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Repairer Needed : Apple III

PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:41 pm
by Radar
I'm looking for assistance with a repair of an Apple /// system. Before anyone makes the obvious joke, lifting it up 3 inches and dropping it will not help in this case :)

I've had this particular system for 5+ years and until two years ago it appeared to work fine - I was able to load and run software from disk. I don't have the ProFile HDD extra...
And then..... The magic smoke came out (lots of it) - what actually blew was a 240V Filter Cap in the PSU.

I've now replaced this CAP and the system powers up but does not get much further - the drive light comes on but it never "reads" the disk or continues from there.
I've also tried connecting a 2nd Disk III to the external connector with no luck. I suspect it needs a complete removal / reseating of all all chips / connectors etc.

Is there anyone out there who could pick up the challenge of fixing this for me? Its such a rare system to leave unloved and I'd really like to have it operational.
I also have a complete "as new" set of all the original boxed software / manuals / paddles etc.

Happy to pay $$$ (name an hourly rate) for someones time or pay in suitable "other" hardware/software from my vast hoard.

Can anyone please hlep or suggest any Apple guru's out there? I can arrange couriers to/from etc.

Re: Repairer Needed : Apple III

PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 2:10 pm
by tezza
Sorry to hear about the Apple III woes. Those are rare beasts!

Just a thought. When the magic smoke started billowing I assumed you switched the unit off fast. Was the boot disk in the drive at the time? You've probably checked already, but is it possible the boot disk got zapped/damaged with the rapid shutdown?

Re: Repairer Needed : Apple III

PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 3:34 pm
by Radar
tezza wrote:Sorry to hear about the Apple III woes. Those are rare beasts!

Just a thought. When the magic smoke started billowing I assumed you switched the unit off fast. Was the boot disk in the drive at the time? You've probably checked already, but is it possible the boot disk got zapped/damaged with the rapid shutdown?


I've tried a number of different boot disks with no change - the drive doesn't appear to actually "seek" and attempt to boot at all - just get a red drive light.

Re: Repairer Needed : Apple III

PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:29 pm
by tezza
Hmm...sound serious. I hope your post drags out some early Apple hardware guru who can take a look at it. It could be just a TTL chip somewhere. Finding the damm thing is the problem though...

Re: Repairer Needed : Apple III

PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 10:42 am
by coogie
Hi Radar,

How are you going with the repair?

I am about to get into restoring my recently acquired AIII so could potentially be facing or fixing similar problems shortly.

Where are you based? I have some technical manuals turning up for the AIII which could be useful for diagnosing your issue.

Cheers

Steven