Exploring original Apple Service Center parts from the 80s and 90s

#macintosh #apple
I ended up with this pile of Apple Service parts boxes from the early 90s, so in this video, let's go through all the boxes and see what's inside of them!
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Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)
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[@TheMechanator]

I was an Apple Certified tech for each category of Apple certification at Tandy Service, Computer City, and also serviced the Radio Shack Service plan contracts. All of the desktops, laptops, and printers from 1992-1997. The parts boxes would sometimes arrive with several bar coded stickers on each surface. All the way around. This was usually not the green striped boxes. There were parts in boxes coming from Apple California that did match the addresses you showed. I suspect that these boxes came from an outsourced refurbisher but shipped to Apple before it was sent out. I asked myself one day , why so many extra stickers, and sometimes two or more on each side. I wondered if Apple used scanners and robot arms to pick and pull parts in an automated fashion towards the end of the Mac line. Later on I found a video of such a machine at Apple. Everything was tidy and neatly stacked on shelves and bins. So why 360 or 720 cover the labels on the boxes? Come to find out, they conveyor belt would tumble the boxes, so they put extra labels for the loading machine or person to scan easily for faster shipment. I guess later on they used some semi automated system instead of manual lifters to stack and ship these in bulk mail palletized. The parts return form was called a NARDA and if you didn't fill it out correctly before return, some vendors would charge you the cost of the part back to the shop. It was usually a triple carbonless form, which you used a ball point pen or typewriter to fill it out. A few vendors would ship the part and form back to you to correct the mistake with no paid return label so it costs the shop to ship it back. Later on they had software and we would dot matrix print them with a Okidata u82 microline printer. Which was an indestructible printer for it's day. I knew a guy who printed on lithographic metal plates and would come in for new print heads every so often. If I was servicing one, it was for catastrophic reasons like someone spilled something nasty on it, or it was tossed across the room. Tandy would sometimes tell the techs " do not return" on some Tandy made parts , sometimes with instructions for "Field Destroy.". Meaning,don't just re-refurb, or resell, actually make it inoperable. Like smash it with a hammer. Some of the parts were refurbished several times and could not be done anymore. The parts would cost more to ship back than their view of worth. That started happening with the TRS 80 models and some Toshiba/Tandy parts when the assembly line for Tandy was sold to Toshiba. That is why it is really hard to find some older Tandy spares around. The shop had a pile of dead machines we would take to the dumpster and make sure it wasn't being dived into and hauled back in for the "hey, can you help me with this thing?" type of requests. If you wanted a service manual/schematic for a machine, you just tacked "-SM" onto the catalog/part number when ordering parts. For example a CB is 26-1002, the service manual is 26-1002-SM. The shop would get back a microfiche set and we would read or print from a microfiche reader. There might be sets of microfiche(s) that survived Tandy's closure and some libraries do have them. Some Tandy spares were priced increasing by 10-20% per year to ensure that customers were encouraged to just buy new and forget about fixing it. If the unit was under a service plan the cost was absorbed by it. But at some point parts were not available, the customers would get a new machine or part that met or exceeded the specification up to who computers/monitors/printers. EVGA does something similar before they phased out their lifetime warranty on video cards. I just wanted to toss out some old history as most of the techs of that time aren't around or don't care to share the "fun" of how it was done back then.

[@jandjrandr]

Thanks for the history lesson. I always thought the reason these manufacturers forced all failed units to be returned was to find out where the faults were in their products so they could fix it in the newly released versions (and to refurbish). I worked for a company that does manufacturing and that was the primary reason we wanted to have a failed unit in hand.

[@DiazFelix]

Next episode should be: "How to do a new basement under a basement to get more place for old stuff" 😆 Congratulations Adrian I love your channel.

[@Dlehnerswe]

Former fruit technichan (early 2000's). I noted that the part labels on the packages haven't changed a bit from when I worked, with the same three numbers for category of parts ^^ and, you are right about the additional sticker on the power supply, it's a refurbished unit :)

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Heh! Good to know!

[@tipsfromthetechbench4589]

As a former 80's Apple ASC, unless we were ordering FRU modules, the response from Apple was always "The customer needs to be educated about a new computer". On the flip side I was also ASC for Commodore and we could order every part in the computer individually. Right down to the case screws. So frustrating to have to tell the customer that they need a $20.00 flyback and in order to get it you need to buy a $350.00 module.

