We've all run into some trouble with our vintage Macs, emulators or Mac software. Sometimes, it just doesn't work and you need help. Everyone has been there. The purpose of this article is to provide some guidance on where to find help and how to approach appraoch online users through the built-in chat as a potential support candidate.

The Macintosh Repository is a non-profit site, devoted to storing digital artifacts specificly for and about the Macintosh community. The mission is to provide universal access to the repository for researchers, historians, scholars and the like. That being said, the volunteer staff and community members at large do make an effort to provide suport to hardware and software issues on a case by case and best-effort basis. Due to the complexity and wide ranging variables involved in any one particular issue it might be best to consider some of the links at the end of the article when some of the following has been considered.

 

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Can the issue be potentially resolved in 15 minutes or less?
Please be considerate of other people's time. If you are engaged in working out a solution to a problem via chat, occassionally and politely ask if the person helping you is willing to continue.

Is it a hardware or software issue?
The Mac was a well built machine and many of them continue to operate today in the hands of collectors and ethusiasts alike but these machines are only getting older as time goes by.

Hard Disk Drive
If your old Mac is still operating with the original hard drive please ensure it is not the root cause of a problem. As hard drives age they will miswrite data leaving the impression of a software issue when it is actually a hardware issue. You will find utilities here to rule out hard drive issues.

Logic Boards
A fully functional logic board is critically important for proper operation.

PRAM batteries may be exhausted or may have begun to leak, causing unexpected, unwanted or intermittent issues that early on appear to be software issues. The solution is to replace the logic board's battery.

Capacitors can be found on logic boards and power supplies. By now, these discreet parts soldered onto the logic board may be showing their age resulting in potential power issues, software crashes and other erratic anomolies that might be generally classified as an unexpected result. Although capacitor related problems might not be easily identifiable by the average user or the newcomer to vintage computing, recapping a computer's logic board and power supply might be a worthwhile investment, especailly if you love your old Mac.

On software
The Macintosh Repository staff does review all items in the archive, ensuring the downloads work, the related files mount, install and finally operate as originally intended. If you believe there is a mistake for a particular archived item, please use the comments section for the affected archive and a staff member, a community member or otherwise will provide a response or review the item.

Beyond leaving a comment, it is important to understand that Mac OS 9, the ninth and final major release of Apple's classic Mac OS operating system was susceptibility to conflicts among extensions that provide additional functionality such as networking or support for a particular device. Considering this, a good strategy is to minimize the software configuration by starting up with a minimal set of extensions. Also noteworthy, is to read any "read me" file that accompanies an archive as the original author may have highlighted known issues.

On a related note, much like minimizing the software configuration, minimizing your hardware configuration is also a key strategy in issue isolation. Shutdown, disconnect any unnecessary external/internal non-Apple hardware, reboot and test. Has the issue disappeared? If so it was likely one of those now disconnected devices. If the issue persists, it could still be software. Turn off some extensions and restart.

 

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Summary
Please share your knowledge with others, help and ask for help when necessary, be a participant in the chatroom. Use some of the guidance above to preflight any problem you can't solve.

 

Links
These are provided as futher help and are encouraged if an issue appears complex. Every chat particpant has a different set of skills and knowledge base and although they are helping you, if things are going in circles it might be best to refer to some credible sources.

LowEnd Mac (http connection), with a focus on Macintosh hardware, software still gets a fair shake

EveryMac provides comprehensive Mac specs, in-depth answers to hundreds of Mac questions, detailed Mac identification info, and more

SystemFolder a weblog run by Ricarrdo Mori, a collector whose aim is to put old machines to real world use. From time to time he posts fresh material. A great space for all things related to vintage Mac hardware and software.

AppleFritter Clones, hacks, forums, IRC and more

68kMLA An excellent resource, very friendly people who know their mac hardware. If you suspect hardware issues and even software issues, this is a wonderful destination.

MacCaps US based logic board repair service. Check it out! 

And a few more …

• Useful links
  macos9lives.com - Forums
  thinkclassic.org - Forums
  Mac OS 9 - it's still alive! - Facebook group