Recent content by Franklinstein

People have air cooled the 970fx-based 2.7DP to mixed results (I have, and it mostly works but can overheat depending on what software's running - it doesn't always seem to figure out that it's getting hot until it's nearing 80°C unless iMovie (for example) is running in the background, then...

An interesting idea. There was mention of sharing the CPU and it sort of implied that the FPGA swaps attention between the Mac and Genesis environments as necessary, so I wonder: how does that work? Does the Mac have its own video output separate from the Genesis, allowing gaming and Mac usage...

A little bit of a necropost, but basically: if it's a 160~800MB Quantum drive, it probably has a bumper hidden under the platters and as such is extremely difficult to repair. 9/10 difficulty, except for the single platter drives which are 8/10 (you don't have to keep multiple platters in sync...

As much as I like the old CDC/Imprimis-origin Seagate drives, they're getting old(er) and I don't trust them. Too many use rubber bumpers that, when they disintegrate, allow the armature to travel beyond its normal boundaries and this usually results in catastrophic damage. I had one model (I...

I can probably help out eventually but I'd have to see if my PB100 is still alive. Also I'd have to get a FloppyEmu (which I probably should anyway). Is there a particular revision/variant that would work best for this?

It's not discolored, is it? Maybe you got a magnet too close to it. Maybe try to degauss it. Conversely, maybe one of the internal geometry magnets came loose.

The IIvx/vi/P600 set was weird and unnecessary, IMO, but there was no reasoning with early '90s Apple. I have the others but still need a P600 to complete the trio and see how they compare to one another. I have one (the IIvi, I think) with an Interware Booster 40CV, but of course most...

The thing about the Valkyrie chips is that, like Classic Mac OS multiprocessor support or AltiVec, programs needed to be aware of its presence and programmed with how to use it or there wasn't much benefit to it. AFAIK Mac OS didn't really provide abstracted (i.e., a program tells Mac OS to...

I agree, for the most part. It's worlds better than the 5300 even though it's basically the same underneath. Between the 1400, 2400, and G3 WS, I don't know which has the best keyboard. Arguably it's the 1400 because it's so very light compared to the others yet it's accurate and crisp, not...

Could you not just pull the small 8MB card out instead? It's not permanently attached. Or are the slots physically wired to certain banks that preclude this? I always hate when eBay people say "untested" in the listings; it's almost always a copout because they likely did try it and it didn't...

I guess I need to get out more. But, if that card's for this machine, it looks like onboard video is replaced with the NuBus controller, so you'd have to spend one of your two PCI slots (or NuBus, I guess) on a video card.

I know one of the PowerComputing models supposedly had an option for a combo PCI/NuBus board. I've never seen photos of the hardware online, let alone IRL, so I'm not sure they ever shipped. Would've been kind of neat to run a Radius Rocket in the equivalent of a 9500.

Sometimes it's not obvious when a discrete component gets knocked loose or off. Look for anything, especially capacitors, that may not sit properly or some pads that look like something used to be there. I think the power supplies on those are custom but you can hack an ATX power supply into...

I forgot that was a thing, though you'd think I'd remember since my favorite iceBook has a smelly keyboard. It's not too bad, but it is persistent and there's nothing to be done to be rid of it except to replace the keyboard. Also, the clear keyboards show EVERYTHING underneath the keys. Hair...

Most of my 68k collection came from working at a recycling center about 20 years ago. Instead of cash, I'd get my pick of computer equipment (within reason). Nobody cared about RISC workstations, 68k, or beige PPC stuff, just the relatively modern consumer systems that they could easily resell...