[net.micro.mac] Mac video crash

cein233@ut-ngp.UUCP (Wiley Sanders) (03/07/86)

Oops! Soory about the previous botched posting.
After several months of jitteriness, my Mac's video has just failed completely,
in the following manner: The display is reduced to a single vertical line in
the center of the screen. A fews weeks ago, there was a posting in this news-
group from someone who had the same problem and traced it to a cold solder 
joint in the flyback circuitry. Please repost the fix - I just know the
local microcenter is going to want to replace the whole analog board. Thanks.
-w
.

rupp@tetra.UUCP (William L. Rupp) (03/11/86)

In article <3036@ut-ngp.UUCP> cein233@ut-ngp.UUCP (Wiley Sanders) writes:
>After several months of jitteriness, my Mac's video has just failed completely,
>in the following manner: The display is reduced to a single vertical line in.

A friend had a similar problem with his Mac.  His display became a
single *horizontal* line.  I just talked with him and he said the
solution was a new motherboard.  The repair people, in essence, pointed
a finger at the whole Mac and said, "That's the problem!"

I know, that doesn't help much, but maybe you, too will have to get a 
new board.  

Good luck.
Bill

sman@pilchuck.UUCP (03/15/86)

> In article <3036@ut-ngp.UUCP> cein233@ut-ngp.UUCP (Wiley Sanders) writes:
> >After several months of jitteriness, my Mac's video has just failed completely,
> >in the following manner: The display is reduced to a single vertical line in.

	Ours just did the same thing.  The connector to the crt yoke had so
	overheated that a cracked 'cold' solder joint had formed.  By re-
	soldering the pin (at the circuit board), the mac was resurrected.
	I don't know why the yoke is pulling so much current or why the
	connector was so under spec'ed, but the connector continues to
	run very hot and has turned brown and we run a fan on top of the mac
	to postpone the inevitable from reoccurring.


			*****
	UNIX:  So much entropy, so little work.
		A VMS hacker and UNIX abuser.

	M. D. Spillman	a.k.a.	...uw-beaver!entropy!dataio!pilchuck!sman

dale@wucs.UUCP (03/18/86)

In article <129@tetra.UUCP>, rupp@tetra.UUCP (William L. Rupp) writes:
> In article <3036@ut-ngp.UUCP> cein233@ut-ngp.UUCP (Wiley Sanders) writes:
> >After several months of jitteriness, my Mac's video has just failed completely,
> >in the following manner: The display is reduced to a single vertical line in.
> 
> A friend had a similar problem with his Mac.  His display became a
> single *horizontal* line.  I just talked with him and he said the
> solution was a new motherboard.  The repair people, in essence, pointed
> a finger at the whole Mac and said, "That's the problem!"
> 
> I know, that doesn't help much, but maybe you, too will have to get a 
> new board.  
> 
Apple's training for the Mac is designed to turn a total dummy into a board
swapper. Since there are only two boards in the machine I guess any dummy could
eventually figure out which board is bad. I was amazed at the expensive do-all
board testers they have. But why do they have to use a do-all tester to replace
a bad keyboard jack. Apple doesn't want anyone to work on 'their' boards even
if the problem is obvious. Desoldering a four-layer board is not a good enough
excuse.

I took the Apple repair training. I enjoyed the donuts, watched the repair 
tapes and caught up on my sleep. If they had only gone into the same amount of
detail as on the Apple II I wouldn't be complaining. 

Apple's word for 'The rest of us' is dummies.

Yes, you will have to have a board 'swapped out' costing a small fortune.
That's why Apple suggests you buy insurance. And guess who is the only one
selling that insurance. That's why they call it AppleCare. Apple may be
making as much or more from AppleCare then from selling hardware.

Imagine if you had to take your car to an insurance agent to get it fixed -
whether you had insurance or not. Where's the FTC or Justice Dept. when you
need them.

Dale Frye @ Washington University in St. Louis

merchant@dartvax.UUCP (Peter Merchant) (03/21/86)

> Apple's training for the Mac is designed to turn a total dummy into a board
> swapper. Since there are only two boards in the machine I guess any dummy could
> eventually figure out which board is bad. I was amazed at the expensive do-all
> board testers they have. But why do they have to use a do-all tester to replace
> a bad keyboard jack. Apple doesn't want anyone to work on 'their' boards even
> if the problem is obvious. Desoldering a four-layer board is not a good enough
> excuse.
> 
> I took the Apple repair training. I enjoyed the donuts, watched the repair 
> tapes and caught up on my sleep. If they had only gone into the same amount of
> detail as on the Apple II I wouldn't be complaining. 
> 
> Apple's word for 'The rest of us' is dummies.
> 
> Yes, you will have to have a board 'swapped out' costing a small fortune.
> That's why Apple suggests you buy insurance. And guess who is the only one
> selling that insurance. That's why they call it AppleCare. Apple may be
> making as much or more from AppleCare then from selling hardware.
> 
> Imagine if you had to take your car to an insurance agent to get it fixed -
> whether you had insurance or not. Where's the FTC or Justice Dept. when you
> need them.
> 
> Dale Frye @ Washington University in St. Louis

Unfortunately, I think Apple is taking some lessons from IBM.  I think there
was a big court case concerning this sort of thing with IBM.  The Justice
Department decided in IBM's favour, and decided against AT&T in the same day.
You know which one hit the news.

The point about swapping the board, allegedly, is that in the majority of cases,
it is cheaper for the customer to just replace the board rather than pay a
technician lots of money to deal with it.  Second, as computers become more and
more necessary, the board swap is the fastest way for a company to get it's
equipment back up and running.  Tell some person that "Oh, I'm going to have to
take your machine back to the shop.  It'll be back tomorrow or the next day."
Watch them have kittens.  And when it comes back after two days and the bill is
small, we start wondering.  Most laymen (a/k/a "The Rest Of Us") equate time
with money.  If the machine has to be taken back to the shop, it will cost more
than if it can be fixed right on the premises.

Also, if the machine is down, that's lost productivity.  I think that most
businesses would rather have the machine fixed in two minutes and pay a bit
more and be back and running and accomplishing amazing things rather than
sitting in their offices looking silly while the Apple guy takes the machine
back to the shop to fix it.  Again, time is money.
--
"There's no doubt,                                 Peter Merchant
 You're in deep."