I picked up a pristine II+ years ago but the original owner says that he thinks he fried a ROM chip and possibly others... I have never plugged it in, in fear that it would blow up on me 
I think that I'm ready to test it but I'm not sure if there's anything in particular that I should look for before I flip the switch... he also broke a leg off one of the ROM chips but I had that "professionally" repaired and placed back in it's slot.
Any suggestions before flipping the switch? I can send pictures this evening of anything needed...
Thank you,
Roger
I'd check the chips to make sure they're all facing the correct way. Other than that, I'd go for it.
In addition to what Roger recommended, I would take the unit somewhere with very good ventilation, preferably outside. The capacitors in the power supplies dry up over the years and have a tendency of exploding with a foul smelling smoke that is hard to get rid of (ask me how I know!).
The good thing is, the capacitor that usually fails is a mains filter (removes any spikes from the mains) and is not required for the Apple ][ to run. They generally cause no harm either, apart from possibly spewing their foul smelling brownish-orange goo inside the PSU case.
The other good thing is - if this capacitor does explode, they are easy enough to replace (you can still buy the same type of capacitors today).
The only other thing I would recommend is maybe removing all cards from slots prior to the first switch on - this will have two side effects:
1) it ensure that a bad card doesn't bring the system down; and
2) if the system does have a problem, it won't damage the cards.
That's all I can recommend.
Other than that, switch it on and stand back!
Cheers,
Mike
Let us know how you go. I remember the same agony of anticipation a few years ago before I switched on my Apple //e.
This is great, I can't figure how to post pics
Here's a Flickr link:
Would it not make sense to relocate the ceramic memory chips all to the same row?
PCB looks pretty clean but it appears that ALL the RAM chips are installed BACKWARDS!!
If this Apple II has been powered up already, chances are there are a lot of dead RAM IC's...
Please be patient with me on this.. which chips exactly need to be moved/rotated
Thank you,
Roger
Looks like ALL the RAM chips need to be removed and rotated 180 degrees. They are all in backwards.
Match up the Memory chip rows with 8 of the same looking brand IC's.
The notch on the chip should point to the same direction as the white dot on the board. (like all the other ICs)
The 6502 chip looks upside down... is it OK the way it is?
Disregard... the notch on this one is already pointing to the white dot.
Thank you again
The 6502 IC appears to be installed correctly.
Hello dafivehole,
I'd recommend to first read this pages:
http://www.appleii-box.de/D04_resurection.htm
and follow up precisely the instructions in this page step by step.
The page:
http://www.appleii-box.de/H198HomeRepairGuide.htm
contains further information..... beyond that page
sincerely
speedyG
The notches on all the chips should be toward the front(keyboard end) of the machine.
OK, I removed all RAM chips and only replaced eight (all the same for 16K) in the front row. I flipped the switch... no beeps or sounds... just the picture below. Bad RAM chips?!?
I just swapped out the RAM chips and nothing changed... of course the RAM chips I used could be bad too.
I pulled all of the RAM chips out and flipped the switch... the screen is covered with questions marks "?" and nothing else...
Well at least I know that it won't blow up when I turn it on... I'm going put all of the RAM back in it and throw it on eBay and sell it as "parts or repair" and be totally honest with potential bidders.
Thank you,
Roger
Or, you can make me an offer I can't refuse.
I sent you a PM. If anyone is interested before it hits FeeBay, please let me know.
Thank you,
Roger
Turns out that the F8 autostart ROM was bad. I don't know if the RAM in backwards would have damaged
the F8 ROM or if the backward RAM was a consequence of someone troubleshooting the issue. But the
computer is back to life now with period correct RAM (all ceramic) and makes a nice clean Rev 3 machine.