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Mac Daniel's Advice

Old Mac Users Not Nuts

Manuel Mejia Jr - 2001.03.30

As the LEM Help Desk member and Mac Daniel writer that spends his days answering questions about the compact Macs and Mac II series, I am compelled to respond to the "you guys are nuts" comment reported in this week's Mac UK column.

For several months now, I have been pondering whether there are enough Mac Pluses, SEs, Mac IIcxes,* and other early Macs in operation to justify my existence on LEM.

The answer seems to be yes. Although the early Macs seem to have been largely retired from service in the United States, I am impressed by the number of advice requests that I get from European Mac users. They make up most of the compact Mac information requests that I get through the LEM Help Desk. There are also a few nonprofit organizations here in the US that still use Mac Pluses. This is a spooky thought, given the fact that some of these machines were built in 1986 - they are older than some computer users.

Personally, the compact Macs, while near and dear to the hearts of many, are difficult to service. The machines are mostly at the end of their life spans. The same applies to the spare parts that one would use for them. Opening them up is not easy, and one has to be careful about the stored charge that is in the CRT. The energy, when release into the human body, can be lethal.

I recently took delivery of an SE with 1.4 MB floppy. It ran long enough for me to download the software before the power supply failed. I wanted this SE because it has a functioning keyboard and mouse. I needed those for another Mac LC that I have, and the price for the SE and accessories was low. Since I got what I wanted from this SE unit, I will turn it over to a friend who wants to build a Macquarium using the deceased Mac's shell.

While I have made a decision about ending the computing life of an SE that I own, this does not mean that others need to do the same. As long as these little Macs work and have operators who are handy with a Torx 15 screwdriver, they should be kept in operation. There still seem to be people in the world that have use for these machines and also lack the US$1,000 to get a modern replacement.

These users are not nuts.

* Editor's note. When I was with ComputerLand 12 years ago, I sold a Mac IIcx 2/40 with System 6.0.3 and a Radius portrait display & video card to a gentleman who worked for a local publishing house. He used this computer at home until just a few months ago, when the Quantum ProDrive 40 finally died. I'm in the process of upgrading him to a Quadra 700 20/80 and System 7.1. His old monitor is fine and the video card works with the newer computer and OS. If all his System 6 era applications work, he'll see a huge improvement - if not, we'll put the new hard drive in his old IIcx or maybe upgrade him to a IIci. The interesting thing is, this gentleman also owns a Power Mac 6100 DOS Compatible but prefers the old b&w portrait machine for a lot of his work. Dan

Manuel Mejia Jr is familiar with Mac IIs, LCs, and older PowerBooks. He uses his Mac LC, PowerBook 145B, and PB 100 with System 7.1 on a regular basis and recently added a Mac Plus running System 6 to his collection. He's quite familiar with both System 6 and System 7. He also owns the Pina books on repairing compact Macs from 128k through the SE.

You can read more about Manuel's computers in Manuel Mejia Jr's Four Old Macs.

Not sure if you should upgrade your old Mac or replace it? Check the Mac Daniel index to see if we've already addressed your problem.

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