WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.760 I'm very excited to show you this. 00:00:03.760 --> 00:00:08.640 It's the original Macintosh, the computer that paved the way for how we use computers 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:13.200 over the last 40 years. I can't believe I have one. 00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:17.640 Now the last time I took it out, it did all work, which is pretty impressive for something 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:21.560 this old. The question now is, does this family heirloom still work today? 00:00:21.560 --> 00:00:26.240 Well, there's only one way to find out. Okay, moment of truth. 00:00:26.240 --> 00:00:29.240 Okay, made the sound. 00:00:29.400 --> 00:00:34.600 Oh, it needs a disk. That's right, these didn't have hard drives, so the operating system, software, and all 00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:37.080 your files were stored on a floppy disk. 00:00:39.800 --> 00:00:46.200 It's broken. Oh, this is disappointing. I was hoping to show you how this works, but it's a little haggard. 00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:49.880 The disk drives need a fix, and kids have drawn all over the case. 00:00:49.880 --> 00:00:54.360 I hope that's it. 00:00:54.360 --> 00:00:58.120 I see a nightmare in front of me is what I see. What? 00:00:58.120 --> 00:01:03.800 Seriously? The one guiding me on this journey is David Murray, whom you might know as the 8-bit guy 00:01:03.800 --> 00:01:09.240 on this very website. If you're like me, you've seen him restore yellowed and tired old technology back to 00:01:09.240 --> 00:01:12.640 their original glory, which is exactly what I'm hoping to do. 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:17.800 Yeah, I'm not real fond of working on those. How many Macintoshes have you fixed yourself? 00:01:17.800 --> 00:01:21.200 Of that particular style? I don't know, four or five? 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:25.560 Not a whole lot. I kind of avoid them like a plague now, just because everyone that I've tried to work 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:32.760 on has ended up being a nightmare. Not exactly confidence-inspiring, but there is a reason why I reached out to David. 00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:36.400 How did you get into fixing these old computers and what do you love about it? 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:40.640 Well, I don't always love it. Sometimes it can be extraordinarily frustrating. 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:47.160 I do like collecting and playing on the old computers. It is very satisfying when you manage to fix one or restore one that was not previously 00:01:47.160 --> 00:01:55.680 working. I have my work cut out for me is what you're saying. I got a lot of my skills for repairing computers when I worked at a computer store for many, 00:01:55.720 --> 00:02:01.560 many years. And not only did I gain a lot of experience in actually repairing, but I also learned 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:06.120 how to clean them and things that I would originally thought were impossible to get 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:10.520 rid of like, you know, sticker residue and permanent marker and stuff like that. 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.560 I learned how to clean all that stuff off so that we could put this stuff back on the 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:17.440 shelf and it would look presentable again to the customer. 00:02:17.440 --> 00:02:22.360 You know, when my Mac broke, I was like, I know who to call, so I appreciate you helping 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:27.320 me out with this. I'm both a bit intimidated, but also inspired to do this. 00:02:27.320 --> 00:02:29.080 So it's exciting to see how this goes. 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:36.080 All right, here we go. I'm so nervous. 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:42.800 I have to work around a CRT screen, which apparently is magic and full of lots of volts. 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:46.400 And I have to somehow remove the disk drive. 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:50.640 So one of the things I'm probably most worried about is opening it up because I'm a bit of 00:02:50.640 --> 00:02:55.680 a delicate soul and I don't want to break anything. So what should I know about, you know, opening the computer up? 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:00.080 Okay, so the number one challenge on an old compact Mac like that is you're going to need 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:03.360 what we call the Mac Cracker. It's a Torx driver. 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:07.120 It's a number of T15, but it has to be really long. 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:10.680 What about like getting in the plastic and like splitting it apart? 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:14.000 Once you get the screws off, it won't be a problem. Oh my gosh, check this out. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:19.680 This is really cool. These are original Macs. They had everyone who worked on the project sign in the plastic casing. 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:23.920 Old technology like this is delightfully mechanical, but of course that means there 00:03:23.920 --> 00:03:27.360 are more parts and points where things can go wrong. 