Macintosh Plus 1MB Repair and Retrobrite!

Introdution

One of our customers has asked us to repair his Macintosh Plus 1MB computer, which suddenly blown one day, making the loud noise, smoke and weird smell around. We couldn’t resist to see this lovely patient in our clinic – it was brought by an owner directly into our workshop, despite really long journey required (over 160 miles one way). We have been told that we are the very last resort (really nice, isn’t it?) as no other company across the UK was able to rescue this lovely thing.

Step 1 – Diagnostics

Of course, as always we started with our thorough visual inspection. First of all, right after removing the cover we spotted the source of an explosion noise reported:

One of the “hot side” high voltage capacitors has blown completely, and the other next to it has cracked. Of course, both have been replaced. But it was just the begin of the surgery…

Next we connected the Mac to the mains – no blow, no smoke. Good sign. So we turned it on… Ouch, no picture on the screen (just a bright horizontal line) and quite weird welcome gong which was more like “don’t touch me” warning 😉 Thorough inspection of the power board revealed the culprit – how do we know that?

Step 2 – Repair and testing

We got rid of the old solder, cleaned connector pins and PCB and applied a new solder onto them – again, as we did many times before. In line with our expectations, the old fellow has started its new life with nice and sharp picture and welcome gong sounding like “woo-hoo, I’m back!”. It seems to be the common issue on these old Mac computers, and I cannot believe how did nobody repair it before us…

Nevermind, we’ve just got another e-mail from our customer – he asks if we could make the computer’s casing a bit brighter… Of course, we can!

Step 3 – Retrobrite

Couple of photos will tell the story. Before:

Now we will compare the back cover which is done with the front bezel which is not – it looks like the computer made up of two others and different units:

… and the whole set after work:

“Am I beautiful?” – of course you are! And we did not forget about the power switch. Before:

… and after:

Summary

The only thing left was to re-align the size, placement and geometry of the screen, and set the proper focus voltage. All of these to prevent from further problems. Let’s face the truth – these old computers have a beautiful souls, and working on them is the most enjoyable experience. Work done, another patient rescued successfully. That’s what we do on a daily basis, and that’s what we really love!