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Re: 1977 original apple II restoration (continued)...



js@cimmeri.com wrote:
Hi Phil,

   What I would do (and have done in your situation) is start with
another working motherboard... a II+ board would be fine.   Make sure
it works.   Then take 5-10 parts at a time from your II board --
starting with the ROMs -- and transplant those into the working board
-- testing each time with a power on to be sure that the transplanted
parts are working correctly.

   If the test board stops working after a transplant, you'll have to
go back and narrow down further to find which parts aren't working.

   If you find that all the ICs are working upon transplant, then
you'll be in more trouble.  At that point, I would still suspect a
socket problem on the original board.  They often are quite oxidized
and it can take many inserts of a dummy chip and some sprays of a
deoxing agent to get them flowing electrons again.

   Only after sockets, would I then start testing each passive
component.. for that you'll need a variety of testers.. BUT.. I've
worked on many of these II's and have not yet encountered a passive
component failure.. so though it happens, it's not the most likely
explanation.

I agree.  The only passive failure I've encountered was a 0.1uF bypass
capacitor near the processor (which caused intermittent failures about
every ten seconds!), but it was actually caused by repeated flexing
which caused a hairline break in one lead.  (Too much Zip Chip insertion
and removal.  ;-)

-michael

Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."