"Am I the first person to discover this?" is a tricky question when it comes to classic Macs, some of the most pored-over devices and boards on the planet. But there's a lot to suggest that user paul.gaastra, on the 68kMLA vintage Mac forum, has been right for more than a decade: One of the capacitors on the Apple mid-'90s Mac LC III was installed backward due to faulty silkscreen printing on the board.

It seems unlikely that Apple will issue a factory recall for the LC III —or the related LC III+, or Performa models 450, 460, 466, or 467 with the same board design. The "pizza box" models, sold from 1993–1996, came with a standard 90-day warranty , and most of them probably ran without issue. It's when people try to fix up these boards and replace the capacitors, in what is generally a good practice (re-capping), that they run into trouble.

The Macintosh LC III, forerunner to a bunch of computers with a single misaligned capacitor. Credit: Akbkuku / Wikimedia Commons

Doug Brown took part in the original 2013 forum discussion , and has seen it pop up elsewhere . Now, having "bought a Performa 450 complete with its original leak capacitors," he can double-check Apple's board layout 30 years later and detail it all in a blog post (seen originally at the Adafruit blog ). He confirms what a bunch of multimeter-wielding types long suspected: Apple put the plus where the minus should be.

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"Am I the first person to discover this?" is a tricky question when it comes to classic Macs, some of the most pored-over devices and boards on the planet. But there's a lot to suggest that user paul.gaastra, on the 68kMLA vintage Mac forum, has been right for more than a decade: One of the capacitors on the Apple mid-'90s Mac LC III was installed backward due to faulty silkscreen printing on the board.

It seems unlikely that Apple will issue a factory recall for the LC III —or the related LC III+, or Performa models 450, 460, 466, or 467 with the same board design. The "pizza box" models, sold from 1993–1996, came with a standard 90-day warranty , and most of them probably ran without issue. It's when people try to fix up these boards and replace the capacitors, in what is generally a good practice (re-capping), that they run into trouble.

The Macintosh LC III, forerunner to a bunch of computers with a single misaligned capacitor. Credit: Akbkuku / Wikimedia Commons

Doug Brown took part in the original 2013 forum discussion , and has seen it pop up elsewhere . Now, having "bought a Performa 450 complete with its original leak capacitors," he can double-check Apple's board layout 30 years later and detail it all in a blog post (seen originally at the Adafruit blog ). He confirms what a bunch of multimeter-wielding types long suspected: Apple put the plus where the minus should be.

Read full article

Comments

"Am I the first person to discover this?" is a tricky question when it comes to classic Macs, some of the most pored-over devices and boards on the planet. But there's a lot to suggest that user paul.gaastra, on the 68kMLA vintage Mac forum, has been right for more than a decade: One of the capacitors on the Apple mid-'90s Mac LC III was installed backward due to faulty silkscreen printing on the board.

It seems unlikely that Apple will issue a factory recall for the LC III —or the related LC III+, or Performa models 450, 460, 466, or 467 with the same board design. The "pizza box" models, sold from 1993–1996, came with a standard 90-day warranty , and most of them probably ran without issue. It's when people try to fix up these boards and replace the capacitors, in what is generally a good practice (re-capping), that they run into trouble.

The Macintosh LC III, forerunner to a bunch of computers with a single misaligned capacitor. Credit: Akbkuku / Wikimedia Commons

Doug Brown took part in the original 2013 forum discussion , and has seen it pop up elsewhere . Now, having "bought a Performa 450 complete with its original leak capacitors," he can double-check Apple's board layout 30 years later and detail it all in a blog post (seen originally at the Adafruit blog ). He confirms what a bunch of multimeter-wielding types long suspected: Apple put the plus where the minus should be.

Read full article

Comments

One year ago, I didn’t know how to bake bread. I just knew how to follow a recipe.

If everything went perfectly, I could turn out something plain but palatable. But should anything change—temperature, timing, flour, Mercury being in Scorpio—I’d turn out a partly poofy pancake. I presented my partly poofy pancakes to people, and they were polite, but those platters were not particularly palatable.