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:30.880 It also means I need to figure out how these old disk drives even work. 00:03:30.880 --> 00:03:35.760 So we got this logic board on the bottom. This is the motor for moving the head. 00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:40.720 This is the motor for the eject mechanism. Oh, well that went in. 00:03:40.720 --> 00:03:44.560 You think it was just like, it was just so dirty that the whole reason I can't get disks 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:48.200 in here is just because it just got grody and I just need to clean it? It's possible. 00:03:48.200 --> 00:03:55.280 Okay, so this one, that one's working actually. This one is not because if I push on this, oh, there we go. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:58.560 Okay. This one's really stiff. The other problem is the disk drives. 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:05.640 Almost every one of them is broken. There's one particular gear in there that over a time, just with age, it becomes brittle 00:04:05.640 --> 00:04:09.480 and breaks and so the disk drives don't work anymore. Yes. 00:04:09.480 --> 00:04:12.800 It turns out that mine drives don't even use those problematic gears. 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:16.640 They're the old 400K drives with a completely different eject mechanism. 00:04:16.640 --> 00:04:19.880 But we did order the gears anyway, just in case. 00:04:19.880 --> 00:04:26.000 I found three options on eBay from the sellers Retro Shopbox, Happy Gesture and Steven Lowles. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:30.320 And they sell for between $12 and $15 for a three or four pack. 00:04:30.320 --> 00:04:35.320 So which one works? It's hard to say because I actually don't need to use these, but I think the best looking 00:04:35.320 --> 00:04:39.360 one is from Steven Lowles, which are the white ones on eBay. 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:47.880 Everything needs to be re-graced. That's all there is. It's all just stiff and goopy, old, and that's just what happens. 00:04:47.880 --> 00:04:52.640 Let's screw this back together and see if I have made a difference and fixed my own 00:04:52.640 --> 00:04:58.960 drive. I'm not going to push it all the way in because then I need to get it out. 00:04:58.960 --> 00:05:04.560 I'd so tempt it to though. You have to. How else are you going to know if it works? 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:07.560 Great. Now it's stuck. You did it. 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:13.800 It works. I always have anxiety for like doing things like this because everything's new and I'm 00:05:13.800 --> 00:05:20.320 so afraid of doing something wrong, but there is, you know, a satisfaction to kind of figuring 00:05:20.320 --> 00:05:23.840 things out. You kind of feel like a genius. 00:05:23.840 --> 00:05:26.880 Well these aren't going in nicely. Why? 00:05:26.880 --> 00:05:33.480 Look, okay, I'm going to have to take it apart anyway. So I'm just going to put it in just lightly, lightly, tightly. 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:35.120 It's time to try the disc. 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:46.360 Okay, let's actually see if the disc drives work from like a writing and reading perspective 00:05:46.360 --> 00:05:50.000 and so that requires setting this thing up again. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:55.360 So all the discs I actually have for this Mac aren't available, so we have to make discs 00:05:55.360 --> 00:06:01.360 and so I bought a set of these floppies from eBay and you can't just buy any floppy from 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:10.800 the store. The old style DD style floppy, which I hope works, and then this is the floppy emu. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:15.480 So what it does is it emulates an external floppy drive like this into the Mac and it's 00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:21.200 one of the only ways you can get any data in and out of the Mac outside of using Mac 00:06:21.200 --> 00:06:27.960 formatted floppies. So hopefully we can reformat these from DOS floppies into Mac floppies and upload the 00:06:27.960 --> 00:06:34.360 software. Hopefully this just works. Now all I have to do is plug this in the back and this in the here. 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:37.560 I should probably read the manual first, shouldn't I? 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:42.360 It doesn't. Let's just turn it on and see what happens. Oh, that's cool. 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:45.360 It lit up. FEMU. B-WOW. 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:48.360 Binary. I haven't seen binary. I was a kid. 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:51.360 That's not true. I didn't see any binaries. A kid. 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:53.360 Look. It works. 00:06:54.360 --> 00:07:02.960 Okay, I'm going to try and open up a version of the Macintosh operating system. 00:07:02.960 --> 00:07:06.360 System 1.2, system 2, 1.1. 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:11.440 Okay, let's just open up system 1.1 since that's sort of like what the original was 00:07:11.440 --> 00:07:14.800 and see what happens when we put a disk in. We got image writer. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:18.280 We got font mover. We got a clipboard. We got fonts. 00:07:18.280 --> 00:07:24.200 Look at that. And what I want to do now is I want to see if I can format this disk in the Mac system 00:07:24.200 --> 00:07:27.640 and then maybe like put the software on. 00:07:27.640 --> 00:07:31.200 Look at, I mean that was in its plastic wrap. 00:07:31.200 --> 00:07:35.080 After how long? It's so new. It's in French. 