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Wow no kidding. I always kind of assumed it was like that. Sad that started so early for them ..... so nothing has really changed today, I guess!

[@stevesether]

Commodore likely thought of themselves more like they were selling cars, and replacement parts were just something to make money on. Apple likely realized that these computers would become obsolete anyway within 2-3 years, and used the high cost replacement parts as an excuse to push people towards a new Mac. From a pure business perspective, Apple did the right thing. If you're buying Apple products, you're not and never have been really been a value oriented consumer. Now, of course, the world has changed and you can easily run a 10 year old computer without issue. We're _starting_ towards the same thing with phones as well, though I think we're still a ways away before you can run a 10 year old phone and expect it to work just fine, if for no other reason than the tight integration between HW and SW and lack of updates. And thus Apple has finally gotten some pushback on not being able to repair these things.

[@TheMechanator]

Yes, Tandy and IBM did similar things with out of warranty parts, the price list would increase by X percentage per year. Sometimes parts were just "not available" for whole board swaps. Although being in a Tandy Service shop, I could order discrete individual pieces of passive and active components of every imaginable kind for component level repair. Sometimes the bill was cheap since the whole board was $ X , but a few actives/passives with some labor was only .25 X to .75 X. Internally the shop labor was cheap, but there was a stiff markup to the customer. Internal store repairs were done for Radio Shacks and Computer City at a "labor discount". Whatever the sales people promised or charged, I did not know sometimes. So at least the sales guy got some margin for their loyalty time with the customer. Still the Tandy Service plan made 600% on each dollar paid for in service plans. Stuff was really good and the out of the box failure rate was

[@maxtornogood]

@@stevesether "You can easily run a 10 year old computer without issue" - Agreed, I watched this clip from a 9 year old Lenovo with a 3rd Gen i7 processor. Still works fine & dandy with an SSD upgrade.

[@stevesether]

@@maxtornogood Yup. My daily driver is a 6 1/2 year old Lenovo with some serious expansions of memory and SSD. Previously I had a 10 year old Lenovo where the screen finally died and wasn't worth replacing, otherwise I'd still use it. The strangest thing was.... when I went to look for replacements for my 2012 Lenovo, the older, used laptops were often better in terms of max memory than anything new. A lot of the new stuff has soldered on memory that's maxed out and couldn't even get up to the amount of memory I had on the laptop from 2012. The laptops that even allowed something as "small" as 16gb were expensive. In some ways we've gone backwards in the last few years.

[@playingwithdata]

Interesting that the version of the caution sheet at 25:05 contains the typo "Apple Mcintosh".

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Isn't that funny? I didn't noticed until watching back my own video after someone pointed it out.

[@DanDan-wy3wq]

perhaps the caution sheet was dittoed early on in product development? McIntosh after the famous apple 🍎

[@jonqu7041]

So, I was a level 1 service tech at an apple authorized dealer, then I worked at apple at a distribution and service center. To clarify some points from your video. You have service replacement modules. Under warranty the dealer was expected to swap one of these in, out of warranty it was up to the dealer. They were expensive, but not as expensive as the price list would imply since after swapping the board the dealer would send the broken board back to apple and get credit for the returned core (when they bought another replacement). Apple did remanufacture these boards at these service centers, clean them up and put them back in service stock. Most of the ones you got were remanufactured not brand new. Could dealers do component level repair? You bet they could if they knew how. When I worked at a dealer, it was all apple II and ///. We did component service on everything but the power supplies, as that was just not cost effective. Once components were soldered directly to the boards, this became less attractive for a dealer service department as the labor costs went up. Board diagnosis is much easier with socketed chips as you well know. The reason you see label build up is when the dealer returned the module, it was shipped back in that box, it went to the service depot in that box and when fixed and cleaned it was put back in the same packaging… if it was still serviceable. That included the static bags, so two or three stickers wasn’t unusual. When you were a level 1 service center, they would figure reimbursement based on the whole module swap, so component repair would have not been desirable for the dealer. Also most dealers didn’t have trained techs that could do the repairs, which is why they might not have done component level repair out of warranty.

