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Released by Apple on January 16, 1986, the Macintosh Plus is an upgrade to the original Macintosh and the Macintosh 512K.

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Rifa capacitor replacement on macintosh

Hey dudes, my rifa capacitors on my 1986 macintosh plus finally went up in smoke. I would like to know if there are any rifa cap replacments online. Playing the Oregon Trail on my Mac was one of my favorite things to do and I would love to start playing again. If you guys have any recommendations, I would be super grateful. Also, can I still use my Macintosh with blown rifa capacitors? Stupid question but just wanted to know!

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Are you talking about the electrolytic caps on the power supply?

How about posting some pics so we get a better idea what happened and the location of the damage part/s

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Hi @DanJ. I sadly do not have any photos of the capacitors at the moment, but I found this image online which shows where the capacitors are. I have updated the post to include where the capacitors are.

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@powerpcuser - Sorry guy, if I remember correctly those are high wattage resistors. The Blue cylinders are the electrolytic capacitors.

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@powerpcuser it's old enough to deserve a recap ;-) For a total recap use the capacitor specifications from here The only thing I would suggest is that you do not replace them with 85°C but go with the 105° C

If that does not work for you, post your board number and some pictures so we can assist you with a better listing of the caps. Adding images to an existing question

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Hi @oldturkey03. I agree it is time to recap the mac! For the images of the capacitors, I do not have any photos on hand at the moment but I found a image online that shows where the rifa capacitors are. I have updated the post to show the image, hope this helped!

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@powerpcuser - other than dealing with the Capacitor Plague electrolytic caps tend to hold up quite well! As an example I built in high school (1970) an electric/acoustic guitar amp/speaker which still works!

So I wouldn't to quick to just redo them all!

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@powerpcuser you can always check those capacitors with an ESR meter and see what that shows. You will find that the capacitors will continue to fail as you increase the use of your computer. I prefer to recap any vintage board instead of waiting for the components to fail one at a time. A good cleaning and recapping the board should keep it going for the next 30 years :)

Check Mouser. com or Digikey.com for replacements. They are a bit expensive on shipping but have excellent quality. Of course there are many Other great companies that offer those parts. Mouser and Digikey are just the suppliers I use

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Hi @DanJ and @oldturkey03, thank you so much for helping with my macintosh. All the websites and tips are a great help for me and my retro computing needs! Thanks for the help!

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power pc user will be eternally grateful.
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