Re: Apple II Europlus Kaput: Can I get/buy another one?

[Alistair J Ross <mail@ataliross.co.uk>]

Hi All,

Well, I have some isopropanol and I cleaned up everything, including a
previously unseen white 'mess' underneath the crystal (clock oscillator).
I reseated each chip one by one. I don't smoke, and I know it's not been
in a smoky environment for at least the last year or so, also it doesn't
have that layer of goo you associate with smokers machines (it's yellowy
horrid stuff).

The goo came off reasonably easily with alcohol and the white stuff under
the crystal, which was rubbery in texture (like mastik) came away but
after a bit more work. I also found the white stuff under a chip socket to
the left of the board.

Quite a lot of alcohol was used, so I thought it best to let the board dry
out. I also took it to my local friendly electrical shop, and they think
that there is too many things that could be wrong to practically debug it.
After firing the board back up, with another PSU (from my //e which does
power up the //e), again, nothing happens.

Really frustrating.

Ali Ross


On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 02:24:16 +0000, Michael J. Mahon wrote:

> Alistair J Ross wrote:
> 
>>My Europlus has died on me -- there is some sticky stuff on the 6502 and
>>on
> one
>>rom (overheat?). I've swapped out the 6502 but still not working at all
>>(nothing audible, nothing displayed, yet power is ok). I also have a //e
>>but that displays gibberish and I reckon it's dead also.
> 
> It is extrememly unlikely that the "sticky stuff" in the middle of the
> main board has any relationship to overheating.
> 
> Everything depends on the nature of the stick stuff.  Is it water
> soluble? Is it soluble in some relatively benign organic solvent?
> 
> If you can remove it (including under the chips--ugh), the chances are
> pretty good that it will work again.
> 
> Where did the sticky stuff originate (I guarantee that it didn't come
> out of a chip!)?
> 
> Do I understand correctly that this machine was working fine, and then
> stopped, and then you discovered the sticky stuff?  Or was the sticky
> stuff there while it was working, and then it stopped working?
> 
> Apple II's are remarkably resilient machines.  I recomnmend that you
> carefully re-seat all socketed chips and try them again (after cleaning
> up any foreign matter, if necessary).
> 
> Let me put it to you directly--the odds that there is anything seriously
> wrong with either of these machines is quite small.  (BTW, do you have a
> known-good power supply?)
> 
> You can, of course, write these machines off and look for new ones, but
> the odds are very good that some diagnostic work will fix them both.
> 
> -michael
> 
> Check out parallel computing for 8-bit Apples on my Home page: 
> http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------[ Alistair J Ross]--
Alistair Ross,
XBOLT Network  (www.xbolt.net)
--[ www.aliross.co.uk ]--------------------------------------------------------