[@bobweiram6321]

Ahah! You're not interested in the parts, you're just looking to smoke some of those RIFAs again.

[@adampope5107]

Hey hey hey smoking RIFA every day.

[@DonnyHooterHoot]

Writing "Not new" on a PS made in 1988 is priceless! Great video!!!!

[@pinkandbluebloxplayers3320]

Watching Apple old service parts that was officially from Apple service center bring some good old nostalgia feeling I really like watching those parts and how Apple service took care of the old one.

[@GarthBeagle]

Very cool having those new old stock parts, especially the floppy drives! This was super cool watching you open these, especially seeing all the docs, etc included with them.

[@dave928]

the floppy with the dark gray door for the "portables after the Portable". PowerBook is the name you're looking for.

[@TheSteveSteele]

I worked at the Apple Assistant Center in Austin in the mid-90s. The AAC was the one and only tech support call center until Apple farmed out some tech support calls to 3rd party companies. Something that most people don’t know, the high end support teams, (I was on one of them), had access to the parts database and could ship certain parts to customers. It’s not something they wanted us to do if possible, obviously. It was more common to send out an on-site tech, or refer to a certified tech. But there were a couple of times a replacement part was sent to clients who were high end clients or clients who knew what they were doing. Again, an extremely rare thing. But it did happen. If you think about a model like the PPC 7200, which was a semi-user serviceable machine, it wasn’t a huge deal. I only took calls for Quadras and PPCs, no Performas or any peripherals, and those clients were generally knowledgeable.

[@EdwinNoorlander]

I was a A.S.S.E. that time(1992), nice to see the green service box again. Later i had a Apple Newton with all service manuals.

[@organiccold]

Long nice video. I knew a guy that was the landlord of a ex Apple store and repair service from the 90s and years ago when he was about to sell the building he asked me if I wanted to get rid of the stuff and I have some of those boxes, and others with cases and keyboards, a 20th Anniversary Mac some LCII, an SE30 and an Next Cube that I only knew the value of those after start watching KZbinrs like you.

[@martinh8481]

You can purchase parts, as an authorized service provider, in one of two ways. You can purchase the part outright, or you can purchase it as an exchange part. The exchange price is much lower than the full cost of the part, but you have to send the old part back, so that they can rework it. So anything with a 661-xxxxx part number can be exchanged. An outright purchase would be necessary if you are fixing a liquid spill system, out of warranty, as Apple doesn't generally rework liquid spill boards. The current reworked stuff that you get from Apple really doesn't have evidence of the actual rework, at least not that I can usually see. It usually looks brand new.

[@AureliusR]

I would bet they probably depopulate the entire board and then run it through the manufacturing line again. Or they may have a special manufacturing line where they just depop all the ICs and then replace them all. It's possible they actually diagnose each board and repair it, but at the scale they operate at, it's probably more economical to just repopulate all the ICs on every board (unless you have a particularly expensive IC, but the prices Apple pays for chips would make you weep when you compare to their retail prices... picture it like this: "Hi this is Mr. Soandso, I'm the CFO/CTO/whatever at Apple. Yes, that Apple. We'd like to buy 500k of this chip, 1 million of that chip, and 750k of this chip. What kind of volume pricing can you give? Okay. Now factor in that we'll buy another million of each within 2 years." Yeah, the prices per chip drop *drastically* versus what you see on Digikey/Mouser in comparison).

[@volvo09]

​@@AureliusR I doubt they would go that far... That is a lot of work. I installed "refurb" boards for IBM, Lenovo, HP, and Dell, and quite often I got parts I could tell were used. No component level repair was ever noticed. The amount of good parts sent back is insane... I refused to send any misdiagnosed parts back under my account, but co workers did it all the time... "Oh the fan is screaming? Or the system randomly crashes? Order a new CPU and motherboard..." Then I would pick up the call back and find a service stuck at 100% CPU causing the fan to scream, or a bad power supply causing the system to crash when a heavy load was placed on the system... I could go on and on. Tons of "bad" parts aren't usually bad. It was a wild guess and those parts are tested, serial numbers reset, and sent out to someone else later on.

[@jetlaw_1]

I looked up the address that was on the second box (the one shipped to “RDR, Inc.” It’s a house. And the owner is a 77 year old man whose initials are…you guessed it, RDR. Pretty cool!

