Re: Apple][ History Question

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article sheldon@atlcom.net (Sheldon Simms) writes...

>In article <59ao7d$bt1@darla.visi.com>, nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates) wrote:
> 
>> In article <09961118215838.OUI13.pern@primenet.com>,
>> Omri Ceren <pern@primenet.com> wrote:
>> >To ensure that the integrated circuits inside the computer were securly
>> >in their sockets, owners of the Apple][ were once asked to do this.
>>
>>    Lift their Apple III (3, not 2) a few inches off the desk and drop
>> it. Apple hadn't learned about soldering chips down for reliability.
> 
>On the other hand, had the chips been soldered, Apple would have been
>pilloried by its customers for making it harder to repair/diddle with.

    Actually, the Apple III was designed to keep the average person out.
When you removed the plastic lid cover (two screws on springs had to be 
loosened first) you only had access to the four internal expansion slots.

    To access the complete motherboard, required removing several screws
on the metal base-pan underneath. This sounds easy enough, but there were
_very_ short wire connectors which held the motherboard still in place. 
To make matters worse, nothing was labeled or even color-coded, so you 
had to be take note of what cables plugged back in where (I think some 
of the connectors, like floppy drive and keyboard, were even the same 
number of pins!). This wasn't at all accessible like an Apple II! :-)

    Apple also designed it so when the keyboard "Power" LED burned out,
the system would start-up with a RAM diagnostic test and get stuck in
a loop (until you pushed the Reset button). Normally it would beep and
search the internal 5.25 drive for a disk. Rumour has it this, and 
the above, were all done to discourage people from doing self-repairs; 
and thus more trips to the local dealer for costly repairs. The extra
hardware on the board to _prevent_ Apple II emulation mode from using 
the advanced features of the III, made it even less appealing.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca