Sunday, May 13, 2012

Color Classic server back online


The Color Classic web server is back online with a replacement logic board and floppy drive. I finally had time tonight to install the floppy drive and run Disk First Aid to repair the HDD and verify everything with Norton Disk Doctor (see above).

The original logic board was re-capped but continues to show the same symptom of no video, so for the time being I am running the CC with a logic board that came from a Color Classic that was originally used in Comal ISD. The students who used that Color Classic have long since graduated and gone on to careers and have kids of their own in school. Hopefully they are using MacBooks or iPads!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Color Classic falls victim to leaky caps


After nearly 20 years of service the Macintosh Color Classic that powers the Color Classic web server succumbed to the fate most common to vintage electronics: leaking capacitors. If you examine the picture of the logic board above you can see the evidence yourself - the dark areas around the three round capacitors in the upper right corner are the most telling.

The Color Classic web server has been extremely reliable until recently so when the picture disappeared last week I thought it might be related to the CRT. Swapping out the logic board with a replacement brought it back to life, and examining the original logic board revealed the telltale dull, dark areas around the capacitors that signify the aluminum capacitors have leaked their electrolyte onto the circuit board causing connections to fail and the computer to no longer work properly.

For an in-depth guide on how to fix this symptom yourself, check out this page from the 68kMLA Wiki that includes directions and replacement part numbers for those who can confidently perform soldering operations.

But fear not, the Color Classic web server will be back! The original board is currently being repaired by a professional and in the interim is temporarily online with a backup logic board. That board unfortunately has issues of its own, so uptime may suffer somewhat until the repaired board is reinstalled.

Meanwhile, I recently acquired another Color Classic with a Daystar PowerCache 33 accelerator and will be profiling it here soon. Stay tuned!