The Rescuer's Conundrum

From: PDP11 Hacker ..... <ard_at_siva.bris.ac.uk>
Date: Thu Jul 24 19:59:48 1997

>Or otherwise stated: What to do when the cost of reviving a rescued
>computer is as much as buying one of the same model?
>
>To explain, I recently rescued a Mac+ (2.5/40) which was being thrown
>out by my employer. When I got it, it would give intermittant Sad Mac
>errors. No problem, I figure I can replace the RAM with some surplus
>PC SIMMs. This fixes the Sad Macs, but after it heats up it dies with
>an "Address Error" bomb. Some board switching points to the motherboard
>(more specifically, the ROMs) as being the fault.

Hmmm... My first thought is to fix the old board :
Since the ROMs work OK when cold, you should be able to make a good copy of
them onto disk. Then blow them into EPROMs, and modify the Mac+ to use said
EPROMs (I believe a very small mod is needed, alas, but I don't know that much
about the Mac+ hardware).
IMHO that's not piracy - it's simply using a backup copy on new media since the
original media failed.

However, a pair of EPROMs would probably cost about $15, so that's no solution
either.

In the past I _have_ spent more on repairing/restoring a machine than buying a
new one would cost. The reason is simple - I enjoy doing said repairs. A hobby
doesn't have to make financial sense.

[...]

>Thanks in advance... <<<John>>>
>
>P.S. Anybody also know of a source for a LaserWriter Plus logic board, too?

What's wrong with the old one. From the pictures I've seen of said board
(Sorry, I don't have one, only a CX-VDO (same engine, but with no logic board)
and a Laserwriter 2NT), it looks to be mostly standard components, and should
be repairable.

-tony
Received on Thu Jul 24 1997 - 19:59:48 BST

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