[@MrThomashorst]

For the stickyness you can render these playstics enert by using silicone talcum powder on it. I have successfully restored several rubbercoatings of old-new-stock joysticks, mouses etc. with this stuff.

[@Fifury161]

I was an ACSE (Apple Certified Service Engineer) & APP (Apple Product Professional) back in the day, most of those items where used to repair devices under warranty. It was known as an "advanced exchange", the engineer (Apple terminology!) would diagnose the fault and order the appropriate part(s), swap out (calibrate) and return the faulty part. If it was a warranty repair the service provider would receive a payment. No one would consider buying these "official" spares as the cost would be prohibitive - few places would do component level repair (lack of skills, no schematics). I have quite a few anecdotes from back in the day - I really should make my own videos as I have a considerable collection of vintage Macs and their spares!

[@KellyMurphy]

I used to work at an apple SC, we cleaned out the place of a ton of old new in box parts that were outdated and just dumped them in a dumpster. a bit of a shame that I didn't keep them, but there was no way I would have had room to store them.

[@gregorybrady3341]

If you wanted to convert the SE to SE FDHD you just need a SWIM and new ROMS. A DIP package SWIM can be hard to find, but the SMT PLCC version is a little more common. I converted my SE using the PLCC SWIM from a dead Mac LC and a converter board I made. Also needed to burn new ROMs and adapt them, but it now works perfect with HD drives/disks.

[@00Skyfox]

I need to find an old Commodore service center full of NOS parts to get rid of. I'd give 'em a good home!

[@ChaosHusky]

Give em me instead xD

[@sloopymalibu]

Worked at an Apple shop in the very early 90's... they had the biggest school contracts and were not even an 'Authorized Apple' of any sort... We had a closet of those boxes stacked floor to ceiling... with paper tags on them, telling what parts were missing. The own would say 'replace components over whole boards', and you would pull them out of the boards and make what was removed. There was a Mac Plus mainboard with only the CPU in and most of the passives on it... it was sold for $80 in 1992 to some kid who came in with a dead Plus that wanted to get it working.

[@robinbrowne5419]

You put both mice in the same box. You could end up with about 50 mice :-)

[@nickwallette6201]

Ooh! Please do!

[@douro20]

Yes, the Macintosh Portable had a keypad option in place of the trackball.

[@cjripka6752]

I also noted the McIntosh spelling, some one else beat me to it. The Macintosh Portable could swap the track ball to either side, or it could be replaced with the numeric pad. I never saw a Mac Portable with the Numeric pad install, other than photos. Pretty rare! Thanks for another time down memory lane. I remember using many of these parts in my time at an Apple reseller from 1984-1993. We always had to ship back the old part to Apple for credit and to get a new replacement for stock.

[@series80]

I really enjoyed the "made in W. Germany" label on the Varta battery, so it was before Germany unification when DDR was still alive.

[@ChaosHusky]

It says the same on the label underneath my Amiga 500 :)

[@pseudotasuki]

IIRC, you can do board-level repairs, but only for machines that are out of warranty.

[@Charlesb88]

The Sony MPF-42a floppy drive is also compatible with at least the following two Mac models: The Mac IIsi and the Power mac 8500 (workgroup Server 8550). And Yes, your right about the trackball/number pad swap option on the Mac Portable.

[@MrRepeters]

Min. Mark 36:20 memory socket = Superglue😄

[@xirabolt]

Re: broken SIMM socket I'm sure you could 3d print some sort of clip that hooked onto the edge of the logic board and held the SIMM in place.

[@dbhansen]

Drooling over all those brand new flybacks... 🙀

[@littlewillie65]

1981-1982 - I went to the local vocational center while in high school. The summer 1981, the electronics class teacher was sent to California for "training" from Apple so he could fix the school district's Apple ][ computers. He came back with a big bunch of boxes that he put in his office -- where I would sit down and "fix" any computer that came in broken. Most of the time, it was a bad floppy controller that I would end up replacing to run the diagnostic disk. That was what I did most of the time - I assume the instructor dealt with sending stuff back to Apple after we replaced it.

[@crimsonblue88]

that is so cool! i love the new old stock stuff!!!!!!

