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A Color Classic saga

Mu0n

Well-known member
After fretting over the onslaught of available color classics over at Yahoo Auctions Japan and seeing amazing prices from time to time, I attempted to nab one, fully prepared to have to put in some serious rework on the logic and possibly analog pcbs if I ever won an auction. I've read multiple complaints that the CC1 was a flawed machine with ridiculous bottlenecks, but that did very little to limit my enthusiasm for it. I'm well attuned to Mac Plus levels of speed and adjust my expectations accordingly by avoiding System 7 at all costs with it to better respect its shortcomings.

My only close encounter with a color classic in the past was in a cramped computer lab for physics majors back in my 1997-2002 university days (in Canada, so those CCs are not 100% unobtainium here), where we went to do some matlab/mathematica/C work for our projects and assignments. There was one neglected, slow as molasses, out of focus color classic and I remember not spending more than 10 minutes with it after it struggled to load all of its unnecessary extensions into a later version of System 7.


The description in the auction was a hilarious case of some info lost in translation:

It has been decorated as the guardian deity of the study for the past 30 years.
I will try to sell it with the remodeling.

I've been working on a Mac for a long time, from Karakura to Performa powerMac and the current model.

When I suddenly noticed, I had discarded the ADB keyboard and could not confirm the operation.
Therefore, it will be exhibited as a junk.
Well, I don't think anyone is bidding for a job.
I think it is positioned as an object.

It's a shame because I wanted to see it move before I let it go.

I was playing with it a long time ago, so my memory is ambiguous.
I had two models equivalent to Karakura before, <I think one was performa275?
I think that one of them had replaced the board with another one with a slightly better performance.
I think this was probably the case
Now that I'm afraid to remove the screws and check the inside, please understand that the exhibition is as it is.
I'm sorry I haven't cleaned it.

There is a note in the image, but there is a black one in the upper corner.
The time has passed and the rubber on my feet is melting. <I was surprised to find it.
I think it's exchangeable, so I think it's okay.

I was worried about what to do with the price because there are few listings that can be used as a reference.
I will start at this price for the time being.
Well, if there is no successful bid, I will keep it as it is.

Hopefully a McDonald's person will take care of it.

Yep, that's me, the McDonald's person that will take care of it!

After following people's suggestions to request the buyee broker repackaging fee in order to slightly increase the chances of avoiding shipment damage, the thing took over a week of prepping in Japan, but shipped in about 2 days internationally with Fedex. Here are some pics of what I received:

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Oops, the front plate got displaced laterally, cracking/dislodging both screw sockets that are near the top, inside the machine, as well as remove chunks off the edge as you can see above.

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Opening up the case immediately removed the lateral tension and realigned the front plate with the rest of the machine. It can no longer fix the front to the rest of the machine, so I have to carefully use both my hands whenever I want to pick it up and move it.



So enough with the bad news. the good news is that the battery hasn't exploded before I promptly removed it:
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and the SMD caps haven't leaked, at least on first inspection:

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Next: powering this thing up (and risking it before a recap job). I didn't entirely surprise me that it wouldn't boot on the first try, I was aware that people recommend plugging it in with the switch in powered mode before pushing the soft power key, for up to 24 hours. My patience ran out after 3 hours and I got a chime and an image! Still works!

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And after more probing and copying things over with my modern microsd card solution, I checked out a diagnostics and.....it's probably a LC550 board that's inside the case! It has enough VRAM to switch to thousands color mode. It's being detected as a color classic II.

1653053575756.pngI'd say it's a win!

I've contacted buyee to see what they can reimburse about the shipment damage. The box seemed to have been carefully prepped with injection foam filling in the empty spaces are the bubble wrap, but I guess something brutal still happened.
 
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cheesestraws

Well-known member
It's being detected as a color classic II.

If it's being detected as a CC II, I think that means it's an LC520 board in it—or, to be more pedantic, the Colour Classic II and the LC520 use exactly the same logic board, and it detects which it is based on which chassis it's in.
 

