$15 Apple Mac IIci Recap and Fix

[@JapanPop]

Oh! One of my favorite Mac systems ever! Had one running FTP in my dorm room, to communicate with my Sun 350. Oh the memories!

[@VictorSilva-rq4kz]

Adrian, I also rework some test equipment that has leaky SM caps and I have found a much quicker and easier way to remove the leaky caps. Simply take wire cutters and grab the collar on the cap and cut off the top. This cuts off the cap top and the connection to the plates. Now grab the remaining piece of cap that's on the plastic base and pull it up gently, it will come off along with the rubber seal. At this point you will have left two remaining pieces of the cap legs soldered to the pads. Very easy to removed with just a regular soldering iron. This removal process takes about 10 seconds and has the advantage of placing very little heat stress on the possibly damaged pads.

[@Geopholus]

Yes, I've seen other videos showing the same process. Thanks for the verification !

[@GORF_EMPIRE]

That's sounds like the Mr. Carlson's lab method.

[@VictorSilva-rq4kz]

@@GORF_EMPIRE don't know because I've never seen him do it. I stsrted doing this over 15 years ago.

[@GORF_EMPIRE]

@@VictorSilva-rq4kz It does sound like the same method.

[@willierants5880]

Adrian, the most important thing is not necessarily how you did the repair, but that you are actually doing it. It's easy for me or anyone to sit here and critique. Chances are we haven't repaired a darn thing. Well done.

[@jaycee1980]

Tantalums would be OK as power decoupling capacitors, however in the audio circuit they are probably being used for AC coupling. Tants are not really recommended for that task. Still, if it works, go with it. Modern SMD electrolytics arent really prone to leakage like the early ones were. A lot of them had problems with the rubber seals being degraded by the oven reflow process. Not a problem if you fit them by hand with a soldering iron.

[@Geopholus]

I'm an old elec Tech, but just learning how to recap old Mac II's. Thanks for the info.

[@bloeckmoep]

Ah forget that debate regarding tantalums, niobs or electrolytic. Look at a smartphone, no space there so niob and tantalums need to do the same job and honestly they do an acceptable job for those 0.5 watt micro speakers you find built in there. If however your intention is to amp a 500 watt box tower, electrolytic super caps are the way to go.

[@chainq68k]

I'm a simple man, I see a Motorola 68k based system, I upvote.

[@nilswegner2881]

Exactly my words

[@s3vR3x]

I love this comment!

[@bigalejoshileno]

I join the club

[@vladnickul]

you seem to forget what platform are you on.

[@robertbruce7686]

Hardcore....

[@Vvardenfell_Outlander]

We had a IIci in the family growing up and I loved that computer so much. It worked up until the last day I saw it and then it vanished and I never found out where it went. I was really hoping we'd keep it as it was the first computer (aside from the Apple II machines at school) that I got to spend a lot of time with and I really would love to still have it.

[@MontieMongoose]

The sad thing is that in 30 years my kids won't be able to repair any of the old technology we have today. It's all just glued together and not serviceable.

[@CommodoreFan64]

Very true unless you have 10,000's of dollars worth of SMD rework stations, and secret access to the parts the companies won't sell you, unless of course it's Moto/Lenovo who is at least selling some parts for their phones now.

[@TakeMeOffYourMailingList]

Even then, I don't think it is always intentional. People want small, thin devices.

[@DEMENTO01]

The cheap stuff yeah, the high-end stuff (what is probably what will still be found in 30yrs) is not glued. I eman, an ip68 smartphone it's, but just apply heat and remove the cover and the rest is screws.

[@SianaGearz]

The glues can be debonded with heat and solvents and reapplied later. This is how it's possible to repair any phone today - though of course not every kind of damage, if corrosion runs too deep, well that sucks. But think about it. Think about the soldering tools you had 20-30 years ago. The high-end rework tools of today, in 20-30 years they'll be no longer suitable for technology that will be available then, so it will be just junk you can pick up. Or there will be better tools you can buy. Those corroded phone PCBs that we keep throwing out? Well it's just not economical today to repair them. If you had to, you could desolder an example board, and then just keep sanding it off to expose all the layers, photograph them, and commission a copy, it's trivially possible today. Automatic population of a complex board is fundamentally possible today with something like a modified 3D printer, and it's likely to get easier for today's boards as time moves on. The high-tech of today will be hobbyist-class tech of tomorrow. Apple started locking down chips to each other to hinder repairs? Well they left a backdoor in that right now only they can use, but i'm sure it will be cracked in due time.

[@DEMENTO01]

@@SianaGearz THANK YOU

[@Halterung01]

The soft power issues are due to the big axial capacitors on the mainboard. They were on my IIci.

[@RandomInsano2]

I’m from the future to say the improvement from Adrian in multiple dimensions (quality of work, video, explanation) has improved a lot in two years!