[@Codeaholic1]

Apple made 800k and 1.44M external drives. The drives grew out of the Apple II external drive division. As far as I know they were never very common on macs but certainly existed. I had one on my Mac SE. Also recently the D sub connector they use was unobtanium for a while until a guy had more made from scratch.

[@godslayer1415]

same as the Amiga monitor port

[@dave928]

yep, the 128k and 512k had an internal 400k drive. i had (still have somewhere) an Apple external 800k drive that would work with those Macs if you ran a "Mac Rescue" daughterboard. basically Mac Plus ROMs, 4 SIMM slots and a SCSI connector on a clip-on CPU board. really made the old 128k sizzle.

[@KrissBartlett]

i like to see you test and fix those apple spare parts

[@Coderjo.]

You will definitely want to replace those RIFA caps, probably before any before further testing. If they're cracked they're taking on moisture and will pop soon.

[@The_Studioworkshop]

Imagine telling someone who restores vintage electronics, especially computers, to do something obvious - you are obsessed with parroting information

[@januszkszczotek8587]

What a treasure!

[@JenniferEliseAtchiso]

i was an Apple service tech at the time. When you used a repair part, you could either keep the old one, or return it for a partial refund. Some techs couldn’t be bothered to return the old parts. What you may have is a part taken out and replaced. It was VERY unusual for Apple to refurb individual boards… just entire machines. BTW… in order to be an Apple Certified Technician, you had to already have A+ electronics certification… if you did not, you could not send boards back for partial refund.

[@JenniferEliseAtchiso]

You may wish to try to get your hands on ‘Service Source’ CDs. (Flow charts and testing utilities), Also a set of CDs called ‘ARPLE’ which focuses on upcoming technologies(often with sample software) in addition to Mac philosophy for the future, as well as often humorous content… ie: when Mac was allowing clones, they made a music video called ‘I Think We’re a Clone Now’

[@dumandugu]

Awesome. I'm pretty sure there is a lot of very smart people out there who can reverse engineer their way to characterize that specific fly-back and develop a drop-in replacement (wink)

[@Fifury161]

IIRC it's the same LOT as used in a Wyse 40 terminal - I seem to recall sacrificing Wyse 40 terminals to replace Mac Plus LOTs...

[@NicolaiDufva]

...Adrian opens electrostatic bag, takes out power supply, discovers leaky caps, puts power supply back in bag and sticks on a QC sticker... :)

[@robjw66111]

trying to fix my mac classic PSU, so jealous to see a NOS one lol!

[@rpavlik1]

thanks for the Mac Classic content! I recently started restoring my collections of old computers. The Apple IIc and IIgs were both in working condition after cleaning (no battery leakage on the IIgs!), but my luck ran out when I opened the Classic. I think I can repair the battery damage (and caps) as long as the little edge connector isn't actually used in the machine. Guess I really do need to take a closer look at the analog board 🙁 was hoping to not have to get near any of the CRT business. So more Macintosh Classic content very welcome!

[@jonnycando]

Pretty sure if I had requested a particular color switch and got the other, but a proper explanation were provided acknowledging the difference…I’d suck it up as I want a working computer!

[@RetroJack]

Alt video title: "Apple being Apple for 40 years!"

[@KronoGarrett]

The 800K drives had the yellow head guard in them, I don't think the 1.44M ones required it. There was something in one of the manuals...

[@ceebee23]

oh a trip down memory lane .. superdrives and mac portable .... SEs oh fun times

[@philh9421]

Maybe they just ran down their stocks as repair volumes dropped. Or the spares were expensive. I remember trying to get a replacement motherboard for a Mac Mini and it was about 30% more at ‘retail’ than a whole new Mac Mini.

[@goatman7362]

6:25 I’d pay special attention to the capacitors on that board. They can go bad and bulge and leak and explode over time even if they aren’t used.

[@maxtornogood]

I found myself drifting off a bit during this long clip with *no testing!* I tend to enjoy the testing/diagnosis clips more!

[@matusekpetr7806]

AFAIK nowadays FLEXTRONICS is doing board/component level repair for APPLE. But the price of refurbrished board is still killing and as a customer you are forced to buy new machine.

