A rescued relic (Macintosh Classic)

[BlastoiseBlue]

Alright, to start this story off, a little introduction. I've been working at Goodwill in a training program for about two months now. The reason this seemingly useless information is important to my story is because of something this goodwill in particular does... Any piece of computer hardware that crosses through the donation door, no matter how new nor how old, is promptly bundled up, stacked against a wall and sent to a program called "Dell Reconnect" where Dell will melt everything in the computer down to make new parts for their own machines... I couldn't hate this fact more. I've seen a few newer PC laptops, some number of G3 towers... And I hate to say it, but I think even an Apple II got sent into this horrific program, because for the longest time there was an Apple II monitor (The kind on the metal stand) sitting in the corner for months and months. I had almost worked up the courage to ask a higher-up what had become of the rest of the system, but the "I might lose my job if I do this" jitters got the better of me. This was over the introductory training, during spring break.

Fast forward a few months. I'm out of school and Goodwill wants me back for a three month training program. A few weeks in, I'm working in the wares department, specifically cleaning the large wares. (swingsets and cribs and the like.) I decide to take a short pause from my cleaning and look around the room to gather my senses... I turned my head to the right, (Which is where the electronics area is) and something caught my eye... A small splash of a grey color among all the black television sets that had been stacked against the wall. (As no one was there to do anything with them at the time.) I thought to myself... "Maybe it's just an oddly small TV set?" I had to investigate further... I asked the lady I was working with (As trainees aren't allowed to work alone) if she minded me going over to look at it... She said she wouldn't mind. So I walk over and as I approach, the small grey "TV set" starts looking more and more like a compact Mac... And indeed, as I drew closer, my suspicions were confirmed... Dwarfed by the rather large TV behind it sat a Macintosh Classic, the case, if dirty, in rather excellent condition not counting the large "scraped up" area on the back of the system. Normally Goodwill employees aren't allowed to buy anything from the store they work at, but it had to be mine... There was no way on earth I was going to let a perfectly good vintage Mac go to waste like that...

So I went back and told the lady I was working with that it was something I had been looking for for quite some time now. She called over one of the managers, who then talked it over with the ladies that run the training program... And at the end of the work day, I walked out of that store with a complete, (sans mouse) working Macintosh Classic for the grand sum of seven US dollars.

The only issues I've had with it so far (aside from it not currently having a mouse) were the power cord that came with it once failing (But I swapped that out with the one I used to keep on my Gateway Essential desktop) and a single experience of a "checkerboard" on startup. (I've read that this may mean that your mac needs to be cleaned, but I think it's just because I had shut it off and turned it back on too fast.) I turn it on and let it run for a few minutes every day before work, and I'm currently in talks with a guy about buying an SE that comes with a keyboard and two mice. (I told him that I needed one for my Classic, he said he had two.) I also own a G3 Dual USB iBook 12", which I rarely use since the yo-yo charger that came with it is broken and to top it off I have OS X 10.1 installed on it and can't find any legal way to get OS 9, and even if I tried to do it the other way I couldn't make a bootable install CD. coughcoughItriedcough

So yeah... Went a little off-tangent there, but that's the story of how I got my seven dollar classic. Hope you enjoyed it! : D

 

[FlyingToaster]

Any piece of computer hardware that crosses through the donation door, no matter how new nor how old, is promptly bundled up, stacked against a wall and sent to a program called "Dell Reconnect" where Dell will melt everything in the computer down to make new parts for their own machines

 

[BlastoiseBlue]

Hehe, yeah. I've brought this up with them several times, but their argument is that no one would buy computers from Goodwill, whereas the only real problem with that is advertising. If people knew Goodwill was selling computers at low prices, people would flock to the stores. I mean, there's not really a legitimate reseller of used computers anywhere near where I live, and there's plenty of life left in most of these computers. It would probably be preferable when the kids ask for a computer to go to Goodwill and spend fifty bucks on a tower from '06 rather than go to a retail store and pay upwards of $200 for even the most basic model.

 

[bibilit]

Congrats, the Classic is a nice machine, it was indeed my first conquest (the starting point of what i have collected so far)

 

[BlastoiseBlue]

Hehe, thanks! My first was an iBook G3 DualUSB I bought when my old Dell D610 died. I went into the shop thinking it was a G4 and paid $120 for it, even after giving the shop my Toshiba Sattellite and the pieces of my D610 for store credit. (Shouldn't have done that, my everyday laptop now is another D610 I traded an Xbox for. D: ) About a week after I bought it, the torn and frayed yo-yo charger finally got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore. Now it's sitting in my desk on top of the Compaq my engineering teacher gave me as a graduation present.

 

[bibilit]

Where is your charger frayed ? those are easy to fix

 

[BlastoiseBlue]

I can still power the iBook on, I just have to lay the power cord down in a very particular way, and can NEVER move it. The frayed area isn't on the cord itself, rather on the hard part where the somewhat cylindrical item that plugs into the computer meets the hard plastic area that tapers down to the soft part of the cord. I would take a picture for you, but sadly my Latitude is refusing to see my webcam... Here's an illustration of it though, using an image I found on Google.

What's even worse is, I think I may have killed the battery because the first week or so I had the system I accidentally pressed the PMU management button thinking it had something to do with music thanks to the logo... Now if I fiddle with it, I can get it to "see" the battery, but it says it's 0% charged and has 0hrs and 0mins to full charge... Any way to fix this? D:

 

[CC_333]

The frayed area isn't on the cord itself, rather on the hard part where the somewhat cylindrical item that plugs into the computer meets the hard plastic area that tapers down to the soft part of the cord.

I think that's the part that bibilit had in mind. This is a very common problem with these (and other similar) chargers, apparently.

