Tincanalley
Experienced Member
I finally got around to restoring my M4. I had planned on doing it since '97, but it just kept working and working, so I figured it wasn't a priority. That was until yesterday. It started making some horrible drive noises in both drives. They have been noisy for a bit, but not this bad. So I decided to clean up the drives, but couldn't stop there once I saw the inside. I had to completely disassemble, clean, inspect and put it back together. I all went well, but while inside I noticed one of the power supply caps had gunk on the top, but it wasn't bulging and the supply worked. I figured it must be leaking around the side and pushing up to the top. I have ordered all new caps and will rebuild the board next week. Until then, it is working fine and the drives are so quiet now it doesn't seem normal. Hardly any noise from the stepper motors or spindle.
I'm going to attach a few pics of before and after. The pain part was cleaning the wire bundles. I wasn't about to cut all the ties, so it took longer. Also, I'm attaching a pic of a jumper taped to the bottom of the unit. Seems it has been there all this time, but why? I find no jumpers in the unit, so why tape one down as a spare? Lastly, this unit has parts from '83, '84 and '85. The lid and base are months apart and the drives are years earlier.
Oh, lastly, I know the space between the motherboard mounting cage and the back of the CRT's neck board were close, but this one has a piece of tape on the back of the board and then a piece of duct tape
over that one. Very odd. Maybe the quality control person noticed it was too close, so they settled on this?
I'm going to attach a few pics of before and after. The pain part was cleaning the wire bundles. I wasn't about to cut all the ties, so it took longer. Also, I'm attaching a pic of a jumper taped to the bottom of the unit. Seems it has been there all this time, but why? I find no jumpers in the unit, so why tape one down as a spare? Lastly, this unit has parts from '83, '84 and '85. The lid and base are months apart and the drives are years earlier.
Oh, lastly, I know the space between the motherboard mounting cage and the back of the CRT's neck board were close, but this one has a piece of tape on the back of the board and then a piece of duct tape
over that one. Very odd. Maybe the quality control person noticed it was too close, so they settled on this?
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