A Quick and Fool Proof Way to Proportion Your Compact Mac's Screen

By Hardsdisk

7/11/03

If you have a Torx screwdriver to get into the case, a floppy disk and a Nylon video adjustment tool, you have everything you need.

This procedure requires that you open your compact Mac and make an adjustment to the analog board. Your Mac 128K through Plus, stores high voltage even when it has been turned off for several hours and it will be on while you do this. The bleeder type flyback transformer in your SE won't provide any safety either, while the power is on. By following this procedure you accept that you are doing so at your own risk and agree to hold me, the host of this page and everyone else in the universe, harmless for any damages, injuries or death it may cause. Stay away from the inside of your Mac while you make this adjustment. It is also recommended that you do a complete check of your Mac's adjustments while you have it open. It is beyond the scope of these instructions to help with this. A widely acclaimed book, Macintosh Repair & Upgrade Secrets by Larry Pina can be found on the used market and occasionally on eBay and half.com. The complete adjustment procedures are well detailed in the book. This shortcut is not. :-)

Start by unplugging all cables from your Mac and open the case (details in Pina). Plug the mouse back in and the power cord. Visually find the power switch and turn it on. Insert a boot disk, System 6.0.x is good, or the most recent one you have prior to it and allow the Mac to warm up for no less than 5 minutes. When the screen has stabilized, select the Control Panel from the Apple Menu. Find the desktop pattern setting. This is in different places in different Systems, but it's the small rectangle with the pattern like your desktop, with a small square closeup of the pattern next to it. Click one of the arrows above the rectangle until you get to the weave pattern. Click in the rectangle to select it, then close the Control Panel and anything else you may have open. Make the previously discussed adjustments first then find the Width and Height adjustments on the right side of your Mac (front is front). Take your adjustment tool in your left hand and insert the hexagonal end into the Width adjustment (This will not take the same type or size of tool or be in the same place on all models). Turn this until you have about 1/2" black border on each side of the screen. Don't make it any less than 1/2". Insert the flat blade end into the Height adjustment and hold it there. Take a floppy disk (or any small flat thing with two sides that are exactly square to each other) in your right hand and hold it flat against the screen so that a corner points up and the two square sides are diagonal. Now adjust the Height until the two diagonal sides line up with the weave pattern on the screen. You will have to move the adjustment and the floppy several times until the lines in the weave and the floppy sides line up. When the alignment is perfect, shut down, reassemble and you're done.

Screen with Floppy

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