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Macintosh Classic guidance

romanon

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2013
Messages
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Slovakia
Hi, i have my Apple Macintosh Classic computer, but i need some advices...
1. I have Italian language on my OS, can i change it to english somehow?
2. Which floppy disks it use? My 1.44mb disk does not working, when i insert it, he try to format it, but with no succes.
3. How i can install programs?
4. I dont hear any sound, it is hardware problem?

Thanks
 
Is it a Classic I or a Classic II?

1) Go to the Apple menu in the upper left corner of the screen/menu bar. Choose the first selection on the list, and report back what the version is. It could be running 7.0.1 or 7.1 (I don't think they had 6.0.8L in Italian, but I could be wrong, and that's only for the Classic II and four other Macs). You will have to reinstall the System Software to change languages.
2) Recap or have the motherboard recapped by someone else. While it is apart, clean the floppy assembly (but do NOT touch the heads) and apply an extremely light coat of grease (moly-based is fine) to the assembly. Bad caps can also affect the FDD as well as...#4...
3) Networking, a SCSI CD drive, a SCSI HDD, floppies, SCSI Zip drive, SCSI tape drive, or the serial ports.
4) See #2...

You should take the unit apart and inspect the motherboard. Don't worry it's a small board. Inspect for damage on the board, although if all you have is no sound (assuming it's not muted) and a flakey FDD it could be just time for routine capacitor replacement and a floppy drive cleaning.

See the second link in my signature for networking. The first part of the More Info page describes how to install system software. Fix the capacitors and floppy drive, then you might want to make a System 6 Emergency Network Access Disk -- conveniently, I have already made some in the Download Town section.
 
1. Not sure on that one.
2. The Mac Classic came with a Superdrive which should read 1.44Mb disks. You may need to open up the computer, take out the floppy, clean the heads, and make sure everything that is supposed to move moves freely.
3. I use a serial cable and Xmodem. You need a serial program on the Mac that is binhex aware, or you need a utility on the mac that can edit the resource fork to make programs executable. I was lucky and had ClarisWorks, which has a binhex aware comm utility on mine.
4. Quite possibly. This era of Mac is prone to capacitor problems which can cause loss of audio. I hope you can solder.
 
Thanks for answers, i have solved some problems, reinstalled OS to 6.08 with english language. So now i see that floppy drive works. Next step was installing TransMac to transfere programs from PC to macintosh, because i lost all software on it.
BTW do you know any good software and games site for old macintosh classic? Can not seem to find me some.
Problem with sound is not solved, looks to be a problem with the hardware, i will dedicate it later
 
Well, everything you're likely to find is on Macintosh Garden. Whether everything you *need* is there or not depends on what you need. But yes, MG is the best place to go. It's just not as comprehensive as it could be. They're still missing files from the MegaUpload disaster a couple years ago.
 
Thanks, i watched this site, but i have big proglem with install something. 8 of 10 programs or games i cant install. I am using STUFFIT expander to extract SIT files but mosty i get error message from stuffit.
 
Getting the logic board recapped restored the audio on my Mac Classic (which was barely audible) to full volume. Also the real-time clock was not advancing when the machine was on, and recapping fixed that, too.
 
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