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| MacSE analog board issue - squished video, flyback overheating |
Forums > Vintage Apple > Macintosh > Compact Macs
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CamInTosh New Tinkerer -------- Joined: Sep 20, 2025 Posts: 5 Likes: 4 |
Sep 20, 2025 - #1
Hi everyone, lot of info I'll try to break down. This is a new acquisition I've had for about a month now.
Current Problem
Hardware
History / Timeline 1. Initial work
2. Upgrade
3. Failure
4. Troubleshooting
Thank you! -cam
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JDW Administrator Japan -------- Joined: Sep 2, 2021 Posts: 2,534 Likes: 1,982 |
Sep 21, 2025 - #2
The BU406 (Q2) mounted to the metal cage is the usual suspect. Could be CR2 as well. See pages 51-52 in the following Larry Pina book:
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Kai Robinson TinkerDifferent Board President 2023 Worthing, UK -------- Joined: Sep 2, 2021 Posts: 1,322 Likes: 1,313 |
Sep 21, 2025 - #3
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JDW Administrator Japan -------- Joined: Sep 2, 2021 Posts: 2,534 Likes: 1,982 |
Sep 21, 2025 - #4
Here's a photo of the three Pina books I have physical copies of... [Image: tempImageOyIkFI.png]
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CamInTosh New Tinkerer -------- Joined: Sep 20, 2025 Posts: 5 Likes: 4 |
Sep 21, 2025 - #5
I'm so embarrassed... I have all of the PDFs mentioned, but I was in "panic mode" and decided to reach out before consulting the books! But I also prefer the extra personal confidence from talking to people!
Having said that, I see what Larry is saying about Q2 and CR2. To me, the last paragraph reads like: "while you're in there, replace CR3 and CR5 as well" since they are both linked, in someway, to Q2. I'll source those 4 parts. I hope to have an update by next week-ish. Thank you! Liked by Kai RobinsonandJDW |
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CamInTosh New Tinkerer -------- Joined: Sep 20, 2025 Posts: 5 Likes: 4 |
Sep 24, 2025 - #6
I have a followup I can't find / missed in the PDFs. I've got everything cleaned up and re-soldered with new parts. But I'm curious about BU406 (Q2). The Base connects to resistor R18. The Emitter to ground. On my board, both ends of R18 have continuity through that resistor. And one end is coupled with a ground connection; you can see this in the schematics and in PCB recreations. This is true for a few other resistors. But for R18, this means the base and the emitter are electrically connected to each other, and to ground, and I'm not sure that's correct. Three different chat bots are beyond-adamant that I have a bad R18.
I don't want to power on the machine without asking about this, or if R18 is bad. I can test R18. Just thought I would ask first. The transistor out of circuit seems okay (no short). Hope this question makes sense. If not, another way I can ask is: do the 2 legs of Q2 closest to the flyback gage have continuity when attached to the PCB? |
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JDW Administrator Japan -------- Joined: Sep 2, 2021 Posts: 2,534 Likes: 1,982 |
Sep 24, 2025 - #7
Anything connected to that BU406 transistor is a candidate for possibly being bad if the transistor dies and fries, but that appears not to be the case in your machine.
It should be simple enough to desolder that resistor and test it though. Don't rely on your "beeper mode" (continuity mode) for accurate info. With a highly accurate resistivity-measurement meter that can accurately measure below one Ohm, you need to make actual resistance measurements to see if something is truly connected as a dead short. I did that when making my VGA Mod and 13" Hi-Rez mod videos for the Color Classic, and I found what appeared to be a dead short in beeper mode was in fact 140m-Ohm different in Resistivity mode, thereby proving it was not a dead short. The problem though is that if your meter is a cheap one and doesn't provide good accuracy below one Ohm, doing such resistivity measurements will largely be in vain. Your meter would need to reliably differentiate between about 8 milliOhms and 150 milliOhms, for example. And making those measurements with the transistor desoldered and removed is also important. You also need to check the schematic to see what is connected to what, and I don't have that in front of me right now. |
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CamInTosh New Tinkerer -------- Joined: Sep 20, 2025 Posts: 5 Likes: 4 |
Sep 24, 2025 - #8
Thanks for the sanity check JDW. Looks like I have some homework ahead of me! I'll test it out and also check out the rest of the connections via the schematics. Thanks for the reply!
Liked by JDW |
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CamInTosh New Tinkerer -------- Joined: Sep 20, 2025 Posts: 5 Likes: 4 |
Nov 8, 2025 - #9
Wanted to update earlier, just things kept coming up...
It's all fixed. I replaced BU406 (which DID have that purplish burn mark on the flyback cage), as well as the things I deemed "1 electrical connection away" (and also connected THROUGH the flyback)... for example, R18, Q4, Q5, etc. But given the burn mark at Q2, I suspect that may have been the sole culprit. Thank you to everyone! PS - I saw a post about converting the CRT to an LCD. That looks like a fun project! I'll probably start working on that. Liked by JDW |
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