[@TzOk]

The preheating of the capacitors have very little sense, it works only with ones which are still sealed. Just add some flux, and use your hot air gun to desolder them. You may also use the soldering iron to lift one side first, and then another. Good idea is to add fresh solder before desoldering a part. When you break the capacitor, you may remove the plastic "tray" before further desoldering of the "legs", there's no point in melting this plastic and inhaling fumes coming out of it.

[@DxDeksor]

Personally I just clip them off, this has the same effect, then I desolder the legs manually

[@emprsnm9903]

Good man tzok83! Both of those techniques have served me well over the decades (hot air removal, and side-leg when I'm to lazy to get my air gun). The adding solder to corroded and factory solder as well, is very effective for removal. On another topic, why are people so worried over the flux left over afterwards? Just to look pretty? Also, I can't personally recall the last time I lost pads due to heat. Maybe I just don't overapply heat by nature, and that saved me alot of headaches. The only time I lost pads was from mechanical damage, which was the cause of the repairs.

[@pedroneves2701]

The using of Flux it's not for every repair, remember that Flux is abrasive and can lift pads and traces. Sometimes a better soldering station and cutting the legs, not blowing hot air in the caps its the way to do it

[@tombarber8929]

Method I like is take 2 solder irons, one on each side, heating both sides of the cap at once. tends to be pretty easy on the pads

[@SirHackaL0t.]

Adrian Black you mentioned not using force after removing the cap lid but then proceeded to use enough force to lift the motherboard off the table and seemed surprised that some caps came away damaging the pads.

[@mikespangler98]

I have an E-machines monitor on a Mac 640. I bought the monitor in '93, I think. It's fixed resolution at 800 by 600. About three months later they came out with the multi-synch version. I had some color video card as well, so I had a dual screen set up. And it was on a ci. So you are bringing back memories. I sold it when I went back to college for my PH. D. I bought a 7500 for the intensive number crunching I needed to do. Kept the monitor, but had to Hotwire it to get the synch off the green. Still worked fine. The e-machines monitor weighs a ton, and still runs. The reds have faded a bit, otherwise fine.

[@electronash]

10:00 with a hot air station, there's usually no need to pull the cap itself off the board like that first. If you use the hot air to heat one leg/pad then the other, the whole cap (plus legs) should easily lift off the board, too. With many of the pads already corroded, it's even more important to not put any extra stress on them by wiggling the caps. Another method would be to use "soldering tweezers", so you can quickly heat both pads at once without dwelling heat on them for too long. It also helps sometimes to add a bit of flux or even a small amount of new solder before desoldering. ;)

[@l4ndst4nder]

Great repair guide! Clearly explained troubleshooting and soldering advice. Definitely a great reference for working on any old computer.

[@Syntax.error.]

Back in the day with IDE HDD's you could put them in a Ziploc bag and put them in the freezer for a few hours. They would sometimes boot up for a while so you could backup your files.

[@SteveStoltz]

I've had success several times with that trick.

[@emprsnm9903]

People often came to me with dead drives. Only once out of like 5 did that ever work for me. Many manufacturers, maxtor (now seagate) quite often.

[@MadMorgie6318]

"Kind of explode a little bit." One of my favourite lines.

[@TekTherapy]

Great job on the recap, glad it works so well now!!! I owned an Mac IIci around 99ish sadly was lost with other systems in the flood (honorable mention next station). Kinda wanna pick up some 68k macs again so an 840av fairly cheap on our version of craigslist recently.

[@hermannschaefer4777]

I had an e-machines monitor and card in my SE. Grayscale, 16" AFAIR, 1024 x something. They normally shipped together, so you bought a 2-page gray scale monitor and the card in one packet. Others were Radius, Rasterops, Megagraphics and Laserview. Z21 was a 21"- monitor, so the card is likely one for that monitor. Costed around $2200-3500...

[@pettersvard5990]

I have a IIci with the exact same problem, no sound and horrbile gunk leaking out of the audio caps. Apart from that the computer works fine. You have given me the inspiration to actually try and fix this :)

[@MacCrafter707]

I used the Mac IIci to do desktop publishing for Auto Trader back in the early '90s. It was a great work machine even though there was better Apple computers available at the time.

[@ShiggitayMediaProductions]

Awesome find and awesome fix! I grew up with this machine and it was cool to see it come back to life. I'm looking forward to more coverage on this machine!

[@TheSulross]

Watching Adrian's videos cured me of wanting to collect any more vintage computers (I have just one - which does run). Eventually they'll all wide up like this computer and only those with the skills and equipment like Adrian will be able to keep them running.

[@gamerdude0]

I usually cut through old caps like these with flush cutters, then unsolder the bits left behind. Less heat on the board so you won't lift any pads.

[@tototitui]

This is the way to do it. I would add press down with your finger the cap while you cut so you are sure to not stress the pads.

[@Limadrooms]

@@adriansdigitalbasement If you get lucky, you're often able to pull the remainder of the capacitor body off, leaving just the plastic base and leads still attached to the board. Also, I really enjoy your videos.

