Recently I obtained a recreated TechStep for testing the variety of compatible vintage Macs in my collection. All of the Macs are functional, and I was curious about what the TechStep would say about each. Here is a summary of my experiences and results, in case anyone else finds the information useful. I also have a few stumpers below.
Unit #1, Classic II. I wrote about the restoration of this unit nearly three years ago here. Back then I did a logic board and analog board recap, and removal/clean/replace of the logic board RAM. This unit functioned normally afterwards.
TechStep results. All tests passed with exception of the ADB, which indicated “FAIL +5V Line.” The floppy port voltage was reading 4.88V (which was lower than when I last adjusted it) and the TechStep read 4.70V and LOW. I adjusted the pot on the analog board to boost the voltage to 4.99V at the floppy port (TechStep said 4.82V) and reran the ADB test. It passed this time.
Unit #2, Macintosh IIsi. I wrote about the restoration of this unit about two years ago here. Back then I recapped the logic board and PSU, and performed a trace repair on the logic board near the PSU connector, after which the unit functioned normally.
TechStep results: All tests passed with exception of the ADB, which indicated “FAIL +5V Line.” I checked the floppy port voltage and it read 4.73V and the TechStep said 4.58V and LOW. I see on the Bomarc schematics that there is a pot on the daughter card of the PSU, which I adjusted to see what would happen. After trial and error I was able to boost the voltage to 5.07V at the floppy port (TechStep said 4.90V) and repeated the ADB test, which passed.
Unit #3, Macintosh IIsi. This is a second IIsi that I obtained for cheap after the first one, needing a logic board and PSU recap. After I completed those replacements, the unit functioned normally.
TechStep results. All tests passed.
OK, this would get boring if all tests were to pass with all my restored vintage Macs. However, this is not the case as I will share next.
Unit #4, Macintosh SE. This unit I obtained for free from a friend a few years ago who was retiring and downsizing. I never wrote about this unit because It Just Worked from the start. Or so I thought.
TechStep results. All tests passed with exception of Sound. Interesting, I never noted a problem previously with sound through the speaker of the SE. However, TechStep revealed a problem with the headphones jack in the back, confirmed with Snooper 2.0 with the sound test sounding very bad through headphones. I’ll need to look at the headphones jack as a future project - I’m guessing a connection or grounding problem rather than a component failure - and will write about it at a future date.
Unit #5, Color Classic. This was my wife’s original Color Classic that suffered a battery bomb on the logic board and a short on the analog board. I didn’t write about either, because I sourced replacements for both, and It Just Worked from there, or so I thought.
TechStep results: All test passed with exception of SCSI, which indicated “FAIL Data Xfer.” Hmmm, I never noted any problem with SCSI, which seems to work fine as far as accessing the BlueSCSI goes. Does anyone have any ideas what this failure indicates, or now it might be manifested?
So far, the TechStep has indicated three fully functional units, an SE with a headphones jack future project, and a Color Classic with potential questions concerning SCSI requiring further research. But from this point I’m having problems with the TechStep and three other vintage units. I was unable to get the TechStep to connect to either of my SE/30s or my IIci. In all three cases it said, “Unable to enter into TM mode” (TM is Test Manager). I know the cables are good, or at least I assume they are based on the previous tests, and the SE/30s and IIci are functional, so I’m a bit stumped as to why I can’t get the TechStep to enter into Test Manager mode with these three units. Any ideas?
Thanks for reading, and if you have any similar experiences to share, or thoughts on anything above, I welcome your feedback!
Unit #1, Classic II. I wrote about the restoration of this unit nearly three years ago here. Back then I did a logic board and analog board recap, and removal/clean/replace of the logic board RAM. This unit functioned normally afterwards.
TechStep results. All tests passed with exception of the ADB, which indicated “FAIL +5V Line.” The floppy port voltage was reading 4.88V (which was lower than when I last adjusted it) and the TechStep read 4.70V and LOW. I adjusted the pot on the analog board to boost the voltage to 4.99V at the floppy port (TechStep said 4.82V) and reran the ADB test. It passed this time.
Unit #2, Macintosh IIsi. I wrote about the restoration of this unit about two years ago here. Back then I recapped the logic board and PSU, and performed a trace repair on the logic board near the PSU connector, after which the unit functioned normally.
TechStep results: All tests passed with exception of the ADB, which indicated “FAIL +5V Line.” I checked the floppy port voltage and it read 4.73V and the TechStep said 4.58V and LOW. I see on the Bomarc schematics that there is a pot on the daughter card of the PSU, which I adjusted to see what would happen. After trial and error I was able to boost the voltage to 5.07V at the floppy port (TechStep said 4.90V) and repeated the ADB test, which passed.
Unit #3, Macintosh IIsi. This is a second IIsi that I obtained for cheap after the first one, needing a logic board and PSU recap. After I completed those replacements, the unit functioned normally.
TechStep results. All tests passed.
OK, this would get boring if all tests were to pass with all my restored vintage Macs. However, this is not the case as I will share next.
Unit #4, Macintosh SE. This unit I obtained for free from a friend a few years ago who was retiring and downsizing. I never wrote about this unit because It Just Worked from the start. Or so I thought.
TechStep results. All tests passed with exception of Sound. Interesting, I never noted a problem previously with sound through the speaker of the SE. However, TechStep revealed a problem with the headphones jack in the back, confirmed with Snooper 2.0 with the sound test sounding very bad through headphones. I’ll need to look at the headphones jack as a future project - I’m guessing a connection or grounding problem rather than a component failure - and will write about it at a future date.
Unit #5, Color Classic. This was my wife’s original Color Classic that suffered a battery bomb on the logic board and a short on the analog board. I didn’t write about either, because I sourced replacements for both, and It Just Worked from there, or so I thought.
TechStep results: All test passed with exception of SCSI, which indicated “FAIL Data Xfer.” Hmmm, I never noted any problem with SCSI, which seems to work fine as far as accessing the BlueSCSI goes. Does anyone have any ideas what this failure indicates, or now it might be manifested?
So far, the TechStep has indicated three fully functional units, an SE with a headphones jack future project, and a Color Classic with potential questions concerning SCSI requiring further research. But from this point I’m having problems with the TechStep and three other vintage units. I was unable to get the TechStep to connect to either of my SE/30s or my IIci. In all three cases it said, “Unable to enter into TM mode” (TM is Test Manager). I know the cables are good, or at least I assume they are based on the previous tests, and the SE/30s and IIci are functional, so I’m a bit stumped as to why I can’t get the TechStep to enter into Test Manager mode with these three units. Any ideas?
Thanks for reading, and if you have any similar experiences to share, or thoughts on anything above, I welcome your feedback!