00:07:35.080 --> 00:07:38.840 If I format this with the French operating system, is it going to format in French? 00:07:38.840 --> 00:07:42.120 Let's try it. 00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:45.960 It's working. I can hear it making disk noises. All right. 00:07:45.960 --> 00:07:49.200 It's copying. Little progress bars even back in the Mac days. 00:07:49.200 --> 00:07:53.840 So I guess when we were complaining about it on the iPad, we're being unfair. 00:07:53.840 --> 00:07:57.760 We're going to do one more disk. I want two disks because then I can see how the other drive works. 00:07:57.760 --> 00:08:02.280 Okay. So I'm going to now turn the computer off. 00:08:02.280 --> 00:08:05.360 We're going to unplug the flop email. We're going to plug this in. 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:15.320 This was causing you the most grief. Put this down here, put this in here. 00:08:15.320 --> 00:08:23.520 What? I can't read this disk anymore. Is it all the disks I made have forked? 00:08:23.520 --> 00:08:30.680 It doesn't like them. Oh yeah. I should admit with the disk drives, I have two disk drives and right now if I make a 00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:34.360 disk in one drive, it won't work in the other and vice versa. 00:08:34.360 --> 00:08:37.760 So I don't know what's going on there. It's a head alignment issue. 00:08:37.760 --> 00:08:41.400 If it, I've never seen that in a three and a half inch drive, although I can't imagine 00:08:41.400 --> 00:08:44.280 why you couldn't have that problem. 00:08:44.400 --> 00:08:52.760 Oh, that's not a good thing. And I don't have any proper Macintosh disks at the moment, so I can't verify which drive 00:08:52.760 --> 00:08:53.760 is out of alignment. 00:08:56.760 --> 00:09:00.880 So I have to clean the computer, which I actually think is going to be the most annoying part 00:09:00.880 --> 00:09:04.000 because it's tedious. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:10.320 And I'm not sure if I want to do a retro break, but as you can see, it has yellowed somewhat. 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:14.120 Actually quite a bit. The dust bunnies. 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:21.480 One of the things that I get most anxiety about when like fixing or cleaning things is that 00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:25.760 sometimes I feel like when you fix something, you make it worse because you're getting in 00:09:25.760 --> 00:09:30.200 there and messing about with stuff and you may have fixed one thing, but you jostled 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:33.240 something else. That's what I'm worried about. 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:36.240 And now I will clean. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:40.000 I think the biggest concern for you of getting all that pencil and stuff off of there, if 00:09:40.040 --> 00:09:44.400 you haven't tried wet baking soda yet, I would recommend giving that a try. 00:09:44.400 --> 00:09:49.920 Just sprinkle baking soda all over it and then spray it with like water and then just 00:09:49.920 --> 00:09:54.480 scrub it with either like a scrub brush or just a folded paper towel or something like 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:57.520 that and just really work, work it in there. 00:09:57.520 --> 00:10:00.640 I bet that will get that cleared up pretty good. 00:10:00.640 --> 00:10:06.600 Like all the dirt that gets ingrained into the grain of the plastic is out, which is 00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:13.360 actually really satisfying to see. But if you want to make the plastic lighter, you have to do what's retro-bright, which 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:20.360 is submerging it in a hydrogen peroxide solution out in the sun for multiple hours in the heat. 00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:26.160 So that's a different step. This is just everyday sort of like domestic dishes. 00:10:29.160 --> 00:10:32.200 What about like in the, in the great, the little like kind of louvers and the greats 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:36.480 and stuff like that? Yeah, just use like a, like a toothbrush or something like that to get in there real 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:40.480 good. And of course, be prepared. You're going to need to rinse it, rinse it off afterwards. 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:44.720 But I found a number of occasions where baking soda, like I thought something needed to be 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:48.840 retro-bright. And then after I did baking soda to it, I kind of looked at it and I'm like, oh, everywhere 00:10:48.840 --> 00:10:52.440 I've scrubbed it, it's much brighter now. 00:10:52.440 --> 00:10:57.800 I'm really pleased with how this turned out. The baking soda for the win. 00:10:57.800 --> 00:11:02.520 Also, I don't think I need to retro-bright the whole computer. 00:11:02.520 --> 00:11:07.080 Just the keyboard. Look, the keyboard's a little bit yellower than the Mac. 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:11.920 If you compare the inside plastics to the outside plastics, if they're the same color, 00:11:11.920 --> 00:11:17.600 chances are it probably does not need to be retro-brighted. It's usually when they yellow, it's only going to be on the outside. 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:23.040 If you can find a crate big enough to submerge the whole thing under liquid, then I would 00:11:23.040 --> 00:11:29.520 go that route. You're far less likely to wind up with streaks or marbling effect or anything like that. 00:11:29.520 --> 00:11:32.520 Hi, are you retro-bright expert? 