Mac Classic erratic behaviour

[richpl]

I have a 1991 Mac Classic. Sometimes when I boot it, it seems to revert to a default state almost as if it has been factory reset, then other times it will boot with the hard drive contents fully restored (it has Microsoft Works installed among other software). I’ve also just installed a new floppy drive (the drive head in the existing one was broken). One minute the machine reads floppy disks no problem, then the next it refuses to acknowledge that a floppy has been inserted at all.

Has anyone else experienced this sort of erratic behaviour in old machines? It is nearly 30 years old so I guess I should expect things to be a bit screwy, but the behaviour is odd nonetheless.

Regards

Richard

 

[vwestlife]

Has the logic board been recapped? If not, it probably will need to be soon, especially if you have other common signs of failure such as faint or no sound or the system clock not advancing when the power is off, even with a good PRAM battery.

A temporary fix is to wash the logic board to remove the corrosive and conductive electrolyte that has leaked out of the old, failing capacitors:

 

[richpl]

Thanks for the tip. It hasn’t been recapped, there didn’t seem to be any evidence of discharge from the capacitors and I was waiting for the dreaded checkerboard at boot up before doing anything. But maybe that time is approaching.