Returning a 128K Mac back to 128K

[Chuck(G)]

Of course, that makes them worth much, much less...

[falter]

Question - I am looking to acquire the missing pieces of the 'kit' that would have come with my 128k when it was sold. I'm wondering exactly what was there in the way of documentation but also system disks. I see the occasional 'system disk' come up on Ebay but I don't know what system is actually on there or what is appropriate for machine built in May of 84. Any thoughts?

[DFinnigan]

Question - I am looking to acquire the missing pieces of the 'kit' that would have come with my 128k when it was sold. I'm wondering exactly what was there in the way of documentation but also system disks. I see the occasional 'system disk' come up on Ebay but I don't know what system is actually on there or what is appropriate for machine built in May of 84. Any thoughts?

You want everything that was in the box? Depending on when the Mac 128K was purchased, it would have come with the MacWrite/MacPaint bundle.
You also would have had the introductory cassette, programmer's switch, System disk, a blank disk, Manual, flyer for Macworld, power cord....

[GiGaBiTe]

the "Mod3 test", whatever that means.

Modulo is an operation that finds the remainder after dividing two numbers. Mod3 uses a fixed second number to be divided by a random first number.

Once I find a source for 4264 RAM chips, I plan to order a set and take a whack at it, though I don't have much (if any) experience working on multi-layer circuit boards, and am a bit leery of working on them. My usual method of unsoldering parts involves using solder wick, though I'm not sure off-hand how effective it is on multi-layer boards. Should be interesting, in any case.

I'd recommend investing in a desoldering gun like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/131989062649

It'll make removing ICs very easy and reduce the risk of board damage from having excessive heat on the board. I've used a similar gun to pull large chips like 64 pin 68000s from Sega Genesis motherboards and rework a centipede arcade board.

[falter]

On the subject of desoldering, I am loving that little Japanese solder sucker I got. It takes everything.

[SomeGuy]

Question - I am looking to acquire the missing pieces of the 'kit' that would have come with my 128k when it was sold. I'm wondering exactly what was there in the way of documentation but also system disks. I see the occasional 'system disk' come up on Ebay but I don't know what system is actually on there or what is appropriate for machine built in May of 84. Any thoughts?

This is something that I have also been trying to figure out recently.

This site has very good details about what was included:
http://earlymacintosh.org/#128_bundles
http://earlymacintosh.org/#128_manuals

Basically, there were several bundle revisions:
January 1984 - origional
May 1984 - Updated software versions
September 1984 - Updated for Mac 512k
June 1985 - Software updates

So for something sold in may 84, it could have with either the first or second version. You can tell the difference by looking at the part numbers printed on the backs of the disks, manuals and on each side of the cassette.

Oddly, little of this early stuff is archived on the web. I can't even find good photos.

[mwillegal]

Would you guys be reluctant to take on a 128k board that has sad mac issues? I've seen a few come up. My understanding is the issues are usually memory errors. I wondered how easy it is to track those faults down.

I'm kind of hoping one with production date of May 1984 or earlier will float up one day... but if it does and it has issues then I have to decide how comfy I am with that.

Sad Mac error codes are described in a number of places online. Assuming it's a bad memory chip error, which is a very common fault for these machines, it's not that bad a job. I recommend that once you identify the bad memory chip, that you cut the legs off the defective chip and extract the legs individually from the PCB. The hardest part is getting the legs connected to power and ground out, since they are connected to the internal power and ground planes, which tend to act as heat sinks.

Also use a good soldering iron with temperature control - it's very easy to burn the PCBs when using cheap fixed wattage soldering irons.

regards,
Mike Willegal