
After 20 Years, Maryland Man’s Mac IIci Finally Dies - _pius
http://cultofmac.com/after-20-years-maryland-mans-mac-iici-finally-dies/12420
======
mahmud
My condolences to the man and his family. We all know how it feels to lose a
beloved machine. An evil conspiracy of an ex-girlfriend and, hopefully soon,
ex-mother, have sent my collection of Apple IIe's to the dumpster. All that
scaped were the manuals.

~~~
kirubakaran
Of course what is lost is lost, but can't you buy one? I bought an Apple //c
for $10 off eBay, as a "temporary replacement" for the one that I grew up with
but had to leave at home in India.

~~~
bockris
Did you get a chance to play with the Apple archive I sent you?

~~~
kirubakaran
I am still procrastinating it to death for no reason whatsoever! :) Thanks for
the nudge dude.

------
JacobAldridge
The problem with 2.2Mb of data to back-up?

Can't fit it all on a single floppy disk. No wonder he didn't back up for 20
years.

------
sown
You know, given that this is 1980's tech, a quick refresher in circuits, a
steady hand with iron and multimeter could probably identify the faulty
component since he can physically see it with his eyes and even replace!

Never give up!

~~~
ars
My Laser 128 can't read floppies ever since the magic smoke came out of it.
Wonder if I could fix it.

~~~
Luc
In the eighties I bought a C64 for the price of a beer from a guy who said it
was a total loss - there had been smoke coming out of it! Turned out it was
just a blown fuse. The same thing happened again a few years back with a
pinball machine, which also worked fine once I replaced the fuse. So check for
fuses :)

------
Shooter
"Finally"? He must have abused it somehow...mine is still running fine. So are
my SE and SE/30. I just wish new equipment had the same lifespan.

~~~
bockris
I have a //c that was purchased in 1985 that still works but it is rarely
booted these days (not even once a year). I also would expect it to last
basically forever because it doesn't have a hard disk. My floppy disks might
demagnetize but I've got them all backed up so the data will never be lost.

~~~
dhughes
Is the battery still on the motherboard? It will lose its charge or worse,
corrode, and damage the motherboard.

~~~
bockris
I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a battery. No need since it doesn't have a
clock.

------
teuobk
The only computer I've ever worn out was my first "real" box, a Mac Plus that
I acquired in 1993. After a few years of faithful service, a design flaw
reared its head (no fan => hot computer) and killed the power supply.
Fortunately, replacement power supplies were easy to come by back then, so a
quick swap made everything good as new. That computer continues to function
even today, albeit more as a curiosity than a workhorse.

------
pstinnett
Anyone know what software was on this computer that couldn't run in a newer
OS? Anytime I hear that I just feel baffled. Couldn't a newer machine at least
emulate the older OS?

------
forinti
My BBC B+128 is still alive. My father bought it in 1985. Just last week I
managed to hook up a brand new 3.5" drive and format a disc in single density
(FM).

------
cdibona
My wife had a mac from that era and it was toast. I got it running again with
a logic board from the same model which I found in the back room of weird
stuff for $20. I love that back room. We got the data off and now I have the
data backed up like crazy.

Weird stuff is -the- place to find old hardware.

------
stuff4ben
I'm feeling nostalgic now. I think I might go get my Amiga 500 out from under
the house and see if it still works. Anyone got a spare 1084 monitor? I went
"PC" when it broke back in 93.

------
Mentat_Enki
condolences, man...

bummer.

My Apple ][c is still kicking!

