Why the Apple III Failed

Why the Apple III FAILED Steve hated fans. really hot inside. floating on [Audience gasps] And so the pins would this was to it again. of the Apple III.

A retro Apple III computer displays a video interview with Steve Wozniak, while subtitles explain that Steve hated cooling fans because they were noisy. The joke builds toward the Apple III’s overheating problem and the absurd idea that its chips could be made to settle back into place by lifting and dropping the computer; the audience reacts with shock. It works as a reaction to bizarre engineering decisions, improvised fixes, or a product failing because of an overly clever design choice. EN: A retro Apple III computer displays a video interview with Steve Wozniak, while subtitles explain that Steve hated cooling fans because they were noisy. The joke builds toward the Apple III’s overheating problem and the absurd idea that its chips could be made to settle back into place by lifting and dropping the computer; the audience reacts with shock. It works as a reaction to bizarre engineering decisions, improvised fixes, or a product failing because of an overly clever design choice.

Steve hated fans. He always hated fans. Steve Jobs didn't like fans. And so the heat management was this solid aluminum chassis. And it still got really hot inside. It was just supposed to radiate it out. And what happened was when the heat built up inside the Apple 3 from, you know, hours and hours of use, then that board floating on those pins would flex. And what happened was we didn't use gold connectors. We used aluminum connectors that built. And what builds up on pins? And so the pins would oxidize and they had higher resistance and then you'd have a more attenuation on the memory clock circuitry and you'd lose access to memory and the computer would crash. And the solution to this was to reseat the board and since you didn't want to open up the case, what you did was you lifted the lip of the computer off three to five inches. This was an officially documented service technique. And you dropped it again. And that broke up the oxide and the computer would boot again. So that kind of damaged the reputation of the Apple Thread. Yeah.

• @dustinthehead / 30743 2026-04-17