[@sweetlilmre]

1000x this. After cutting the cap away the plastic usually is easy to lift / remove leaving just the legs. Then cleaning up the corrosion is relatively easy and desoldering the legs leaves good pads.

[@mattinx]

Definitely this - just did my Classic II and it was a breeze (relatively speaking) m.imgur.com/a/pfqb6r9

[@RacerX-]

Over the many years of recapping, I have done both hot air and cut/twist methods. Out of all the methods I have used, the only time I have ever damaged anything, pad or trace was with the hot air method. Especially true when caps are leaking and corroded. Cutting is far more effective and despite those that will tell you it is a recipe for lifting pads I have not found that to be true in my experience.

[@SkuldChan42]

I live in Portland too :) - the way I usually do these aluminum electrolytics is soldering iron, braid, then back and forth real quick and they usually fall off - it seems to work well even if there is corrosion. Maybe a bit of flux/solder if they are being stubborn.

[@iphonepunker]

when it comes to removing surface caps with corrosion I snip the tops off and us a soldering iron to pliers for the pins that are left over, this has been the most successful way of doing the cleaning the board off with Alcohol.

[@fred_derf]

I bought a IIci when they were new. I bought a 4/0 model, 4 MBs of RAM and no HD. I added a 16 MB RAM kit and a 200 MB HD (the techy guys I work with at the time all thought I was nuts buying so much memory and drive space). I was doing desktop publishing at the time and paid for it with a big project that took me a month of working 50 hours a week AFTER my full time job.

[@MrKeech666]

What I lusted over back in '90 was the Mac IIfx! My father worked in broadcasting and I would always go into work with him on the weekends just to play with that beast! It sucks though because often there was a note attached that read " DO NOT TOUCH, rendering! "

[@MrKeech666]

@@adriansdigitalbasement Probably why the fully loaded system costed $50,000 CAD at the time. Later that year when we bought our IIgs there was a IIfx on demo at the store and base model costed $15,000!

[@shermanikk]

I actually had a IIfx growing up, my dad worked for the DoE and he would bring home old macs that were EoL. I loved that machine, used to chat on IRC using Ircle and hang out in Mac channels on efnet. We even had an ISDN line! It was some hot shit back then!

[@perfectionbox]

I bought one in 1992 for around three or four grand canadian... awesome machine. Did c++ programming in MPW and made images with the Infini-D raytracing modeler. The only large monitor I could afford was a grayscale one, but with 256 shades of gray it looked nice and was fine for most DTP work I was also doing. Pity I had to sell the Mac to pay for a big car repair during a move to Vancouver. But computers were evolving so fast and PCs were taking market share so much, I guess I would've wound up a faster Win95 PC in a few more years anyway. I cherish the memories though, a truly fine piece of hardware.

[@snakefriesia6808]

i wish i could programme in c++ .. it would make it easier to make apps myself for various machines

[@stefanbasslorraine8061]

What for a beautiful early 90's machine, love the design

[@goodtimeswerehad]

I had one of these too! Back when we started our home design business. Loved it. Many fond memories, thanks for the video!

[@gargenchoolah]

I am still holding on to my Mac llci sys 7+, bought in 1992-93 (with my hard earned $ 7000++). Used it until 1996-97. Its to explain my nostalgic-euphoric attatchment with this machine. I still remember installing Applications like Aldus Freehand, Adobe Photoshop v2 ( no layers ) Kai Power Tools, Fontographer etc etc. ( I took 5 to 18 3.5" floppy diskettes to install any major app ) Its been in storage since 1997. After watching your video, I am going to pullout this lovable fossil and try to jump start for good old time sake. I wonder if you would like to know what happens next.....if so, kindly keep me posted. Thanks

[@davidemmons8001]

I have also wanted one of these. I used work for a computer rental company around 1988-89 and saw them go out. I have seen a few for sale in various conditions. I think if I can get one to fix, cheap enough I will give it a try.

[@stphinkle]

As for that video Card, you may be able to use it if the frequency is compatible with a current standard and you find out the Po out. If I recall, some mac resolutions were compatible with VGA and some were not. A scan converter might also work with it and adapt it to VGA. If it is monochrome you can connect it to a color monitor assuming the output frequency and resolution are compatible by connecting the monochrome output to the red, green, and blue inputs of the color monitor and you will get a monochrome display on the color monitor.

[@edumaker-alexgibson]

Thanks, useful to me restoring an Acorn Risc PC - it is a surprisingly similar machine, similar layout, sockets, lots of VLSI chips, similar caps and similar corrosion issues!

[@lawrencemanning]

The 040 makes that a bargain. Wow.

[@brycelynch2138]

"Shit, that's a mess." Truer words were never spoken.

[@4nthonylol]

Another great video, Adrian! Honestly, I enjoy those early to mid 90s Macs. No one really collects them or gives them much love. The iMacs, sure. Macbooks? Everyone loves the Clamshell. The compact line? They look neat and most collectors seem to have at least one. But the beige and uninspired squares of the early to mid 90s? Really don't get much love. They must never have played Marathon on one! I had these bad boys in school, and loved them.

