The care and feeding of your retro hardware

If you are the owner of a retro computer your machine will thank you for reading this.

Well, as we al know, the bane of retro computing is precisely that the computers are, well, old. And we all know that when equipment gets old it gets broken. It's a sad fact, but it happens. If you are a neophyte to the world of retro computing you need to know how to take care of these machines in order to keep them running. Don't worry, it's not really hard to do the normal maintenance chores these machines require. Also, these tips should work well for other somewhat newer computers which might be considered obsolete but which you might want to take care of and get them running again.

1. Do your homework: If you don't know how to use your machine, or you haven't used it in a long time and you don't remember then it's time to find the manuals. If you have them still, that is. If you don't you can usually find PDF files of all the original documentation online in various places. Also, while you're at it, you should check and see if there are other people who use machines like yours so that if you ever need help you can get some. For my Tandy I visit the Club 100 website, which is filled with programs, info, and helpful people.

2. Look under the hood (carefully): Just like a used car, looking inside will reveal if anything obviously need attention. However if you don't feel comfortable doing this then find a friend who knows what he's doing. In either case, make sure you have yourself grounded before touching the insides of the computer, because static electricity kills computers. Even a static shock you can't see or feel can carry enough charge to kill your machine.

While you have the hood open look for the following obvious things that should be looked into:

• loose parts or screws
• anything obviously broken
• corrosion
• black "scorch" marks around chips or heat sinks
• missing pieces
  

If anything is seriously broken you'll need to find some parts, so that's why you found some friends online to help you right? Also, before you close it back up make sure and dust it out. Yes, dust seems harmless enough but it can clog drive and fans and clings to chips and PCBs and makes them overheat. My first "dead" computer was actually just too dusty to run without overheating. I cleaned out he dust and it magically came back to life!

3. Clean the Computer: This should again be fairly obvious, clean the computer on the outside too. A clean computer is much nicer and more fun to use than a grimy one, and you have less chance of something failing because dirt got inside. Key places to clean are around switches, the keyboard, disk drives (read up before attempting so you don't break anything) and if your computer has batteries, in the battery compartment. (to remove any corrosion) If your computer has a cartridge slot you should clean that out too. I have a special method for that which I will detail in a later post. (it's also useful for old video game systems)

4. Check the components: This one is very important. Make sure that nothing is broken or about to fail. Key culprits are power supplies, worn disk drives, and boards with older electrolytic capacitors. CRT's also sometimes need a tune-up to replace bad capacitors. You can find parts for most older machines without too much trouble, but "cap kits" for CRT's can be hard to find. I would suggest looking in places where arcade machines are repaired, as you can usually find someone who knows what he is doing and can look at your monitor and get you the right kind of replacement capacitors. When looking for parts, eBay is your friend. Alot of seller "gut" old hardware and just sell the parts, which makes your life easy. Finally, if you really care about having your computer in good shape and you can't find parts, don't be afraid to get another one to gut for parts. Usually you can find one in somewhat rougher shape without any accessories cheaply enough to warrant using it for spares.

5. Get the right software: This can make all the difference with retro computing. If you have good software a computer can be very enjoyable. The internet is full of new software for old computers. If you don't believe me just look for yourself. Games are usually very popular choices for old computers. Many old machines can be modified to do some rudimentary online tasks, and usually people develop ways to transfer data between the old computer and new ones. The worst thing you can do to your old computer is never use it once you've fixed it up because it doesn't do anything useful or fun.

Well, you read all the way through my long-winded article! Good for you! Now get off your rear and have some fun with your old computer!