[@nimaabachianghasemi1378]

Me when seeing new old stock parts --> 🤩🤑🤪

[@Charlesb88]

If anyone interested: The I looked up the location of of the address on the shipping label for RDR inc on 114th Ave in Portland. Currently, it appears to be a newer residential neighborhood with relatively new homes and no sign of a RDR inc. Maybe at some point it was an industrial park or business area that was later torn down and redeveloped for housing. I did find a RDR inc listing from Map Quest for an RDR inc on Grand Avenue so maybe it moved at some point but currently there is no such business at that location either so I presume RDR inc is out of business or moved out of Portland. Though bone possibility was it was a home office/work from home deal and that’s why a residential neighborhood is show at the 114th ave address.

[@rager1969]

This was a cool video. I don't know why you're surprised there are no dups except for the mice. Who's to say this was their entire inventory? This may be left-overs (when the company closed or stuff too old to return) or the stuff that a particular person was able to scavenge.

[@georgesenda1952]

Just curious. Did you get a job yet ? Love your videos.

[@neilh990]

This was a great video, genuinely fascinating

[@The-Weekend-Warrior]

Apple didn't always send new parts for service replacement, you might also get refurbished parts that are certified known-to-be-good parts. So yeah, the switch might be worn, but it should work OK regardless.

[@Mediateritorist]

At 51:06 it seems to be a disk drive for a Powerbook 140 / 170 / 180...

[@aCivilServant]

Could DEX on the label stand for Date of EXchange?

[@dave4shmups]

Great video on these parts! Does anyone know if Alps still makes keyboards or if they even exist as a company?

[@EddieSheffield]

Very cool! Was hoping there might be some Apple II stuff in there, at least IIc or IIgs. But awesome haul nonetheless.

[@michaelmichalski4588]

Some of those parts may look so new because they were parts taken from relatively new machines that failed under warranty.

[@Eyetrauma]

Pretty funny that Apple, of all companies, savior of desktop publishing, would ship crummy nth generation photocopies

[@randyab9go188]

With everything about Apple it was always about money. Can't read the cheap photocopy too bad. Apple is a consumer friendly company ended with the Lisa and the original 128k Mac. Before that you could order component parts boards anything then they decided that it's too dangerous to let a consumer inside of a computer besides it's a great profit center!!

[@nickwallette6201]

Right. Or.... warehouse people be warehouse people. Not graphic designers.

[@tomjackson2068]

Yes, please! Test away! :)

[@erickvond6825]

While the caps may have leaked on these items, they haven't been on with the boards powered. Most of the damage from leaky caps comes from them being powered. Electrolysis is what really does most of the damage. While I wasn't one of the "Apple Specialists" I did repair quite a few of their products. Much like Louis Rossman, I found it ridiculous that Apple charged so much for a simple repair. Personally I'd love to see how much of these parts work. Considering that they haven't been run with the exception of the referbs, I'm wondering if the RAM goes bad without being used. Some of the DIP packages can leak and oxidize the dye to the point where it fails so I'm curious to see if that's the case with any of the parts you have from this collection.

[@lbrentevans]

Dude… Halloween special episode… FrankenMac Build-O-Rama. Instead of “it freakin works” You maniacally yell out “it’s aliveeeee!”

[@mUbase]

"Trackball : "Type, flip, type switch, type, hold......" ;)

[@marvinrowen5894]

The analog cap to the crt might have high voltage grease on it

[@Andrew_Sparrow]

Could the sticky on the HV cap be Dielectric Grease? (if on the inside only)

[@fumthings]

i doubt it, the chemical that makes plastic flexible, called plasticizer, leaches out after a long time due to the chemical breaking down.

[@justjoe78]

I’m sitting on a couple of Mac Pluses with bad analog boards in 97229! Timing was just off by a couple of decades…

[@studioxxswe]

Apple computers don't have motherboards, they have logic boards :D. My first IT job ever where at an Apple Center I Sweden and yes we had to oder new parts, we where only even allowed to do basic troubleshooting (by reading service manuals on CD-Roms) and sometimes we had to get both a new powersupply, HD and logic board as we didn't know where the problem where and didn't have all spare parts in stock.

