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That Time Apple Told Apple III Customers to Drop Their Computers

The Apple III had no fans or vents, causing heat to build up and chips to pop out of the logic board. Apple's solution? Pick up the computer and drop it.

So the Apple III shipped without any fans or vents, relying instead on a design that utilized a massive aluminum heat sink that formed the base of the computer. Without proper heat dissipation, computer magazine BYTE reported in 1982, the Apple III’s “integrated circuits tended to wander out of their sockets.” Owners of affected systems would begin to see garbled data on the screen, or notice that disks inserted into the system would come out warped or even “ melted.” Further design and software tweaks eventually led to a relatively stable Apple III platform, but by that point the system’s reputation was already irreversibly damaged.

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