I don't have a stage II rocket so unless I come across one and the scsi card it's not something I can do
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