• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Getting a Macintosh Plus 1MB! I have some questions

S

sega dude

Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2013
Messages
21
Location
United States
I am getting a broken Macintosh Plus 1MB for $5 from Craigslist. They say it makes the start up tone, but the screen doesn't work. From the research I've done, this is a common problem. I've read that you can whack it on the left hand side and they might fix it. I also read that it can be caused by cracked soldering joints, but I have ZERO soldering skills. What exactly do I need to take the computer apart? I am aware of the shock risks. Also, I have no way of reading or writing 800k floppies. All I have are 1.44MB floppies. Is there a way to use an 1.44MB floppy as an 800K floppy? I have mac specific 1.44MB floppies if that makes a difference. I need to be able to so I can use an operating system and other software. I will also need a keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately, people on eBay take advantage and sell the keyboards for $80+. The cheapest mouse I was able to find is $9.99.

Thanks in advance!
 
There are detailed threads about all of your specific questions on the 68kmla.org forum. Quite a few on this forum also, that can be searched. There are threads here and elsewhere about soldering. For any model of computer, you can probably find an video and/or illustrated guide online for taking it apart - just search with the terms "take apart" or "disassembly".

My most recent lessons on soldering: Get a flux pen or some liquid flux that you can apply to any suspect joint. It makes a huge difference to effectiveness. You should use flux-core solder, but additional liquid flux is magic. Also, get a soldering iron at least 30 watts but with fine tip. I messed up a lot of soldering efforts by not using a big enough iron. Practice as much as possible before attacking something you can't replace.

Rick
 
+1 for ricknel

I have a mac plus, you MUST use DD floppies. It simply refuses to acknowledge 1.4MB ones, even modified to work @ 720KB. A vintage mac is a MONEY SINK. I know, I have 7 of them. Anything Apple tends to have a 50% price premium just for the name. It is just the nature of the beast. As for opening up the plus, it isn't hard. I'm fairly certain that there are MANY videos of it on Youtube. There is a special tool needed to open them, well special isn't exactly the right word, just not common.

Do you have any interest / knowledge with this era of macs? Or is this more of passing interest?
 
I've restored a few compact Macs including a couple of Plus'. To take it appart you will need a small size torx tool, there are two screws on the lower back, one torx screw under the rear battery cover and there are two screws in handle recess at the top. The screws in the handle recess are difficult because you need a long torx screw driver, which aren't that common. I got around this by using a long flat screw driver, that fit the torx screw. I was able to get the two torx screws out with it. Once all the screws are out the case can be prised apart. This takes some patience, just wiggle appart slowly and it will come appart.

Also, 1.44 floppys can be used on the plus. What you do it put sticky tape over the hole on the opposite side of the write protect flicker. They can then be formatted at 800k disks. Not much good if you can't boot the thing though.
 
Last edited:
I guess my Plus was picky about floppies. I wasn't able to format 1.4mb ones as 720kb.
 
luckybob said:
Do you have any interest / knowledge with this era of macs? Or is this more of passing interest?
Click to expand...

I have intrest in this era of macs and a little bit of knowledge. I own 4 Macs, an Mac Mini (Late 2006) , my first mac, an iBook G4 (Early 2004), a MacBook (Early 2008) my main mac, and a 17in iMac G4 capable of running OS9.


kingchops said:
Also, 1.44 floppys can be used on the plus. What you do it put sticky tape over the hole on the opposite side of the write protect flicker. They can then be formatted at 800k disks. Not much good if you can't boot the thing though.
Click to expand...

Thats some good news.
 
kingchops said:
The screws in the handle recess are difficult because you need a long torx screw driver, which aren't that common.
Click to expand...

Sears sells one that works, craftsman brand. First time in 15 years I went to a Sears, but they had exactly what I needed.
 
kingchops said:
Also, 1.44 floppys can be used on the plus. What you do it put sticky tape over the hole on the opposite side of the write protect flicker. They can then be formatted at 800k disks. Not much good if you can't boot the thing though.
Click to expand...

1.44MB HD 3.5" disks have a different magnetic coercivity than (in this case) 800KB DD disks -- it's not as extreme as it is between DD and HD 5.25" media, but they are not the same, and the higher coercivity of 1.44MB media means that a drive recording at DD signal levels can bleed through to the reverse side. The recording orientation is also wrong (1.44MB is vertical, not longitudinal).

You can often trick the drive into formatting them with the trick you mention, but they have reliability problems and a shortened lifespan. DD media would really be the best way to go.
 
You will have some troubles making 800k floppies to boot the thing too, you MUST have a Mac with an INTERNAL floppy drive running OS9 or older to pull it off, the NEWEST Mac that can pull this off is the Beige G3. External USB drives and PCs can NOT do the variable speed GCR encoding to do 800k disks.

There's a lot of folks here, myself included, who would make you a boot disk for the cost of media and shipping though, so no worries if you don't have a Mac to make your own disks on.
 
I've read that you can use a SCSI Zip Drive and boot from it. With 100MB of space on a zip disk, I could basically use it as a hard drive. Would this work? I don't currently own a Zip Drive of any kind but I feel like I can get one cheaper than an External SCSI hard drive.
 
Got it today and it works great! The video is a little squished horizontally but after adjusting the brightness it works perfectly. Luckily the guy had the mouse, but not the keyboard. There was also a 6.0.3 System Tools disk in the drive (not the original unfortunately) so I can boot it. It's actually a HD disk with the 720K trick done. All it has on it is 6.0.3 and MacPaint and MacWrite. It was very dirty and full of dirt, so I cleaned it off with a Magic Eraser. No clock battery and the contacts look corroded but it didn't seem to do any damage as the computer works fine. Maybe bumping it on the door as I brought it in did some good...
 
Like you, I've recently acquired a Mac Plus. Actually two! Unfortunately they both have problems that I have to fix, but I don't think any of the symptoms are atypical. They both chime when they turn on, but the display is blank. On one I can turn the brightness control all the way up to where you can see the vertical retrace, the other one is completely dark. They also respond to a floppy inserted.
 
I've read that you can use a SCSI Zip Drive and boot from it. With 100MB of space on a zip disk, I could basically use it as a hard drive. Would this work? I don't currently own a Zip Drive of any kind but I feel like I can get one cheaper than an External SCSI hard drive.
Click to expand...

Yes you can:

http://www.vintagemacworld.com/pluszip.html

But you will need some tools to do so.
 
Upon further inspection of the clock battery contacts it appears that the contact is eaten away. See the pic below. Because of this, I don't think I'll be able to replace the clock battery.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
sega dude said:
Upon further inspection of the clock battery contacts it appears that the contact is eaten away. See the pic below. Because of this, I don't think I'll be able to replace the clock battery.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Click to expand...

As long as the damage hasn't spread beyond that connector itself, it should be fixable. You could possibly solder a new metal tab on there, or remove the whole battery holder and solder in a 2x or 3x AA/AAA holder. The Plus is pretty happy with anything from 3v to 4.5v for settings/clock, even a single 1.5v AA will keep settings, just not properly run the clock (it will loose time quick).
 
Look at earlier threads about battery replacements including DIY 4.5v battery made by slicing a 9v in half! There are plenty of options. As a step-one crude solution, just neutralise any remaining acid around the corroded contact (Q-tip dipped in soapy water - soap is alkaline). Assuming the bottom half of that contact is still in place, just pad it up with some folded aluminum foil till you get a firm contact with your replacement battery. It will last forever and who is going to look inside the little door?

Rick
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top