Mac Classic

[DD4]

The hard drive is unplugged (booting from the floppy) and all its been doing for the last 6 years is display the time.

Can my clock's fan be unplugged safely? Its not loud, but the white noise ruins the silence when I'm trying to read a book.

 

[DD4]

No knowledge?

 

[firewood]

Put a thermometer on the topmost vent and measure the temperature at the hottest spot. If you unplug the fan and the max temperature goes up to or over 40C, I would plug the fan back in. Make sure to never block the air vents afterwards. Note this higher operating temperature may cause your Mac Classic to die sooner, so do so at your own risk.

 

[milatchi]

If this is a straight Mac Classic try booting from the ROM and see if you get the same results: <Command+Option+X+O> when powering on.

 

[dmr727]

I dunno - the Classic doesn't have vents at the top, right? I know it's pretty easy to overheat a Plus by blocking the top vents, so I'd imagine you might run into trouble with a Classic if you yank the fan.

Then again, a Classic isn't super collectible, so if you give it a try and bolo the machine, you could always just get another one. 🙂

 

[David Schmidt]

No knowledge?

Knowledge 1: Steve didn't like fans. Knowledge 2: Steve was generally wrong on that point.

But you've been given some good advice... give it a try. You've only got the Mac Classic to lose!

 

[alphshuffel]

Switch off the OS while reading the book and if it can not be done then simply clean the fan and blow inside the system. Every thing will be fine.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

That is one power-hungry clock!

Anyway, as others have said, use the Cmd-Opt-X-O to boot the ROM disk if you prefer (or you can set up a system to boot from floppy that loads a RAM drive, then run from the RAM drive,) to minimize even the floppy use.

If all that is going on is minimal clock processing and the CRT, you can probably get away with no fan. Maybe find a newer/quieter fan to put in instead if you're really worried.