00:11:32.520 --> 00:11:37.040 Yeah, don't. Why? So here's what happens when you retro-bright, okay? 00:11:37.040 --> 00:11:41.160 It will go back to the original color and then two, three, four years down the road, 00:11:41.160 --> 00:11:44.720 it will be twice as dark as that. Really? 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:48.160 Yeah. Also, you're better off by actually using a heated solution. 00:11:48.160 --> 00:11:54.040 But what if it's out in the sun? The water's already warm. Well, if it's out in the sun, then it's going to heat up the hydrogen peroxide. 00:11:54.040 --> 00:11:57.920 Yeah. That's what my plan was. But you're saying this is a bad idea. 00:11:57.920 --> 00:12:03.800 Retro-brighting in general, I'm not a big fan of. So the problem is it's not that bad, this yellowing. 00:12:03.800 --> 00:12:08.160 And so I only need to retro-bright, the only thing I need to retro-bright is this space 00:12:08.160 --> 00:12:11.400 bar at this top, and I guess this a little bit. 00:12:11.400 --> 00:12:15.840 Otherwise, it's fine. All right. But you're now making me scared. 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:19.720 Well, you're not going to destroy it. But this is my beloved computer. 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:22.720 Well, that's my cute exit. 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:39.600 So I got the computer done. 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:42.600 Look at it. It's beautiful. It looks very good. 00:12:42.600 --> 00:12:47.160 Congratulations. It really does. I wasn't expecting this transformation. 00:12:47.160 --> 00:12:51.640 For years, I've put off cleaning this old Mac mainly because of how tedious it all seemed. 00:12:51.640 --> 00:12:58.280 And it is tedious. But seeing it right here, right now, I can tell you that it's certainly worth it. 00:12:58.280 --> 00:13:01.480 I guess what would you say to people who might be in a similar situation, who might have 00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:07.000 an old computer and maybe don't know if it's worth anything or if it's worth fixing? 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:10.440 What should they do? Well, I guess a Google search would be one thing. 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:16.160 Obviously, I always recommend reaching out to various social media groups that are focused 00:13:16.160 --> 00:13:20.920 on that particular computer. It doesn't matter what kind it is, whether it's a Tandy or an Apple or a Commodore or 00:13:20.920 --> 00:13:25.040 whatever. You find a community of people like that and just ask. 00:13:25.040 --> 00:13:28.600 Did you have any sort of heirlooms that you've restored over the years? 00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:34.400 Unfortunately, not really because everything that I had back then was essentially lost 00:13:34.400 --> 00:13:40.840 to time. And I've reacquired similar machines, but they're not the originals that I had. 00:13:40.840 --> 00:13:44.160 Do you wish you still had the originals or was it like it was perfectly fine just getting 00:13:44.160 --> 00:13:52.520 the, you know, taking advantage of it? Well, yeah. I recommend who I knew back at that time, but he still has his original Commodore 64. 00:13:52.520 --> 00:13:56.880 And I'm kind of jealous about that for a couple of reasons, one just from the, like 00:13:56.880 --> 00:14:05.160 you say, the heirloom aspect of it. But the other thing is he still has all of the disks with programs that he wrote or programs 00:14:05.160 --> 00:14:08.360 that he typed in for magazines and things like that. 00:14:08.360 --> 00:14:14.200 And I don't have any of that. So I had written all these programs back in the 80s and they're all lost. 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:19.200 And so, yeah, I would love to be able to look through these old disks and look at, you 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:24.200 know, programs I wrote when I was six, seven, eight years old, I don't have any of that. 00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:28.560 So that's, that's what I really wish I had more than the actual computers themselves. 00:14:28.560 --> 00:14:31.560 The content. Yeah. No, totally. 00:14:31.560 --> 00:14:34.680 It's so hard to know like what you're going to want to keep when you're cleaning out, right? 00:14:34.680 --> 00:14:38.040 So I'm really pleased with how this turned out. 00:14:38.040 --> 00:14:41.360 It looks and feels far better than the day I got it. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:45.600 A small old computer like this is perfect for putting on display, just like you would 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:50.720 with any other antique, only this is better because you can turn it on, use it, and wow 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:54.720 your friends. Thank you for all your help. I really appreciate it. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:57.960 Thanks for restoring this Mac Address back to its original glory. 00:14:57.960 --> 00:15:02.240 If you're big on decorating your home with antique computers, give this video a like. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:05.360 And if you only care about new computers, well then I guess you can subscribe. 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:10.240 Now I'm curious who of you has an old relic like this that needs some TLC? 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:13.960 Comment below what it is, what needs to be done, or if you've actually fixed it, how 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:14.460 it went.