[@devttyUSB0]

That's a very nice repair there, Adrian! I like your little 'bodge' wires. Looks really neat.

[@Lilithe]

Yeah. Not a fan of bursting the caps but to be fair to you it won't do much more damage since you're cleaning the site up right away. Instead of "scraping" away the old stuff I'd try to flood it with good solder and maybe use a solder sucker or the wick to pick it up like you did. Definitely some projects for the future like enabling the proper soft-on switch but if you don't care, that's your business! Still nice that you preserved this old machine. Are you going to keep the spinning magneto-rust drive or put a CF card device in there?

[@MikeDest]

Makes me sad to remember seeing my high school just tossing these into the dumpsters around 1999.

[@youdontneedtoseehisidentif4939]

Same..! I remember walking past my secondary a year or two after I'd left and seeing a skip filled with Performa 475s and other Macs - I really wish I'd had the courage to ask to take one or two (or three or…)

[@o.hudson7363]

My high school still has a original macintosh in the utility closet of the IT fundamentals classroom

[@ScottDuensing]

I have this exact system with the same problems. Sadly my soldering skills are basically non-existent. Great video to show others who may be able to help me though!

[@yuchong1704]

Liked the video and your honesty the most. Sometimes things work and other times not. The learning experience is worth the time spent. Thanks for keeping things real.

[@ExStaticBass]

That brought back memories. The sound of that old HDD spinning up. I used to manage a NAS which was configured for RAID5 that had hundreds of those drives in racks. We had to power them up in banks to avoid tripping the breakers.

[@DxDeksor]

If the old HDD is a quantum, the rubbery parts inside probably have melted and become really sticky, making the bed unable to function properly. You may be able to fix this by opening it and replacing the rubber with something else

[@HoboVibingToMusic]

That's really risky, due to the HDD Discs inside getting dirty. Only professionals should do this imo. (I never opened any quantum HDDs. But i thinkk it's not smart.)

[@DxDeksor]

@@HoboVibingToMusic old disks are less sensitive, and it's dead anyways, how can you hurt it more ? ^^

[@HoboVibingToMusic]

@@DxDeksor Well, true. XD I didn't touch any old tech sadly, due to it being all recycled here. well, mostly.

[@Airwolf1971]

@@HoboVibingToMusic The density on these older discs is so low you can actually see the 0s and the 1s on the platters. LOL

[@perez9619]

Not worth the time and headaches. Just buy a SD2SCSI from Inertial Computing. Sure you lose the “nostalgia” of the sound but I’d rather have reliability then worry about a 20yr old drive dying any second.

[@droolerdork]

I have two IIci and two IIcx as well as a Quadra 700. I'd love to see a detailed video on how you did that ATX power supply as I only have one fully working PSU. I'll be saving this video for reference when I go to recap my machines.

[@LaerHaider-79]

Yo Adrian! I have a Iicx with a bad power supply and would love to better understand how you used an ATX power supply in your IIci. Sounds like a much better proposition than trying to fix a 40 yo PSU, and likely to last much longer!

[@daithimcbuan5235]

A competition between it and an Amiga 4000-040 would be interesting. They say that the best 68k Mac is an Amiga.

[@thedungeondelver]

I remember when the NewTek Video Toaster (a re-branded Amiga 2000 with a VT, either an 020 or 030 card, hard drive, etc.) won the "Best of Show" at a Macintosh convention. You could buy a dongle for the Mac called the "Toaster Controller" that basically let you remote in to the Amiga/VT and control it from the Mac, and Mac fans (who did desktop and broadcast video on a budget) ate it up.

[@daishi5571]

I've said this on another channel. I worked in the IT dept at a school in London. We had BBC B, Archimedes, Macs (LCIII & 475's) and PC's. I would bring my Amiga A1200 in (68030 @50 at the time) and run emulators of all the systems on the Amiga (still used Beeb BASIC on the Arch) and while the PC emulation was slow it was usable for what I was doing. However, the other emulators were as fast if not faster than the systems being emulated and that included the Mac. The IT director was a huge Mac fan and one day saw me using my Amiga and asked what I was doing, so I explained that it was easier for me to use the emulators to create work across the systems. I then showed her running Shapeshifter and doing all the same work we used them for then without quitting I jumped to the BBC emulator and ran a program I had done, while the program was running I jumped to the PC emulator and ran a game (Moria maybe?) and just for giggles I jumped back to the Amiga loaded a MOD to play, formatted a floppy and while it was doing that jumped back to the Mac and proceeded to use Pagemaker and an Art package (I think it was Photoshop) the look on her face was priceless she didn't know what to say, she just blubbered something (it was literally incoherent) and left.

[@daishi5571]

@@thedungeondelver I remember that, it used a serial cable to communicate with the Amiga (sticker over the logo)

[@daithimcbuan5235]

@@daishi5571 LEGENDARY!!! :D

[@BertGrink]

@daishi5571 Holy crap man I wish I could have seen that scene! Just Brilliant!

