I'm very excited to show you this.
It's the original Macintosh, the computer that paved the way for how we use computers
over the last 40 years. I can't believe I have one.
Now the last time I took it out, it did all work, which is pretty impressive for something
this old. The question now is, does this family heirloom still work today?
Well, there's only one way to find out. Okay, moment of truth.
Okay, made the sound.
Oh, it needs a disk. That's right, these didn't have hard drives, so the operating system, software, and all
your files were stored on a floppy disk.
It's broken. Oh, this is disappointing. I was hoping to show you how this works, but it's a little haggard.
The disk drives need a fix, and kids have drawn all over the case.
I hope that's it.
I see a nightmare in front of me is what I see. What?
Seriously? The one guiding me on this journey is David Murray, whom you might know as the 8-bit guy
on this very website. If you're like me, you've seen him restore yellowed and tired old technology back to
their original glory, which is exactly what I'm hoping to do.
Yeah, I'm not real fond of working on those. How many Macintoshes have you fixed yourself?
Of that particular style? I don't know, four or five?
Not a whole lot. I kind of avoid them like a plague now, just because everyone that I've tried to work
on has ended up being a nightmare. Not exactly confidence-inspiring, but there is a reason why I reached out to David.
How did you get into fixing these old computers and what do you love about it?
Well, I don't always love it. Sometimes it can be extraordinarily frustrating.
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
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,
many years. And not only did I gain a lot of experience in actually repairing, but I also learned
how to clean them and things that I would originally thought were impossible to get
rid of like, you know, sticker residue and permanent marker and stuff like that.
I learned how to clean all that stuff off so that we could put this stuff back on the
shelf and it would look presentable again to the customer.
You know, when my Mac broke, I was like, I know who to call, so I appreciate you helping
me out with this. I'm both a bit intimidated, but also inspired to do this.
So it's exciting to see how this goes.
All right, here we go. I'm so nervous.
I have to work around a CRT screen, which apparently is magic and full of lots of volts.
And I have to somehow remove the disk drive.
So one of the things I'm probably most worried about is opening it up because I'm a bit of
a delicate soul and I don't want to break anything. So what should I know about, you know, opening the computer up?
Okay, so the number one challenge on an old compact Mac like that is you're going to need
what we call the Mac Cracker. It's a Torx driver.
It's a number of T15, but it has to be really long.
What about like getting in the plastic and like splitting it apart?
Once you get the screws off, it won't be a problem. Oh my gosh, check this out.
This is really cool. These are original Macs. They had everyone who worked on the project sign in the plastic casing.
Old technology like this is delightfully mechanical, but of course that means there
are more parts and points where things can go wrong.
It also means I need to figure out how these old disk drives even work.
So we got this logic board on the bottom. This is the motor for moving the head.
This is the motor for the eject mechanism. Oh, well that went in.
You think it was just like, it was just so dirty that the whole reason I can't get disks
in here is just because it just got grody and I just need to clean it? It's possible.
Okay, so this one, that one's working actually. This one is not because if I push on this, oh, there we go.
Okay. This one's really stiff. The other problem is the disk drives.
Almost every one of them is broken. There's one particular gear in there that over a time, just with age, it becomes brittle
and breaks and so the disk drives don't work anymore. Yes.
It turns out that mine drives don't even use those problematic gears.
They're the old 400K drives with a completely different eject mechanism.
But we did order the gears anyway, just in case.
I found three options on eBay from the sellers Retro Shopbox, Happy Gesture and Steven Lowles.
And they sell for between $12 and $15 for a three or four pack.
So which one works? It's hard to say because I actually don't need to use these, but I think the best looking
one is from Steven Lowles, which are the white ones on eBay.
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.
Let's screw this back together and see if I have made a difference and fixed my own
drive. I'm not going to push it all the way in because then I need to get it out.
I'd so tempt it to though. You have to. How else are you going to know if it works?
Great. Now it's stuck. You did it.
It works. I always have anxiety for like doing things like this because everything's new and I'm
so afraid of doing something wrong, but there is, you know, a satisfaction to kind of figuring
things out. You kind of feel like a genius.
Well these aren't going in nicely. Why?
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.
It's time to try the disc.
Okay, let's actually see if the disc drives work from like a writing and reading perspective
and so that requires setting this thing up again.
So all the discs I actually have for this Mac aren't available, so we have to make discs
and so I bought a set of these floppies from eBay and you can't just buy any floppy from
the store. The old style DD style floppy, which I hope works, and then this is the floppy emu.
So what it does is it emulates an external floppy drive like this into the Mac and it's
one of the only ways you can get any data in and out of the Mac outside of using Mac
formatted floppies. So hopefully we can reformat these from DOS floppies into Mac floppies and upload the
software. Hopefully this just works. Now all I have to do is plug this in the back and this in the here.
I should probably read the manual first, shouldn't I?
It doesn't. Let's just turn it on and see what happens. Oh, that's cool.
It lit up. FEMU. B-WOW.
Binary. I haven't seen binary. I was a kid.
That's not true. I didn't see any binaries. A kid.
Look. It works.
Okay, I'm going to try and open up a version of the Macintosh operating system.
System 1.2, system 2, 1.1.
Okay, let's just open up system 1.1 since that's sort of like what the original was
and see what happens when we put a disk in. We got image writer.
We got font mover. We got a clipboard. We got fonts.
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
and then maybe like put the software on.
Look at, I mean that was in its plastic wrap.
