Re: The (Mis-)Adventures of Dave or A Long Update and a Few Questions

[Dave Rawson <DCRawson@GMail.Com>]

On 3/11/2010 4:48 PM, Michael J. Mahon wrote:

> Though it never seemed to be relevant, I should tell you that most
> keyboard failures are just contact oxidation as a result of disuse.
> Therefore, cleaning the contacts will often restore them to operation.
> And the simplest way of cleaning is pressing the key repeatedly with
> moderate pressure until it works--and by repeatedly, that could be
> a few hundred presses!
>
> Once a key is working, it will usually continue to work if it is being
> used with moderate frequency. This is what "wiping contacts" were
> designed to do. ;-)

In this case, keys that were working stopped.  It seemed like everything 
was failing.  At some distant point, once the spring planting is 
finished and the debris from winter is finally trashed or I have no more 
compelling task at hand, I'll sit and plonk the keys and stare out the 
window at the river.

Is it helpful to pop the caps and spray with contact cleaner?

> [The SSC] may very well be OK. The Apple was fried by the slanted fingers on
> the corner of the card shorting across a couple of connector contacts.

> At some point, when your curiosity exceeds your caution,
> you'll insert it in a working Apple and test it. ;-)

I'll make sure I have a running backup system.  Remember I bought two 
and the 2nd should arrive by the end of the month.

> This is not guaranteed to be safe, but is probably fine as long as
> the contact fingers are in good shape and nothing on the card is
> obviously fried.

That's the case as far as I can tell.

> It's hard to be sure, but I'd guess that the +12 got momentarily
> connected to the data lines, frying the tranceiver IC. Perhaps
> someone here with access to the schematics can tell you which IC
> that is and where it is on the main board. With any luck, only
> one thing was zapped.

Didn't someone recently talk about there was only one place that would 
keep it from beeping once it was running with video output?  I could 
easily be misremembering.  A lot of reading different sources lately.

> > 3) The ADPro transfers are so rapid, that after a number of them, it
> > actually started my Franklin drive chirping when copying blocks from
> > around 40 to 200. It's short of a screaming or squealing sound, but
> > definitely a high-speed rubbing of some kind that can't be good. Could
> > it be overheating somehow? Or dust or grit from disuse being ground
> > up? Ideas?
>
> It may just be the old drive belt squealing, or it may be the head
> or pressure pad. Does it squeal when operating without a disk in
> it?

Okay, I'm at a loss.  How do I get the drive to operate without a disk, 
especially move the head rapidly along it's drive?

> I'm glad to hear that you are succeeding in recovering all your data!

Thanks!  With luck it'll become a process toward accomplishment instead 
of an endless struggle to begin.

> And, again, what a great storyteller you are--with all the agony and
> the ecstasy! ;-)

Well, thanks very much.  Glad you enjoyed my accounts.  A small 
entertainment for a lot of help is a fine trade from my perspective.