[@MarianneExJohnson]

Ooh, I used to have one of those E-Machines "Big Picture" grayscale cards in my Macintosh II. I got it dirt cheap from a liquidation sale. The monitor had a somewhat slow phosphor, as I recall, but it was big (17" I think), the picture was beautiful, great contrast and very sharp, and something like 1024x1024 with 8 bpp which was awesome at the time.

[@tomf3150]

Thomas Okken 1280*1024 ?

[@MarianneExJohnson]

@@tomf3150 Could be, but I don't recall. All I remember is that it was an unusual size, but back then, anything over 640x480 would have been unusual to me! When I google E-Machines NuBus, I see a lot of 1024x808, that might've been it...

[@DeviatingVapors]

I did a lot of illustration and design work on a IIci during art college, way more power than the huge Mac II series they had @ school / saw very few monitors with that connector, but they were vertical full page displays that I lusted over .. until I got one made by Pinnacle (?!) in late 1995 - let you rotate from landscape to portrait. incredible. I transitioned to the flat cells myself, seemed pointless to source way more expensive barrel cells for such an old box (batteries cost more than I bought the old macs for in .. 2006) but .. I still ponder how to invent a nice solution to removing the old holder (or finding an adapter clip) using alligator clips like you have is a bit too kludgy for my taste, but does work in many systems of that era / what I finally figured out in 2019 or 2020 .. when the motherboard battery is dead, there are weird intermittent timing issues that happen, I guess the system keeps trying on occasion to check, and this gives a hiccup to whatever is running. I would have figured that ya don’t really need a battery (for clock), if you are fine setting it each time, or no bothering .. but .. u do (need one). I don’t recall them being that pricey new, but everything was bux back then. definitely appreciated that system vs any others I used.

[@francoisrevol7926]

I think I've seen somewhere that the CR2032 needs some circuitry to avoid trying to charge it when replacing a real rechargeable battery, unless you want it to explode… ie. a diode somewhere.

[@alextirrellRI]

That's true, but the battery he's replacing was not rechargeable.

[@scottrich976]

There are 2032 lithium rechargeable button cell available.

[@FADE2GRY2048]

Woot. Good fix. I got my IIci for cheap too because it wasn’t booting. Turned out to be a dead battery. Looks like I’ll need revisit it soon to make sure the capacitors haven’t leaked. SCSI drives for these things are getting hard to find cheap. You were lucky to have a spare.

[@FADE2GRY2048]

@@adriansdigitalbasement if I recall, no battery gives black screen.

[@v5e762]

My Mac IIci and matching Apple monitor still ran like new till April 2024 except for the sound. All original motherboard parts except the battery. I think the caps go bad because the computers are left off for too long. I turn my Mac IIci on many times a year to keep the caps from going bad. If I turned it on more times and longer maybe the sound would have worked too and it could have run with no problems for many more years?

[@hicknopunk]

The iici was my favorite mac. I have a really nice one now.

[@marselle6926]

How did you connect your TFT? I've also got a IIci but it will only output on a CRT. I've got one of those adapters (with DIP switches; called UniMacFly). It works when I connect a CRT or when I use my PowerMac and a TFT... Any ideas?

[@Synthematix]

finetip soldering iron add solder to the pads they come off in 2 seconds, cleanup with de-soldering wick, use copper tape to fix traces, heat the pads up then slide the capacitors into it, dont need a hot-air gun mate

[@anumeon]

I loved my old IIci. It was loaded with games, Marathon, Sim city 2000, Sim tower, Sim ant. Etc... I was so sad when the battery leaked all over everything inside. (It had been stored on the side for a long time) and all the good games died with the failed harddrive. They really are great machines to fool around with.

[@badscrewold3162]

In the early 90's I worked in a publishing company (for scientific journals and books), they were using exactly the same computers together with Quadras, running Framemaker and i don't remember what for photo/image editing. In 1995 we switched to PCs with Windows 95...

[@greggv8]

What would be great for the IIcx, IIci, and Quadra 700 is a second story addon like was made for the PCjr. A plastic frame to fit between the case and lid, with an open 5.25" bay and a couple of 3.5" bays for hard drives. Perhaps have one 3.5" bay open for a Magneto Optical, Zip or other. Could be 3D printed in sections then glued together. prime and smooth the surface then paint to match. Back when I had a IIci with a 60Mhz PPC upgrade, I simply set a second 3.5" half height hard drive on top of the one mounted to the bracket. Was nice of Apple to design these early Macs for full height hard drives. In a IIsi it was possible to use longer NuBus cards in the top slot of a IIci CPU upgrade adapter by installing a half height hard drive so the card could extend forward over the drive.

[@cfandm]

Cool Find.......I used to have a IIVX in the 90s and it was a tank. payed around $250..........You could search on The Macintosh Garden fourms or ask on there to find the needed control panels and such....

