Macintosh Colour Classic

Santa Ifigênia street is the electronics paradise of São Paulo. The Street is full of electronic shops on both sides and it runs for about 1500 meters, perhaps. It is located in the old side of the town, close enough to the City Center. The street itself is not as bad as the blocks surrounding it, where there is all sorts of garbage, prostitution, violence, poverty, etc...

Nonetheless it is a good place to find old stuff for your Macintosh collection. I've been going to Santa Ifigência since I was a little kid with my father, being a Radio Ham as he is. There I found many good things, including my Digital MicroVax 3300, many Macintoshes, Sun workstations, Cisco gear and much more.

This time I was looking for precision tools (small screw drivers to open my Newton's case), contact cleaners, a SCSI HD 50-pin and of course any other old equipment that might appear.

The truth is that the place has changed a lot. Hundreds of small stands selling Computers, motherboards, laptops, media, cell phones. I guess technology has really become present in everyday life even for those that are not as wealthy as those who used to buy technology in the past. Everyone seem to be able to afford a cell phone, even in Brazil where poverty abounds. So, there are hundreds, maybe thousands in the streets buying and buying.

I got a SCSI HD 50-pin, I took a long while to find one, 1.2 GB that  I installed on CC2. It is working fine.

I got the tools I needed and used them to open my Newton's case. It had batteries and it also has the power adapter but it wouldn't turn on. It stopped. Just stopped. I tried all I could, without opening the case, to bring it back, but nothing worked.

I followed the instructions I found on http://www.pda-soft.de/2x00_disassemble.html Very helpful indeed. Thanks a lot  PDA SOFT.

It was a little challenging to open the case, but I managed it. Nothing appeared wrong inside and when I inserted the batteries and turned the switch the Newton came back to live!

I followed the steps to close the case with no surprises. I tested the power adapter and it also worked.

I installed Newton Connection Utilities on CC2 and made a backup of the Newton.

I'm happy that my Newton is working again. I was lucky to find that Newton still in the original wrapped box! I got in 2000 in an Internet auction, New, in box! What a finding!

Long live the Newton PDA.