During a group vacation last year, a friend made fresh sourdough loaves every day, and we devoured it. He gladly shared his knowledge, his starter, and his go-to recipe. I took it home, tried it out, and made a naturally leavened, artisanal pancake.

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One year ago, I didn’t know how to bake bread. I just knew how to follow a recipe.

If everything went perfectly, I could turn out something plain but palatable. But should anything change—temperature, timing, flour, Mercury being in Scorpio—I’d turn out a partly poofy pancake. I presented my partly poofy pancakes to people, and they were polite, but those platters were not particularly palatable.

During a group vacation last year, a friend made fresh sourdough loaves every day, and we devoured it. He gladly shared his knowledge, his starter, and his go-to recipe. I took it home, tried it out, and made a naturally leavened, artisanal pancake.

Read full article

Comments

One year ago, I didn’t know how to bake bread. I just knew how to follow a recipe.

If everything went perfectly, I could turn out something plain but palatable. But should anything change—temperature, timing, flour, Mercury being in Scorpio—I’d turn out a partly poofy pancake. I presented my partly poofy pancakes to people, and they were polite, but those platters were not particularly palatable.

During a group vacation last year, a friend made fresh sourdough loaves every day, and we devoured it. He gladly shared his knowledge, his starter, and his go-to recipe. I took it home, tried it out, and made a naturally leavened, artisanal pancake.

Read full article

Comments

Welcome to Edition 7.21 of the Rocket Report! We're publishing the Rocket Report a little early this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. We don't expect any Thanksgiving rocket launches this year, but still, there's a lot to cover from the last six days. It seems like we've seen the last flight of the year by SpaceX's Starship rocket. A NASA filing with the Federal Aviation Administration requests approval to fly an aircraft near the reentry corridor over the Indian Ocean for the next Starship test flight. The application suggests the target launch date is January 11, 2025.

As always, we welcome reader submissions . If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Another grim first in Ukraine. For the first time in warfare, Russia launched an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile against a target in Ukraine, Ars reports . This attack on November 21 followed an announcement from Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier the same week that the country would change its policy for employing nuclear weapons in conflict. The IRBM, named Oreshnik, is the longest-range weapon ever used in combat in Europe, and could be refitted to carry nuclear warheads on future strikes.

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Welcome to Edition 7.21 of the Rocket Report! We're publishing the Rocket Report a little early this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. We don't expect any Thanksgiving rocket launches this year, but still, there's a lot to cover from the last six days. It seems like we've seen the last flight of the year by SpaceX's Starship rocket. A NASA filing with the Federal Aviation Administration requests approval to fly an aircraft near the reentry corridor over the Indian Ocean for the next Starship test flight. The application suggests the target launch date is January 11, 2025.

As always, we welcome reader submissions . If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Another grim first in Ukraine. For the first time in warfare, Russia launched an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile against a target in Ukraine, Ars reports . This attack on November 21 followed an announcement from Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier the same week that the country would change its policy for employing nuclear weapons in conflict. The IRBM, named Oreshnik, is the longest-range weapon ever used in combat in Europe, and could be refitted to carry nuclear warheads on future strikes.

Read full article

Comments

Welcome to Edition 7.21 of the Rocket Report! We're publishing the Rocket Report a little early this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. We don't expect any Thanksgiving rocket launches this year, but still, there's a lot to cover from the last six days. It seems like we've seen the last flight of the year by SpaceX's Starship rocket. A NASA filing with the Federal Aviation Administration requests approval to fly an aircraft near the reentry corridor over the Indian Ocean for the next Starship test flight. The application suggests the target launch date is January 11, 2025.

As always, we welcome reader submissions . If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Another grim first in Ukraine. For the first time in warfare, Russia launched an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile against a target in Ukraine, Ars reports . This attack on November 21 followed an announcement from Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier the same week that the country would change its policy for employing nuclear weapons in conflict. The IRBM, named Oreshnik, is the longest-range weapon ever used in combat in Europe, and could be refitted to carry nuclear warheads on future strikes.

Read full article

Comments