[@EShirako]

I'm not clear on if the battery from the one motherboard at about 28:40 was a primary lithium cell battery considering its enormous size. If it's a consumable battery (not rechargeable) then yeah, the lower the voltage, the more likely it is to rupture and leak. I think it's when they 'go negative' when they pop, but that depends on lots of factors, and I think also a bit on luck. Did they even HAVE rechargeable lithium batteries back then? I suppose that's a primary battery. Anyway, while I'm at it...the motherboard batteries that are rechargeable? The NiCd and NiMH cells also rupture when they go flat/negative for too long. Most of them could be kept mostly-stable with a little recharging on an irregular basis. NiCd is generally considered to be an annoying but VERY rugged battery chemistry, tolerant of temperatures way outside what lead-acids can normally do, and able to handle being flat-discharged for a time without ruining the cell. How long that is true and such depends on its chemistry, how it gets stored, bla bla bla...long story short, I stored my AT and PS/2 motherboards for half-of-forever by dragging them out and booting them up every few years and just leaving it on for long enough to run a RAM test or something before putting it away again. Charge it manually and even while in its motherboard if you wish; alligator clips and a bit of time spent to nursemaid the strange charge method should do the trick. EXACTLY how often to do that and all those sorts of variables...I dunno. It changes by chemistry, storage environment, what they are hooked up to, and stuff like that. NiCd is super-forgiving and rugged, though...prop them up occasionally (voltage-wise) and I bet they can be kept from rupturing. NiMH...they're pretty different. They self-discharge less, usually, and are sorta-rugged, but not as wildly so as NiCd. Cadmium is super-bad for everyone and every THING, though, so we really needed to stop using it as much as possible...like with mercury, and asbestos. NiMH batteries will at least have a better chance to not self-destruct if given a bit of care, but I have only had boards with NiCd on them so I have no experience of years-and-years of storage of NiMH like I do with NiCd. As with any 'doing strange stuff with power-items', remember to watch your experiment in case of sudden fire. Things Happen...make sure they don't happen to you!

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Classic Reloaded PCB mono just shipped from MacEffects. $40.

[@doxinator3560]

I just bought a flyback on eBay for my Macintosh Plus for $150. But there are still a lot of flybacks around for $30/$40. I wonder if one of the cheaper ones could be adapted to work?

[@Hayatory]

The stickiness is likely due to the plasticizer, happens to a lot of unopened plastic stuff, especially anime figures

[@saschabenzkirch2392]

Yes, the good old interference suppression capacitors. They don't age well. Replace first or you can air out your basement for 3 days when they blow. Besides computer tinkering, I restore turntables. We lovingly call them "Knallfrösche" (firecrackers) in the turntable community. I have already had the experience that the RIFA or WIMA dissolve into bad smelling smoke. I was too impatient and had to do a function test on a DUAL turntable before replacing the WIMA. Well, lesson learned. 😁😁

[@The_Studioworkshop]

What is the point of this comment? He restores and repairs vintage electronics for a hobby - especially computers. He stated in the video he will replace suppression caps.

[@Coderjo.]

@@The_Studioworkshop What is the point of you repeatedly saying this same thing to anyone that mentions the RIFAs? Perhaps someone else might not have the unfortunate experience of having a RIFA pop and stink up the place for days. Imagine being so butthurt over people suggesting replacing the RIFAs that they have to reply to each suggestion with basically the same comment, rather than just, I dunno, ignoring them.

[@saschabenzkirch2392]

@@The_Studioworkshop This was a suggestion to all those who read through the posts and have not worked much on electronics. That Adrian is experienced enough (at least I think so) to change the RIFA should be clear. Sorry that I annoyed you.

[@The_Studioworkshop]

@@Coderjo. uhhh. I’ve made 2 comments. Both are different. Ok

[@he98508]

at 20:49 - isn't that a burn mark from the diode, next to the transformer by the caps you are pointing ?

[@ACRPC-dot-NET]

I have 2x Toshiba T1600 laptops (late 80's) that are toast due to leaking Nichicon capacitors, which when powered on blows something out in the DC-DC board that I have been unable to fix.

[@pauldourish]

Weird little detail... that non-photocopied instruction sheet at 25:05 or so says "Apple Mcintosh" rather than "Apple Macintosh". I wonder whose mistake that was? It's also, of course, the board that was somewhat different from others. I wonder if they outsourced the manufacturer or refurb to a different supplier than usual?

[@apogeedata]

Obviously the one with the second sticker and not new is the return unit

[@chloedevereaux1801]

that trackball only has 5 traces and a ground...