[@DEMENTO01]

14:22 Tip: is better to start with vinegar to neutralize the corrosion, and after cleaning all with vinegar, use IPA to remove all leftovers from the board and ready to solder. Amazing how you are able to fix everything, I hope to have your skills one day!

[@DEMENTO01]

@@adriansdigitalbasement Ah okay, great :D

[@daishi5571]

To "neutralize" the corrosion wouldn't you 1st you would need to know what the current PH level you are dealing with, otherwise you are not neutralizing anything. Do we really need an acid (vinegar) added to the problem! sure it makes it look good ... that's because it eating in to the surface. Now you have to make sure it didn't get anywhere it wasn't supposed to, like get under another component. Without PH testing it's all best guess, but you can narrow that down with minimal effort. Distilled water & 99% pure IPA are close to PH neutral (keep the air away from them when stored) just apply and mop up with a paper towel (getting rid of the residue) and while they do take longer to clean residue up at least they aren't eating metal hidden away. Using vinegar you probably won't see any problems "probably" after all you are always meticulous with the cleanup aren't you ;-)

[@tekvax01]

the switchmode supply is going into protection mode, that's what the clicking is... check the feedback and HF oscillator chopping circuits!

[@shmehfleh3115]

I just recapped one of these suckers myself, a couple of weeks ago. I got it working for a few hours before a Rifa cap blew up in the power supply and stunk up my whole house. I swapped out all the Rifas, but in doing so, I somehow ended up killing the PSU. Fortunately, I have a Performa 600 lying around, and its power supply is compatible with the IIci. I was able to make sure I at least didn't fry the IIci's mainboard, so now I'm waiting for an eBay seller to ship me another Performa 600 PSU. I was lucky I found one for cheap.

[@wattage]

Hi Adrian. Really enjoy your honest and laid-back style videos. I like hearing your train of thought during your repairs and that you include some of the oops moments. Definitely draws me in more. Was nice to see you get the old Mac spinning again. And it's really nice that you finally got to have your dad's Mac! Just curious, what ever happened to his? Is it in an attic somewhere? Cheers!

[@Pdor_figlio_di_Kmer]

A peregrine and funny thought entered my mind listening your explanation about the floppy drive woes and the... particular director choice of having the camera record only your dancing hands. :) My thought was that you must have Italian blood. Don't be offended. It so happens I am Italian, and I'm aware that as stereotypes go we are supposed to have the habit to speak moving our hands a lot (not going to comment any further on it, it's merely a stereotype), and your show of hand dexterity in illustrating and underscoring your commentary made me chuckle. :D

[@bobz1736]

Love your enthusiasm. You seemed genuinely excited you got it working. Great job 😎

[@JohnMeshelanyJr]

Those barrel batteries leak ALOT, especially the maxell batteries man.

[@enigma776]

Yeah those barrel batteries have killed a lot of Amiga's over the years.

[@Ragnar8504]

Entirely different things. Amigas used rechargeable NiCd batteries (that leak like crazy) while these are non-rechargeable lithium batteries and I've yet had to see one leak. OTOH, since they aren't rechargeable they tend to be replaced once they die so maybe I just haven't seen a really old one yet.

[@thekombinator5833]

@@enigma776 I have a fairly useless 386SX motherboard that came in a scrap buy, and man, I have never seen corrosion so bad: it DEFORMED the motherboard and caused it to bubble up. Incredible destruction. I'm almost favouring sealed, soldered onto the board Dallas RTCs!

[@MrGreat-zc4wz]

@@Ragnar8504 I've seen the lithium ones leak several times, mostly on Macs and on IIGS systems. They were mostly batteries by Maxell and Tadiran that would leak. Here's an example: www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2008-9-4-leaky%20battery%20consequences%20in%20an%20appleIIgs.htm

[@jannevaatainen]

@@thekombinator5833 Dallas RTC would be ok, if they are socketed and still manufactured. Often they are not socketed, and it's quite a pain to fix.

[@JamesBond-qv2ht]

Are you using a store bought adaptor to connect to your monitor or something you you brewed up? If store bought I would appreciate make and model. Thanks for this interesting video.

[@pnjunction5689]

Great video! Just some advice on tantalums in general: be careful about their voltage rating! My rule of thumb is: avoid tantalums if possible, otherwise get them with at least twice the voltage rating you would usually use for electrolytics. I think Avx has some great app notes on that topic... if you want to go down that rabbit hole :-)

[@bonobo8803]

I know this is an older video. But I was wondering if you can take some high quality photos of both sides of the board on the hard drive? It sounds like all the mechanical components are good. It's got to be something wrong on the board.

[@mgabrysSF]

Noice! That's the first computer I used professionally after College. It was for a hybrid magazine / new technology (testing and workflow management) group of Pulitzer Publishing (high-end DTP was just getting started so figuring out how to 'make it work' was a big unknown). Mine had a Radius married to a Pivot display (which worked 'ok' but were actually wonky as hell and had a high-failure rate). The system actually retailed for around 6200 in the fall of 1989 - but ya - they were pricey as hell. My (first) personal workstation - a NeXTstation - was about half the price (with 040 goodness instead of the 030s Apple was selling at the time).

