My Apple IIvx died two weeks ago. I felt proud that I foresaw that this could happen and early on got a back up vx computer from eBay, so I collected it from the basement, moved all parts needed over from the broken one and it worked...for like 10 hours... Quickly got yet another one on eBay and it has behaved well since last Thursday. Keep my fingers crossed that it'll continue to behave...
Feeling the need for having a back up computer again, while waiting for the computer to arrive I googled for Apple II-series restoration. Found that there's a community, I guess more like collectors than users, that put effort in trying to keep these old computers alive.. I was especially impressed by this guy in Australia: https://recapamac.com.au
I'm sure there are others as good as he, but his videos are great and via microscope you can see the technique he is using to remove the old caps and other restoration. I've soldered and built quite a lot of stuff but never dared to touch computer motherboards, but this made me feel confident about it. So...this guy says most often it's the capacitors that fails and a recap often bring the machine back to life. If it doesn't help you have to diagnose further and I guess you need special tools for that. But I've just recapped my two faulty motherboards and will soon reassemble and see if at least one of the computers will work again.
When buying my back up computer 10 years ago I also bought a couple of used PSUs. When troubleshooting last week I tried those first to see if the PSU was the problem, but it didn't help. Now I've started to take apart one of my PSUs to see if I'll be able to recap that too.

I'll be back soon and tell how it works out...but for now I just want to alert everybody and remind you that the computers used with our desks are crucial, if they break we can't use the desk, and the computers are 30 years old now and the caps are starting to leak, on my boards 2-3 caps per board showed clear signs. At first the computers will break but if you wait further the leakage will start to destroy the motherboard. As mentioned recapping the motherboards is fairly easy, took me 1,5 hour per board as I worked very slowly. PSU seems a bit harder as the components are more crammed, but should be doable too. So don't wait - start to plan for this restoration before it's too late!

Oh Lord!!! Paul you rock!

Hi Jo !

Sorry to read that you're in trouble with your Mac II's.

I remember a guy near Paris called Christian who was specializing in bringing back old macs to life. Haven't heard from him in years, but who knows, maybe he's still around and active. I'll email you the email address and phone number I have, hope he can do something for you!

Cheers,
Maikol

Guys if you ever need a guy who works on ancient Macs, I got the right guy for you. He's a nerd and lives in Switzerland!
My Mac was up and running within 2 hours - he'll get one of my spare Macs running also and he'll rebuild both PSU. I even get a refurbished one on top of that. This will make 3 running Macs in Switzerland! Yesterday was a good day!