Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!think!mintaka!ogicse!decwrl!shelby!neon!Kermit.Stanford.EDU!philip
From: philip@Kermit.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: An American Mac in Europe
Message-ID: <1990Mar2.225027.3024@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 2 Mar 90 22:50:27 GMT
References: <16721@oregon.uoregon.edu>
Sender: root@Neon.Stanford.EDU (System PRIVILEGED Account)
Reply-To: philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 39

In article <16721@oregon.uoregon.edu>, BOLDUAN@oregon.uoregon.edu (Karen
Bolduan) writes:
> Hilfe!
> 
> As a graduate architecure student, I am preparing to spend next year studying
> in Stuttgart, BRD (W. Germany). I can't imagine spending an entire year 
> anywhere without my Mac, but I'm worried about power compatibility.
> 
> Does anyone out there know what's involved in plugging an American SE into
> a European 220 volt outlet? I'd hate to fry my Mac! I've been told that the
> II series has an auto switching power source, but I've been told lots of 
> other unconfirmed things as well...
I've run SE, SE/30, II, IIcx and IIx US-sourced Macs on 220V with no
problems. Also (for general info) the Apple monitors should be OK (I've
only tested the color one, but there's no reason the others should be a
problem). The earliest Apple device I came across with this feature was
the pre-SCSI HD-20.

The major conversion you'll need to make is replacing the power cord. As
long as you have your own software, you shouldn't run into
incompatibilities from localized setups.

Exceptions: no Apple printers have this automatically switching power
supply (maybe because of higher power requirements). Printers are pretty
awkward things to carry around anyway. I recommend you find out if
there's a shared printer you can use over there.
> Thanks!
Don't thank me, thank Apple.
> Ross Sanders
> Univ. of Oregon

I've heard some vendors "fix" there software so it will not run on a
machine with the wrong "nationality" (a trick to enforce different price
structures in different parts of the world: "this package only for use
in USA"). Does anyone have any definite proof of such practices? Does
Apple have any official view on this?

Philip Machanick
philip@pescadero.stanford.edu