After how long? It's so new. It's in French.
If I format this with the French operating system, is it going to format in French?
Let's try it.
It's working. I can hear it making disk noises. All right.
It's copying. Little progress bars even back in the Mac days.
So I guess when we were complaining about it on the iPad, we're being unfair.
We're going to do one more disk. I want two disks because then I can see how the other drive works.
Okay. So I'm going to now turn the computer off.
We're going to unplug the flop email. We're going to plug this in.
This was causing you the most grief. Put this down here, put this in here.
What? I can't read this disk anymore. Is it all the disks I made have forked?
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
disk in one drive, it won't work in the other and vice versa.
So I don't know what's going on there. It's a head alignment issue.
If it, I've never seen that in a three and a half inch drive, although I can't imagine
why you couldn't have that problem.
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
is out of alignment.
So I have to clean the computer, which I actually think is going to be the most annoying part
because it's tedious.
And I'm not sure if I want to do a retro break, but as you can see, it has yellowed somewhat.
Actually quite a bit. The dust bunnies.
One of the things that I get most anxiety about when like fixing or cleaning things is that
sometimes I feel like when you fix something, you make it worse because you're getting in
there and messing about with stuff and you may have fixed one thing, but you jostled
something else. That's what I'm worried about.
And now I will clean.
I think the biggest concern for you of getting all that pencil and stuff off of there, if
you haven't tried wet baking soda yet, I would recommend giving that a try.
Just sprinkle baking soda all over it and then spray it with like water and then just
scrub it with either like a scrub brush or just a folded paper towel or something like
that and just really work, work it in there.
I bet that will get that cleared up pretty good.
Like all the dirt that gets ingrained into the grain of the plastic is out, which is
actually really satisfying to see. But if you want to make the plastic lighter, you have to do what's retro-bright, which
is submerging it in a hydrogen peroxide solution out in the sun for multiple hours in the heat.
So that's a different step. This is just everyday sort of like domestic dishes.
What about like in the, in the great, the little like kind of louvers and the greats
and stuff like that? Yeah, just use like a, like a toothbrush or something like that to get in there real
good. And of course, be prepared. You're going to need to rinse it, rinse it off afterwards.
But I found a number of occasions where baking soda, like I thought something needed to be
retro-bright. And then after I did baking soda to it, I kind of looked at it and I'm like, oh, everywhere
I've scrubbed it, it's much brighter now.
I'm really pleased with how this turned out. The baking soda for the win.
Also, I don't think I need to retro-bright the whole computer.
Just the keyboard. Look, the keyboard's a little bit yellower than the Mac.
If you compare the inside plastics to the outside plastics, if they're the same color,
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.
If you can find a crate big enough to submerge the whole thing under liquid, then I would
go that route. You're far less likely to wind up with streaks or marbling effect or anything like that.
Hi, are you retro-bright expert?
Yeah, don't. Why? So here's what happens when you retro-bright, okay?
It will go back to the original color and then two, three, four years down the road,
it will be twice as dark as that. Really?
Yeah. Also, you're better off by actually using a heated solution.
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.
Yeah. That's what my plan was. But you're saying this is a bad idea.
Retro-brighting in general, I'm not a big fan of. So the problem is it's not that bad, this yellowing.
And so I only need to retro-bright, the only thing I need to retro-bright is this space
bar at this top, and I guess this a little bit.
Otherwise, it's fine. All right. But you're now making me scared.
Well, you're not going to destroy it. But this is my beloved computer.
Well, that's my cute exit.
So I got the computer done.
Look at it. It's beautiful. It looks very good.
Congratulations. It really does. I wasn't expecting this transformation.
For years, I've put off cleaning this old Mac mainly because of how tedious it all seemed.
And it is tedious. But seeing it right here, right now, I can tell you that it's certainly worth it.
I guess what would you say to people who might be in a similar situation, who might have
an old computer and maybe don't know if it's worth anything or if it's worth fixing?
What should they do? Well, I guess a Google search would be one thing.
Obviously, I always recommend reaching out to various social media groups that are focused
on that particular computer. It doesn't matter what kind it is, whether it's a Tandy or an Apple or a Commodore or
whatever. You find a community of people like that and just ask.
Did you have any sort of heirlooms that you've restored over the years?
Unfortunately, not really because everything that I had back then was essentially lost
to time. And I've reacquired similar machines, but they're not the originals that I had.
Do you wish you still had the originals or was it like it was perfectly fine just getting
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.
And I'm kind of jealous about that for a couple of reasons, one just from the, like
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
that he typed in for magazines and things like that.
And I don't have any of that. So I had written all these programs back in the 80s and they're all lost.
And so, yeah, I would love to be able to look through these old disks and look at, you
know, programs I wrote when I was six, seven, eight years old, I don't have any of that.
So that's, that's what I really wish I had more than the actual computers themselves.
The content. Yeah. No, totally.
It's so hard to know like what you're going to want to keep when you're cleaning out, right?
So I'm really pleased with how this turned out.
It looks and feels far better than the day I got it.
A small old computer like this is perfect for putting on display, just like you would
with any other antique, only this is better because you can turn it on, use it, and wow
your friends. Thank you for all your help. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for restoring this Mac Address back to its original glory.
If you're big on decorating your home with antique computers, give this video a like.
And if you only care about new computers, well then I guess you can subscribe.
Now I'm curious who of you has an old relic like this that needs some TLC?
Comment below what it is, what needs to be done, or if you've actually fixed it, how
it went.