Three unknown Macs: Let's get them working again #repair

14:10 "...who's even using these things for productive work..." <shyly raises hand>

It's funny that you started the video as "repair marathon" and you ended up making an in-depth guide on 1 single machine, buying- and fixing guide :D You are an awesome source of information to the community!

In 1989 my middle school bought 4 "take home" Mac SEs. You could sign up to borrow one from the computer lab on a rotating 3 month schedule. It was no doubt to be used for educational purposes, but I just remember hours and hours of Crystal Quest and Dark Castle. I saved up all my lawn mowing and allowance money for about a year and somehow managed to convince my parents to pay for half to get the first computer I could really call my own, the Glorious Mac IIsi.

Thanks for being realistic about these older machines. I find "fanboys" annoying... and your approach is matter of fact.

The geometry is not bad. They are supposed to be like that, with a black area on top and bottom of the screen. The display area is not supposed to be squared: if it is, you will have a graphical vertical deformation. Check the square on the upper corner of a window, it will become a rectangle. I know it's a bit frustrating not to have a full screen display, buy it's by design.

Factory “correct” geometry does not fill the screen edge to edge. You want the flashing floppy disk to be about 11mm square which will mean you’ll have rather thick horizontal bars at the top and bottom. That will give you more true to life WYSIWYG from screen to printer. Great video and nice work :-)

Here’s the hands down best way to remove a stubborn case: unscrew the screws half way out, and then use the screw driver to push on the screws till the front cover pops out. Once it pops out, remove the screws the rest of the way.

An interesting thing I found about the classic II when messing around with it, is that it's hdd is repairable. My hdd hadn't been working, and was making some sort of grinding noise. I thought it was a complete goner, but I was wrong. I took it apart because I thought it was completely dead, but what I found was a different problem that was actually fixable. It has those rubber stoppers on the inside that cushion the head when it parks. Those rubber stoppers are completely deteriorated, and basically turned to goo. This causes the head to stick to the stoppers and not move. I took my hdd apart, and that's exactly what I found. I took the top magnet off, and carefully wiped off the rubber gunk from both studs. You can replace the stoppers with new rubber ones, but I just modeled and 3D printed new ones in tpu filament. Putting them on was kinda hard, I basically used my screwdriver without a bit to push them back onto the studs. This does require a bit of force, so make sure you move the head out of the way to punch it onto the one stud that is attached to the hdd. When moving the head, make sure it doesn't move off of the disk, if it does, slowly push it back on. It's not really good for the head to move off of the disk. Once you replace those rubber stoppers, the hdd should be good to go. When I took mine apart, it had this weird flywheel above the disk, which I think was the main reason why it worked after opening it. I think the weird flywheel on top of the disk stopped any dust from falling onto the disk itself. Overall I thought my classic II hdd would be a goner, but it ended up working after replacing the rubber stoppers, and I managed to reinstall the OS.

When I was in college, I added a second HD to the inside of my SE by riveting a metal HD bracket to the side opposite the power supply (drilled a couple holes in the metal to do it) and adding a scsi cable with a second connector. I’m surprised nobody sold a kit to do it. I recall paying something like $250 for a Connor 20MB HD in the early 90s. It was a painful purchase for a poor college student (me) at the time. I loved that machine. Good memories.

I also still have the family Mac SE. Took it out of my parents' garage to remove the battery a few years ago, then I did what I could never afford to to as a kid - bought four 1MB SIMMs and maxed out the RAM. Paying $25 for an upgrade that would have cost hundreds back in the day was oddly satisfying.

I've been looking forward to a repairathon for a long time - excellent! Thanks Adrian!

I've been watching your channel for about a year now Adrian, but didn't realise I was not subscribed. Just did. Love your contents btw.. even if I'm clueless in electronics I am however an IT professional. So I can follow most of your stuff.

Before I knew her, my wife had a Macintosh SE40. It was custom-made for Lawrence Livermore Laboratory by Apple. She got it at a surplus sale. But she didn't have any system disc for it so she never got to actually use it before she sold it.

I have been watching this channel for years, Adrian. I'm always excited when I see you upload a video !! I have learned a ton of repair knowledge from you !! You're very wise, and I'm glad I have the opportunity to learn from the GOAT. Lol

Loved to see more SE and Classic Macs being repaired. My high school classroom had Mac Classics and I have fond memories of that class so it feels like you saved a little piece of my history. Thanks Adrian!

Yaaay! Thank you for rescuing these classic machines!❤❤❤❤❤

I’m so glad you made another one! This is one amazing show that got its 2nd ep

That "floating piece of dust" validates your awsome hi-res video feed. I am very impressed :face-blue-smiling: I need to up my prescription :)

There goes THAT hour of my Saturday! Thanks, Sir.

It’s worth to mention that the Plus (and early SE models?) DEFINITELY HAVE RIFA caps! Also: for any older <250mb Hard Drive, like the HD20, 9 times out of 10 they are salvageable! the issue is mainly with the rubber seek-arm bumpers melting due to degradation. Opening the drive, with a clamp placed on each screw to get them out, CAREFULLY removing the top of the positioning magnet, cleaning the gunk out best you can, and placing duct tape around the former spots of those rubber rings, and placing it all back together does it! Opening these drives and having dust or whatever else get inside is hardly a large issue with <250 meg. drives, but be wary and keep it out! I’ve personally salvaged 8 drives by this, and each are working to this day. :) P.s: those RIFAs are on the analog board, so high-voltage discharge warnings apply.