[@og0812]

I believe what video card was made for the portrait display . Looks like same connector.

[@Collectorcast]

I recently recapped a Macintosh Classic and went with tantalum on the main board as well. The power down message must be standard, as this one runs 7.1 and gives the same message with a fully functional power supply. I use side cutters to behead the caps, but it looks like your method worked without ripping up any pads. Enjoy the Mac!

[@emprsnm9903]

Not necessarily on the power down circuit. I found this that someone who recapped a IIx and had power on/off issues after leaked caps corrosion. It's pretty well written imho. It could help you guys restore that functionality, which mac had a superiority over PC back then (it just worked vs APM on PC not working). www.downtowndougbrown.com/2015/03/explanation-of-the-macintosh-iiiix-power-onoff-circuit/

[@RacerX-]

@Collectorcast, The power down message is standard on Macs that do not support soft power on or off through the Power button on the ADB keyboard. I think there was very few compact Macs that actually supported this. I know the Classic and Classic II do not. Even the 61xx, 71xx and 81xx models do not support soft power on. If the soft power circuit is not working, you will get this message. It could also be a problem with the power supply or the way it is wired if it supports this feature or not.

[@rabidbigdog]

Great stuff. The IIci was probably their best 030 machine. Doesn't the trace damage unfortunately continue however even after removing the leak source?

[@TheMrProbasco]

As a professional EET and hobbyist board maker, two things... 1. Clean your tip and re-tin FAR more often. 2. Be more patient with your hot air rework station....

[@AlistairKiwi]

I managed/supported 30 people using computers from 1988 until 2001 in the company I co-owned. Budget was everything. IIci Macs were way too expensive, so we had to go with those craptastic pizza box Macs. By then I'd realized that there was no useful Mac software for businesses, so I gave Macs just to my desktop publishing staff. The rest got 8088, 286, 386, 486, &, eventually, pentiums. Thus I was supporting vintage computers forever. Can you imagine how many blue screens of death or screen with the "your life is wasting away as you watch this" I had to sit through? Same with all of us with similar responsibilities. Anyway, we got some IISI machines but just could never afford the IIci. This machine was out-of-reach to most of us when it was in its prime...

[@pauledwards2817]

I have a colour eMachines colour card and the control panel does not do much. It adds the ability to do some colour/brightness settings options and you can create virtual displays which are larger than the monitor can display.

[@thedungeondelver]

You can insulate with Kapton tape, too.

[@gmcnewlook]

Off topic but I love that trs badge you stuck on your bench monitor

[@choppergirl]

I think System 7.5.3 is the highest you can go on the 68040. If the CMOS battery dies on Macs, the whole computer won't boot and will act like it's dead, with no friendly icon warning dialog.

[@darrenwillett8536]

We had one of these running a digital audio editing workstation around 1991-92. Running a simple digital EQ on a 5-6 minute clip would literally take a couple hours of post-processing. Insane. I think our CPU was clock rated at 16 MHZ.

[@aegisofhonor]

the iici was Apple's flagship mac for a good couple years till the Quadras came around. the "better" iiFX came out the next year but that was an expensive mess with massive compatibility issues due to it's complicated proprietary design and basically was impossible to expand (you were stuck with what it was forever) where as the iici could be upgraded and was respectably usable for over decade thanks to plenty of expandability even up to 604 power PC by the late 90s.

[@G58]

I learned something tonight. Cheers buddy. Oh, I’ve got about a dozen old Macs from this period. I may try fixing them at some point, after I rebuild my Marysville built Honda F750F Interceptor. These old Macs aren’t really worth anything sadly. But one day - when they’re 50 years old, maybe someone will find them interesting.

[@The-Weekend-Warrior]

Did you know that the slot on the power button is so you can turn it with a flathead screwdriver. You should check if it's in the position where it actually works. It can be disabled if you turn it sideways. If I remember correctly, the slot should be vertical for it to work normally. I guess if sideways, it should tell the mac to restart if there's a power outage.

[@toronado455]

I had to search for 68EC040. I was familiar with the 68LC040 (my Performa 630CD had that one). According to wikipedia, the EC lacks both the FPU and MMU, while the LC lacks only the FPU. Thanks!

[@theprogressiveatheist7024]

It makes sense this would show up in my recommended feed right after watching Digital Underground videos.

