Yes, I am one of those old-timers who was the first kid in the block who get himself a Mac, who started with the 128k, got ridiculed at the IBM infested office about his sophisticated "Etch-A-Sketch" and spent a lot of money to eventually wind up with a rather outdated 512E (also referred to as a Mac Plus Minus). But that Mac has served me right. I was on the longest, smuggest, ego trip ever -actually I'm not over it yet. The Mac got abused when the grandchildren came over, he also ran very hot, sitting in the southwest corner of the family room -the hottest spot of our flat roofed house- but he survived.
Last summer my work environment improved drastically when our youngest boomerang daughter moved out of the home again and I finally could claim her cool room as my office. And that was when my first Mac problems started.
After moving in my redecorated office -it is amazing what it takes to erase the feminine touch from a little bedroom- my little old keyboard started acting up, it kept repeating some keys I hit and then swallowed up the next couple of words I entered. Very frustrating. Opening the key board was very revealing. For all you guys or gals who smoke when you try to create on the Mac what can not be created elsewhere, ashes wind up inside your keyboard. What I found was a miniature garbage dump of miniature cobwebs, insects and ashes. With the help of a Dustbuster and quite a few Q-tips I finally got it clean, put it back together and it worked again. But only for a little while. It was good for a couple of hours but every evening, just when I was running on overdrive, it quit on me.
It was then that I decided to go fancy and I ordered a new one, the Datadesk "101" keyboard. It is a great keyboard, has an excellent feel, but the software to drive the function keys requires System 4.2 or higher. That blew me out of the water since some my heavy programs were Excel and ReadySetGo. Each of them, with the old recommended System 3.2, just fitted on one 800k disk, but not with System 4.2 anymore. I called the Datadesk people and they were good about it, they had an older version -working with System 3.2- which they sent me for free, but it still didn't solve my 800k disk problems. I had to cut my Systems too lean to be practical. Installing a RamDisk was no good either, Excel became as slow as molasses and I for sure didn't want to lose any speed with the RSG as it was. As of now, I only use the F-Keys on WriteNow, and only sporadically because the old Datadesk version is still a DA instead of an Init, and also the Command keys of WriteNow are already rather efficient.
If you want full use of the Datadesk "101" F-Keys, you better have a hard disk or at least a 2Mb Mac. It is a great keyboard and the profile is also low enough so that it fits on one of those under-the-desktop sliding shelves you'll find on some newer computer desks.
After having spent many frustrating hours to settle that F-Key issue, the Mac screen suddenly collapsed on me. It is a weird experience, seeing the picture first grow wider and than suddenly shrink to zilch. I knew that I was in trouble when I smelled burned components. Thanks to the AMUG newsletter, I found an emergency repair number to call, Dave. Later on I discovered that he was Dave Beginski, the founder of AMUG, also president of Arizona Growth Industries and a great guy. After I had dropped off the Mac -way back in the boonies- he called me back, came up with a cost estimate which was half of what I expected and he strongly recommended that a cooling fan was to be installed. The job was done within 24 hours. The effect of the cooling fan was hard to believe. The left top of the Mac which previously was almost too hot to touch felt cool as a cucumber now. And the sound is negligible, you really have to listen to hear it. It's nothing compared to the obnoxious noise of some SE's. If you have a Mac that feels hot on the top, do yourself a favor and have a fan installed. Being an engineer, I know that excessive heat eventually kills any electronic component.
Hoping to be finally back in shape, I was in for a big disappointment. The same evening that the Mac was repaired, my new keyboard failed after a couple of hours. Same symptoms as the old little one, repeating characters. etc., but now I got an additional indicator, the green keyboard lights for the Caps Lock and Window Lock functions were flashing. Frustration! First thing in the morning I called Datadesk again, asked them about possible failure causes and they came up with a whole slew of possibilities -which was not of much a help- but they told me to return the keyboard if I suspected it was bad and they would send me a new one. Good people to to business with! I did not return it, having a gut feeling that there was more to it, like for instance my desk lamp. The failure only kicked in after that lamp accidentally had been on for a couple hours. There never were any problems during daytime hours. Coincidence? Was it the heat of the lamp on the key board? Having the key board bake in the Arizona summer sun for half an hour disproved that theory. It was time to call upon Dave again. He recommended to play a three keyboard switcharoo game. Very unlikely that three keyboards would be bad. That evening they all failed. So Dave took in the Mac again and as a starter replaced the keyboard interface circuitry. No dice. In subsequent trips -quite a few of them- the memory chips, the logic board and eventually the power supply were exchanged. And every night it was the same old story. Everything was eventually replaced except the plastic shell. Late the same night that I had essentially a new Mac and the keyboard had died again I decided for one more desperate try. In my pyjamas I unplugged the Mac and its peripherals, put them on the kitchen counter, hooked up everything, flipped the switch and found out that the darned animal worked. The source of all my problems was apparently not with the Mac, nor keyboard, but the new office I had moved into.
The next morning I opened the outlet box the Mac had been connected to, re-discovered again that my home had stupid aluminum wiring, that the voltage was nominal, that the desk lamp caused about a 0.5 volt drop which appeared sort of acceptable, but that the terminal screws were not tight and that the whole outlet assembly felt slightly hot to the touch, something that scared the wits out of me. After tightening the screws and putting the lamp on the companion outlet, the problem was fixed and has never shown up since.
Explanation? I believe that the additional load of my incandescent desk lamp must have caused some arcing, creating high frequency noise that bypassed the surge protector in my extension box, and that the noise spectrum must have been just right to interfere with the keyboard interface circuitry, flipping or flopping some flip-flop the wrong way, whatever. But I take any other explanation if you have one.
Lesson! Next to being a proven fire hazard, outlet boxes with aluminum house wiring can make your Mac frustratingly sick. Upgrade kits with crimp connectors and conductive silicone grease are available. Think about it, it's a small insurance premium to pay.
By the way, good old Dave took all his newly installed goodies back with the exception of the low voltage power supply which looked so pitiful after all those years of overheating that we decided that it should be retired. His charge was minimal.
Another nuisance that was bugging me had to do with the mouse. With my extensive use, its feet kept wearing off and I also haven't found a mouse pad yet that doesn't gum up the works. The feet have been replaced quite a few times by using handmade plastic disks from a 1/16 inch thick piece of plastic model material, a tedious but cost efficient job taking about half an hour. But to be honest, the Mac mouse is a real pain after some use. One late afternoon when he died again I decided to treat myself, called MacWarehouse and ordered the A+ Mouse. At 10 o'clock the next morning it was already delivered and hooked up, total cost $66. My compliments to the inventor of this gadget. No moving parts, no feet to wear off, nothing to gum up, and it has a lifetime warranty. It comes with a small hard plastic pad which is almost as slick as ice, and if you are a game player -I tried Crystal Quest for a test- I can guarantee you that your scores will improve. This is really the mouse Apple should have used for all their Macs. (No, I don't get any kickbacks for promoting it, I just love the fact that I have a better mouse and no more upkeep!)
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