Re: How to care for an old computer?

[Dave Dragon <davedragonuk@nospam.yahoo.co.uk>]

My experience with Apple II machines (I have only had 3 through my hands) is
that the RAM and ROM chips can fail.

Out of 3 Apples I had 2 with some failed ROMS, mostly the ROM is 'dead' such
that it reads as all FF or 00, but I did have one that had 'bit rot' because
most addresses read correctly, but some of them sometimes read as random
garbage: this one took a while to diagnose! I programmed up some 2716 EPROMs to
replace the bad ROMS, but its not a pretty fix because you can't just drop them
straight into the sockets on the motherboard.

RAM chips have been a real pain for me, out of 3 motherboards I have had about
20 failed chips, and had to find a lot of replacements. It seems that some of
them can appear good but after a good soak test they will fail. I have tended
to leave the 'deal utils' RAM test running for a couple of hours to prove the
RAM chips definately good. Dirty chip legs and overstretched sockets are also a
potential problem wich the RAM test shows up pretty well with a long test.

I have seen TTL chips fail too, but they are really easy to replace with new
ones.

The Apple II power supply is a very nice design and despite the stickers
telling you to not open it up, the parts inside are nothing exotic and could
easily be repaired if you know what you are doing, and have the circuit
diagram. I had one PSU with a failed on/off switch (it had arc'd itself to
death) and I was able to replace it with a new one easily.

There is only one thing I have failed to get, and that is a keytop that one of
my Apple II's is missing. I have been unable to find one anywhere, without
buying a whole other Apple II, which is overkill in my opinion.

To answer your question about care, I would say do keep your Apple clean and
dry and don't store it in a cold damp shed for years, and expect it to still
work.