Should I replace the capacitors?

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Last seen: 11 months 3 weeks ago
Joined: Jun 28 2007 - 12:59
Posts: 81
Should I replace the capacitors?

Hi all,

I recently took my Colour Classic out of ten years of storage, booted it up with a boot disk and loaded OS 7.5.3. I ordered a pram battery for it and thought I was good to go. Two days ago it refused to boot from the key board. I checked some old troubleshooting threads here and on a few other forums and followed the advice given, but still no go. As advised here and on another Mac forum, as a final simple fix to try, I let it sit for over 24 hours with power to it and the back switch on. Sure enough after about 24 hours I hit the soft power switch on the key board and it booted right up. Since then it has continued to boot with no problems.

I could not find an answer to why letting it sit fixed the problem. To me this is an indication of a future problem. Does this have something to do with the capacitors? This has got me wondering if I should replace the old capacitors with the more reliable solid state ones.

Update: Went to boot the CC a few minutes ago ( booted fine an hour before) and now it is dead again, not booting from the keyboard soft switch? I really want to get this up and operating...any ideas or help will be deeply appreciated.

For info purposes this is what I have tried so far.
-Checked capacitors for any leakage...there was none

-Cleaned the MB and MB back connector.

-made sure any chips on the MB were seated.

-Cleaned the connectors and re-seated the memory and video ram sticks.

-Removed the IIe card that was installed in the PDS slot.

-Made sure that the keyboard and cable were good.

-Pulled the MB and turn on the back panel power switch...fan, HD etc all started up. Did this a second time and re-seated the MB...front green light came on sound like it was booting, but no video.

-Finally, let it sit for 24 hours with the results above in beginning of post.

I haven't received the new pram battery yet, but from what I have read not having a pram install will not prevent a CC from booting.

Jim

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Last seen: 8 years 11 months ago
Joined: Oct 31 2004 - 23:05
Posts: 15
Re: Should I replace the capacitors?

Are you 100% certain the caps haven't leaked? If it's visible, it looks like a darker, greasy area around the caps. Possibly with dust stuck to it. If it's not visible, it's hiding as brown, crustiness under the plastic base of the capacitor. I would be very surprised if the original capacitors haven't leaked yet.

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Last seen: 11 months 3 weeks ago
Joined: Jun 28 2007 - 12:59
Posts: 81
Re: Should I replace the capacitors?

mcdermd,
No one here offered help for about a week, but I also posted in another forum...and received the needed help. It was indeed the capacitors...with a bright light and magnifying glass I was able to spot the slight leakage ( getting old plays hell on your vision). I ended up replacing all 9 capacitors on the logic board. Also replaced the two on the analog board as well as two on the Apple IIe card. Booted right up and have had zero problems from this point on.

Thanks for responding to my post
Jim

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Last seen: 8 years 11 months ago
Joined: Oct 31 2004 - 23:05
Posts: 15
Re: Should I replace the capacitors?

Ah, yes - I think I added to that thread on the LEM Vintage Macs group.

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