Mu0n

Well-known member
If it's being detected as a CC II, I think that means it's an LC520 board in it—or, to be more pedantic, the Colour Classic II and the LC520 use exactly the same logic board, and it detects which it is based on which chassis it's in.
My knowledge of that era of mac is extremely sketchy and fragile, thanks!

LC*coughcough*something
 

joshc

Well-known member
and the SMD caps haven't leaked, at least on first inspection:
I think they have, at least a little bit - the board looks quite dusty/sticky and that's caused by the cap goo. Try to get it recapped ASAP.

Shame about the shipping damage, it can probably be glued back together a bit.
 

just.in.time

Well-known member
If you’re going to keep the CC at its stock display resolution then the LC520 board is an excellent upgrade. Usually the most cost effective as well. Even runs 7.6.1 decently with some extra RAM installed.

In my experience, most games that would benefit from the 550/575 board also require 640*480 resolution.
 

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
Honestly, the only reason I can remember is that I used to think it was the 550 then someone corrected me :)

But it is the LC550 logic board that is the same (except for having 512K vs. 256K onboard VRAM) as the Color Classic II logic board. Both feature 33Mhz clocked 68030. The LC520 logic board has a 25Mhz clocked 68030.

Over on Tinker Different there is a thread on doing some resistor mods to overclock a LC520 logic board to 33Mhz, very similar to turning a 25Mhz LC III into a 33Mhz LC III+.
 

cheesestraws

Well-known member
But it is the LC550 logic board that is the same (except for having 512K vs. 256K onboard VRAM) as the Color Classic II logic board. Both feature 33Mhz clocked 68030. The LC520 logic board has a 25Mhz clocked 68030.

Well, today is going well :-D.
 

Mu0n

Well-known member
In my experience, most games that would benefit from the 550/575 board also require 640*480 resolution.
What games do you recommend for it in 512x384 mode for starters?
So far in my first tests, I launched Oregon Trail, Prince of Persia, Crystal Quest, Indiana Jones Fate of the Atlantis.

I'll also pay more attention to the color supporting games in The Secret History of Mac Gaming as well.
 

Mu0n

Well-known member
Still waiting on a 1-2 week long decision for a refund claim, but I thought I'd check out if my pieces fit the cracks. I'm missing an important one. I'm considering acetone (I'll just use a nail polish remover) to try to bond those pieces together. I'd love a rundown on if it's a good/bad idea from people who have been down this path.

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mdeverhart

Well-known member
A number of folks here have recommended a plastic solvent called Weld On 2354. If you use the search function you’ll find other threads discussing it. That might be your best bet, but I don’t have any personal experience with it.
 

Plasticoat

Well-known member
I have had some success with epoxy glue and filler,

the real work comes when sanding back filler as it will sand of texture on the casing, and reveal the original colour.

this itself is another problem, as I’m trying to work out the correct mix of colour for the case for a match

this is my machine not yet finished, still work to do,

the corner was missing and cracked in some places.
 

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Fizzbinn

Well-known member
With all the pieces Weld On 2354 has worked great for me with ABS and ABS-FR. It really does fuse the pieces back together, you need to be careful to not use too much or press to hard while it's setting. Too much case too much of the melting effect and pushing too hard can case plastic to ooze out of cracks affecting fit.

FYI I recently tried Weld On 2354 with a broken piece on a PowerBook 5300c and it didn't work at all. Looking more closely the plastic is actually "PC-ABS" which is apparently a Polycarbonate ABS blend...
 

Mu0n

Well-known member
So........

buyee refunded both the machine ($135 CAD) and the shipping ($223) - the part that was paid by paypal appeared immediately, still waiting on the normal delay for the part that was done with my bank account.

Wow. Ok.

Thanks for the keyword searches, I'll check that out for the repair.
 

chiptripper

Well-known member
Re: case repair, I've had tremendous success with Tamiya's ABS cement, and their Tamiya Putty is excellent for filling gaps (putty is not ABS based, though, AFAIK.)

If colour matching is important to you, you can make an ABS paste using acetone and wrecked pieces of Macintosh case, keep it in a sealed glass jar, works great. You won't get the same texture finish obviously but it's awesome as a filler.
 
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