Deception

Cracking Open the Mac Classic is deceptively simple. Just loosen the four screws circled.

However, the screws have Torx heads.

Deep dark recesses

And to make matters worse, the two Torx screws on top, under the handle, are down deep, tapered holes. It to took two days and four trips to various stores to find the right screwdriver.

Apple really didn’t want you to open the Mac Classic up yourself.

The correct tool

After much searching and a small fortune in gasoline, I was able to find the right Torx head screwdriver with the proper length at Sears. In retrospect I should have gone to Sears first — it is the tool place.

First look at the inside

The Apple Mac Classic is laid out efficiently. Of course, three are limitations when much of your computer is really a black and white television.

Cardboard protection

I found it odd that the power systems for the CRT were for the most part unshielded. That is, unless you want to count the cardboard warning system.

Jumpers

The warning is to the point. Jumpers are used to indicate voltage input — interesting.

Goop!

In the Dinosaur Sighting Gallery, I wondered about the yellow sticky stuff leaking out the back. You can see a pool of it on the case. The unit must have been sitting on its backside for a long time.

The CRT

Approaching from the back we can get a good look at the Cathode Ray Tube.

Guns a blazing

Even though the Apple Macintosh Classic display was black and white, it is still basically a television attached to a computer.

Careful

The power management systems for any CRT are not to be taken lightly.

Upside down

The hard drive sits in the Mac Classic upside down. Notice the standard ribbon cable and Molex power connector.

On board plus two

Looks like we have one row of RAM and two expansion slots.

Do the math

The math says that each set of RAM chips is one megabyte — so we are looking at 3MB of RAM. There should be another 1MB of RAM on the motherboard.

Yuck

Our mystery goop looks to have flowed down the SCSI cable toward our hard drive.

Nasty

The substance is sticky, and felt slightly acidic when I accidentally touched it.

What makes it an Apple

The highlighted chip was Apple’s proprietary ROM chip. The chip that makes an Apple Computer an Apple Computer.

VLSI

The highlighted chips are from VLSI and we have seen them in previous cracking opens. This are basic logic chips, handling Input/Output, video, etc.

A tour of the motherboard

Here is a close up shot of the bottom half of the motherboard. Notice the battery — no watch battery here.

More motherboard

The upper half of the motherboard.

Perhaps someone could help us out — what function did each of the VLSI chips perform in our Mac?

Motorola 68000

Where the brains are.

More RAM

Looks like we found our other 1MB of RAM. That makes 4MB.

Unexpected

Something unexpected can be seen in this image. I can understand VSLI, Motorola, and NCR, but AMD? I didn’t realize they’d been around that long.

Adaptec

Adaptec — now that is a familiar name.

Cirrus Logic

Cirrus Logic is another name you don’t see much anymore.

Amazingly complicated

This Conner hard drive looks to be very complex with dozens of chips and lots of connections.

Move in

A closer look at the numerous chips found on our hard drive.

Even more

Recognize these chips? It took a lot of work to be on the cutting edge.

40MB

Here is the other side of the the Conner 40MB SCSI hard drive.

Conner

A close up of the Conner sticker reveals the drive model is CP 3040A.

Dissipate heat

The Apple Macintosh Classic does have a fan and ventilation system to dissipate heat. This makes since because CRTs do get rather warm during operation.

High voltage

A CRT display requires more power than you might think. We are looking at capacitors with ratings of 250 and 220 Volts. Discharging either one of those would hurt.

More capacitors

Underneath the previous capacitors we find a few more.

Heatsink

The Mac Classic uses a heat sink to dissipate some of the heat generated but the CRT power system.

Power management

Even flow of power is also a major part of the system.

All cracked open

Here is a shot of the Apple Macintosh Classic all disassembled.

A fine machine

You can see how the Mac Classic benefited from previous versions of the Mac. The Classic is built to last. However, it is not built to be opened by the user. In the early 1990s, if your Mac had a problem you were supposed to seek professional help.