[@hicknopunk]

It was an issue of bad solder joints.

[@Troppa17]

28:23 Saw these labels before and looked the company up. Seems The De Leone Corp. is still making labels but they moved to Redmond, Oregon cause this is what it says on the labels nowadays. 58:19 RDR Inc. was (site is down, the property at that adress changed hands earlier this year) a small computer consulting company with about only 3 employees it seems. So holding on to only one spare part of each to test or maybe replace directly would have made a lot of sense. It seems to me Apple would have charged for the part anyways and refund only if the part came back the way they insisted and maybe there were a addtional fee if it wouldn't return in an specific time... Nevertheless I think the switches show very good were Apple stood in the early-mid nineties: right on the edge of bankruptcy. I think they were simply not able or willing to pay for a new run of beige switches for a a that point discontinued product. And I can't imagine there was a replacement for an other switch afterwards. Btw: Kudos to Gil Amelio. Yeah, he fired every third employee at Apple but he turn the tide in literally one year. Without him and Gates help Jobs' triumph march wouldn't have been possible.

[@jeffsadowski]

Hey Adrian, curious if you heard news of Japan trying to get away from floppies and wanted to know do you think this will hit the retro community hard?

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Heh yeah It's been on my feed (over and over again) LOL -- I don't think it'll have any effect. We're already using left-over disks which is all that has been available for many years now, so we'll just continue to try to find old disks that still work.

[@steveoerkel735]

@@adriansdigitalbasement2 There is one guy who sell those NOS-Disks to airlines and industry...

[@m1geo]

25:06 "Mcintosh" is spelt wrongly on the clear cover letter? Compared to how the silkscreen has it at 26:20 - how weird?!

[@Antiwindowscatalog]

Do you sell any of these parts? I picked up a Mac SE last summer that I haven't even powered on.

[@broderperdurabo]

SGI, had the same policy, replace, do not fix.

[@johnjoyce]

Yes. Still a policy that Apple wants return of bad parts and charges a fee for non return in most cases

[@mm3nrx]

Looks like Apples right to repair program has not done well :D

[@wbfaulk]

Did those instructions say "Mcintosh" without an A? (25:10)

[@i.t.manager513]

I have an Applied Engineering 3.5" high density drive, does anyone know how to get it working as a high density drive on an Apple IIgs ?

[@rjbrake]

We didn't need a first channel let alone 2

[@LibbyTarde]

Where's Louis?

[@katamarans]

Maybe I missed it, did you buy this stuff?

[@wearwolf2500]

5:43 Dear Adrian, you don't need to reply to hypothetical people.

[@yoyomismo2052]

Never trust nichicon caps, they made the best(if you paid) but they made cheap normal caps. It's a simple way to cut costs. I have a 35V 4700nf cap that cost 2,4$ Unit the same cap of cheap model cost only 0,60$ unit big difference in price and quality.

[@xredhead7135x]

You might be able to reform those capacitors using a current limiting power supply. Using a 100w or 200w incandescent light bulb in series and let it 'soak in' might make it good again without needing to be replaced right away.

[@senilyDeluxe]

That won't get the leaked electrolyte back into the capacitors. But you're probably talking about ones that haven't leaked because these can be reformed like this and I have done this as well.

[@xredhead7135x]

@@senilyDeluxe yeah, no - leaked is leaked and those aren't coming back. I posted this before the leaky caps were found on the motherboard. My comment was aimed towards the rifa caps in the power supplies earlier in the video.

[@eDoc2020]

@@xredhead7135x Reforming is only appropriate for electrolytic capacitors. The RIFA capacitors are paper film.

[@randyab9go188]

Adrian you had better take care or you will be joining Louis Rossman in being sued by Apple for unauthorized repair of their products. For shame. Poor Apple.

[@fred_derf]

How much for one of the Apple ADB mice? I need one for my SE/30 project.

[@radio-ged4626]

Not a great deal getting refurbed kit from Apple when it's out of warranty. When you think a standard repair is only given a 90 day warranty as the norm by any repairer. Because basically anything could go wrong due to the mileage and age of the components. So you pay a fortune to Apple and, chances are you may get crap back.

[@JohnnyG10178]

That's some BS about the wrong color switch.