FYI: For your power button problem, power-on reset is driven by one of audio chips. Not sure about power switch itself. Search google for "Guide to the Macintosh family Hardware", page 272 - there's a schematic of a power circuit. I wonder how HDD died - as at least original Quantum drives (I see non-quantum on video) had problems with bearings and wouldn't spin at all - to get data off them, it was enough to open it and push ("jumpstart") the plates motor so it will overcome initial resistance. This way I was able to dump data of my dead 40mb HDD that came in IIcx. I have IIcx with quite different problem - it won't boot from HDD. Well, it won't detect it on SCSI ID 0. Change SCSI ID, viola - auto-detected under OS7 booted from floppy (but won't boot from it). On ID 0, when OS7 is booted from floppy, partitions are not visible unless it's manually detected by any disk manager. Indeed, some caps have leaked (but not so bad as in yours), that's my next step. As for CMOS battery - those unfortunately DO leak too. I had quite an epic adventure fixing board in Macintosh SE after this kind of battery leaked and corroded almost everything. Here are some restoration images (without comments) imgur.com/a/SOTBvJU and vcfed thread about this journey: www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?64106

[@apromixately]

Hi Adrian , my old IIci just stopped working. When I press the power button all the LEDs (keyboard and case) flash once but nothing else happens. If I hold it down they blink and eventually the fan turns on. The caps in the power supply look fine. Do you happen to have any advice for me? :D

[@danmackintosh6325]

1:41 guess you know this by now but I'm too lazy to read the comments lol, the clicking is likely a bootloop which can be caused by caps but also a diode going short in the bootstrap circuit.

[@SuperMoleRetro]

Is there a "go too" tip you use on your soldering iron? I am very much a novice and don't know which tip to choose when soldering.

[@tekvax01]

I feel bad for having one of these, with all the AVID video boards, and then tossing it out in the early 2000s! I had three quadras as well... I think I gave them away to friends!

[@keithyakouboff8755]

I got a IIcx here, but the last time I tried starting it up (~15 years ago), I got the power-on sound and the green light, but no video (unless the monitor needed an adaptor I didn't have). I do not have the technical expertise to recap anything. I'm sure the mobo needs it. It might need new PRAM too, or maybe a new battery. I wish I knew someone in the Phoenix area who could look this thing over with me and diagnose its state. I'd also like to find out if there's a way to test that HD and see if it still works. Would a modern Mac even be able to "see" it?

[@brendanhoffmann8402]

I had a Mac ii si when I was growing up. I ended up getting the coprocessor for it. Got it in 1990. Was a good machine but outstayed it’s welcome as we didn’t get another computer until 1997! I was desperate for a powermac but ended up getting a pc instead

[@osgeld]

I had a IIcX back in the late 90's, fun machine, Math processor... basically nothing really used it on the mac outside of excel and a few other dull programs, I installed one on my LC2 it does absolutely nothing unless I am working on the budget, which I don't edit: the bucket mac's do not all have a self shutdown, and just a mains ac switch, so its normal if the machine does the shutdown sequence after the power off signal to show the shutdown screen

[@TheRetroRoadshow]

Thanks for this excellent video! I recently rescued a Mac IIci from an e-waste recycler and tested it last night, but after powering on a couple times, it is now dead as a doornail. Looking closely at the motherboard reveals that some of the tiny SMD capacitors have leaked, so I'm hoping to use your video as a guide / reference and attempt a DIY repair, though I've never done this before. Could you possibly share the specific part-numbers for the capacitors you used in this restoration, and where you purchased them from? I'd like to follow your process as closely as I'm able. Thanks again for this video - it's really well done!

[@joeturner7959]

IIci was my second machine, after a accelerated MacPlus. I put a 50Mhz Daystar in it, an 8*24 GC card, and did photoshop work.

[@inachu]

9:04 Industry standard to clean boards off either because of returns or rework or just plain dirty is FLUX OFF. Best ever motherboard/electronics cleaner ever! Just make sure you use a fan and lots of breathing space.

[@Membrane556]

I did that to get an old Mac LCII to boot up but since it's PSU is simple I'll probably rebuild the original. I might try converting my IIfx to a coin cells since it's barrel batteries are dead again though I'll make an adapter vs hot melt glue it in.

[@alexandrecouture2462]

When I re-capped my Macintosh Classic, one of the caps on the motherboard exploded on me when I heated it. Now it's working fine, but the gears in the floppy drive are broken, so I have to eject floppies with a pin in the hole next to the drive.

[@jvaladez]

I jus got the same computer, the drive is not working at all. I expect to get a new one, or maybe a flash card with an adapter. My question is where can I download the OS? and how to install it? Thanks!

[@RuneTheFirst]

Was that card made by the same E-Machines as the PC maker a few years ago?

[@relishgargler]

I was wondering that too. First computer I ever bought for myself was an E Machines 333 or 366. It'd be interesting if they started by making cards for other computers before graduating to building their own, truly bottom-end PCs.

[@RuneTheFirst]

It turns out that they are not related. The E-Machines that made the PCs was a Korean outfit with no relation to the Mac card maker. The PC company was once #4 in sales and was taken over by Gateway which in turn was taken over by Acer.

[@youdontneedtoseehisidentif4939]

A black screen but for a dialog stating "it's now safe to turn off this Macintosh" (or words to that effect) and a restart button when it's shut down is normal on Macs that don't support powering on from the keyboard

[@neonhomer]

I got one for ya... An Apple PowerMac 7200 w/ a upgraded CPU Card. It's been sitting on my desk for 10+ years..... last time I messed with it, it did power up and work.