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I bought an Apple ][e recently at an estate sale. Loved playing with it and worked fine at the sale, but failed (monitor is fine but main board no longer turns

I bought an Apple ][e recently at an estate sale. Loved playing with it and worked fine at the sale, but failed (monitor is fine but main board no longer turns on, no hard drive grind on startup, etc) after ~15 minutes of use. I found some troubleshooting manuals and got, then replaced, a bunch of main board chips. Still no luck, so I replaced the PS. So I’m giving up my sunk costs on getting this actual Apple ][e into working shape, but I’ve decided to settle for hollowing it out as a sort of classic computer arcade cabinet? (with the help of a apple-keyboard-connector-to-USB dongle I found online), putting in a rpi4, and perhaps running an emulator to start (since I’ll be specifically reharnessing the original keyboard). This means I’ll trash the main board (and perhaps disk drive enclosure, which I have no use for) and also need to find a flatscreen to very safely and carefully put into the A2M2010 monitor enclosure after removing the CRT component (lovely green phosphors, sad I won’t get to see more of it). Anyways, all of this is to say that this device is lovely and I might get when if another piece of classic hardware falls into my possession. :)

andrewstuart 4y ago
Don't trash it - many vintage computers need simple repairs before they'll work. Spend a few hundred dollars and find someone to recap it and get it going for you again. An old Apple 2 is a classic machine - it shouldn't be trashed. At worst sell it on to a collector for parts.
jacquesm 4y ago
If you're in Europe I'd be happy to repair it for you, using it as an enclosure is a real waste.
bingaling 4y ago
don't trash it, put it in a closet for a while until you want to (or find someone who wants to) learn electronics troubleshooting. You'll regret trashing it in a few years.
vitaflo 4y ago
Ditch the RPi4 emu idea and get a Mister FPGA. It’s wonderful for retro computers as well and arcade and console games.
EvanAnderson 4y ago
Please don't "trash" old parts! There are people who will pay you for the parts (and some will even come and take them off your hands so you don't have to mess with shipping). Apple IIe's and Disk II's aren't particularly rare, but there aren't ever going to be any more made.
amatecha 4y ago
If you aren't going to use the internals please offer them to someone on craigslist or local vintage computer shop, as this stuff is more and more rare every day because people just throw it in the dumpster. You can probably get some money even for non-working stuff.
retrac 4y ago
For anyone else heading off on a similar voyage: it's almost always the power supply. And then the faulty power supply kills the ICs. Electrolytic capacitors are unpleasant things. They require a liquid that slowly evaporates. They're temperature sensitive. Degraded ones behave erratically when they warm up, temporarily behaving and then not. And they can, worst of all, fail short. Quite possibly why your Apple's resurrection was temporary. I'd be more surprised if there wasn't a bang and magic smoke dissipating after turning on a PSU that had likely been off for 30+ years. Always replace or reform them in equipment of that vintage.

andrewstuart 4y ago

Don't trash it - many vintage computers need simple repairs before they'll work. Spend a few hundred dollars and find someone to recap it and get it going for you again. An old Apple 2 is a classic machine - it shouldn't be trashed. At worst sell it on to a collector for parts.

jacquesm 4y ago

If you're in Europe I'd be happy to repair it for you, using it as an enclosure is a real waste.

bingaling 4y ago

don't trash it, put it in a closet for a while until you want to (or find someone who wants to) learn electronics troubleshooting. You'll regret trashing it in a few years.

vitaflo 4y ago

Ditch the RPi4 emu idea and get a Mister FPGA. It’s wonderful for retro computers as well and arcade and console games.

EvanAnderson 4y ago

Please don't "trash" old parts! There are people who will pay you for the parts (and some will even come and take them off your hands so you don't have to mess with shipping). Apple IIe's and Disk II's aren't particularly rare, but there aren't ever going to be any more made.

amatecha 4y ago

If you aren't going to use the internals please offer them to someone on craigslist or local vintage computer shop, as this stuff is more and more rare every day because people just throw it in the dumpster. You can probably get some money even for non-working stuff.

retrac 4y ago

For anyone else heading off on a similar voyage: it's almost always the power supply. And then the faulty power supply kills the ICs. Electrolytic capacitors are unpleasant things. They require a liquid that slowly evaporates. They're temperature sensitive. Degraded ones behave erratically when they warm up, temporarily behaving and then not. And they can, worst of all, fail short. Quite possibly why your Apple's resurrection was temporary. I'd be more surprised if there wasn't a bang and magic smoke dissipating after turning on a PSU that had likely been off for 30+ years. Always replace or reform them in equipment of that vintage.