On Mon, Mar 29, 2004 at 07:11:41PM +1000, Charles M Gascoigne wrote: > I have a general question/topic for discussion - how long can compact > macs last, and what can be done to maximise their lives? I usually take > out hard drives to minimise heat, but are there any other measures or > general maintenance which can be of help?
My guesses: - Backup your software. Floppy disks are probably among the most fragile "components" of your machine. (Particularly for machines which only have a floppy drive.) - Mechanical components, like hard drives and floppy drives. The bearings in hard drives seem to freeze. As far as I know, there is nothing you can do to prevent that. The grease in the original floppy drives seems to freeze as well. Replace it when the time comes. I haven't had many of the newer autoinject drives fail on me. - Electrolytic capacitors and batteries. We've been hearing about leaky capacitors shorting the mainboard and people have been suggesting the dishwasher treatment. At some point the capacitors themself won't have the right electrical properties. Replace them when the time comes. Some people suggest that corroding batteries can damage the mainboard so it is best to remove them. I don't know if that is true, but you may as well pull them out when they die (particularly if you aren't going to replace them). - Cold joints. The SE and SE/30 are particularly prone to this problem (on the analog board). In some cases, it is probably a design fault, so know what type of trouble other people are running into. - ROM. This is probably folklore, but I've heard that the data in ROM (PROM, EPROM, EEPROM?). This form of bit rot is supposed to happen on the order of 20 years. You can backup your ROM on certain models, but you'll need a special gizmo to do so. That list is probably short since I don't know how the CRT and other components will fare, so preserving these critters is going to become more and more difficult as time goes on. Byron. -- Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