What's even worse is, I think I may have killed the battery because the first week or so I had the system I accidentally pressed the PMU management button thinking it had something to do with music thanks to the logo... Now if I fiddle with it, I can get it to "see" the battery, but it says it's 0% charged and has 0hrs and 0mins to full charge...

That's also common, especially if the battery is original to the computer (the newest of which would be at least 12 years old now).

Any way to fix this? D:

The only way to fix your particular problem, I've found is to replace the cells in the battery, or replace the whole thing. I've had a similar problem, and I think it's due to individual cells in the battery going bad over time.
I rebuilt one of mine, and it worked well for awhile. Until I left it unused for a month or two. Back to square one...

There's also a possibility that the computer itself is the problem. For example, I couldn't get the aforementioned rebuilt battery to charge at all in a Tangerine iBook I had, but then I swapped out the logic board with another I had on hand, and it worked perfectly. A "beyond dead" battery is much more likely, though.

c

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Here in NC, BADwill started recycling all computer equipment donated, I am soooooo teed off at them! There are just a few independent thrifts around who recycle by re-use in the area.

 

[bibilit]

I think that's the part that bibilit had in mind. This is a very common problem with these (and other similar) chargers, apparently.

Yes, if you are comfortable with a soldering iron, this is pretty easy to fix, you can find several links to do so.

I rebuilt one of mine, and it worked well for awhile. Until I left it unused for a month or two. Back to square one...

As far as i know, the battery will only be charged if the battery is showing a minimum amount of voltage.

 

[BlastoiseBlue]

Well, the battery worked when I bought it... The computer also came with 10.3, but like an idiot I took the 10.1 disc the warehouse owner gave me with the computer and installed that over it, so that could have something to do with it as well. I believe it used to be a school computer since it has "RMS 159" scraped into the bottom. (I think my Classic might have also been, considering the main drive is labeled "LEARN". XD)

As for the soldering iron... In all honesty, I've never used one, but next paycheck I might see about getting one if I can find them at the local walmart.

 

[Cory5412]

Sorry for interrupting the flow here, I just saw this thread and there are a few fairly pressing points I'd like to make about the first post or two:

Dell actually doesn't make components, so they're running this program (at a loss to them, if I remember correctly) because it's the right thing to do. Recycling computers correctly requires a lot of time and effort, and the fact that Dell is willing to take that load off of Goodwill (and potentially other places) is kind of nice.

Hundreds of thousands, nay, millions, of some of these things (various old computers) were built. It's only natural that some of them will eventually need to be recycled.

Goodwill is a place where people from all walks of life can go to rummage through other people's old stuff. It's also a place where people who are down on their luck or just dont' make much can go to get things they need.

I would argue that the ability to buy a computer from 1992 is somewhat counter to this point of existence. A computer from 1992 isn't really going to help anybody get a job or learn math, unless you're ridiculously lucky and it's already loaded with software, or the Goodwill folks are willing to basically fill an in-person version of the role of this forum, in rehabilitating old machines and finding free/open/public-domain software to put on those machines.

It's a lot of effort that's best left to places that have that as their specific purpose. Shops like RePC and programs like FreeGeek, where those exist, are a way better way to "recycle by reuse" old computers. -- especially isnce new computers that come with everything somebody would need to get started on the Internet are so inexpensive these days. Why, just the other day I saw that there's a 11.6-inch laptop with a relatively good CPU, GPU, 2 gigs of ram, and a 320GB hard disk on sale for less than $300 at Target. There's a previous-generation version available for $245, too. That machine, barring somebody smashing it, should last several years. I'd trust a $100 Goodwill computer to last about six months.

Yes, it would be nice if there were some way for machines of interest to get held back from these programs to feed into the collections of people like us. If only there were some peer to peer e-commerce web site that allowed you to post something for sale, let other people decide its value (auction style) and then help you co-ordinate the physical transfer of that good to the next owner. It would be like a large bay, and this is the internet so we have to tack an "E" on somewhere.

One more thought about reusing old computers -- I've come accross this too. I actually really hate when hobbyists and cheap people try to tell me what to do with my old machines. I recently bought a new machine and am in the process of cascading all of the machines down into new roles and a few machines are about to fall off the back of the truck, as it were. These machines, which are all a decade old and all have broken parts, are for all intents and purposes, useless. I was feeling pretty happy with my accomplishment (I have a small hoarding problem, much smaller than the hoarding problem most people on this site have, but it is still something I accomplish stuff against from time to time) so I went online to tell some people about it, and IMMEDIATELY I experienced pushback. I should spend my time and effort cleaning, maybe fixing, and then donating or selling these machines locally, ultimately at an even greater loss than even keeping so long would have been, instead of donating them.

Recycling computers (for actual productive use by somebody who isn't a computer hobbyist) by reuse is a lot of work -- work that I tend to think is better put somewhere else.

but the "I might lose my job if I do this" jitters got the better of me

Any job where you frequently fear being fired is a job you should quit, on good terms if at all possible. Just tell them you found another job, thank you for the opportunity, have a nice day.

 

[BlastoiseBlue]

Yes, it would be nice if there were some way for machines of interest to get held back from these programs to feed into the collections of people like us. If only there were some peer to peer e-commerce web site that allowed you to post something for sale, let other people decide its value (auction style) and then help you co-ordinate the physical transfer of that good to the next owner. It would be like a large bay, and this is the internet so we have to tack an "E" on somewhere.

Yeah, e-Bay. I know, it exists and that's where most people go to get their stuff but I'm not like most people. I make minimum wage and don't even have a bank account, so there's no way I can use PayPal. In addition, you forgot all about the large grey cloud labeled "reserve price" always hovering over our heads, and the fact that most systems on this website go for premium, which even if I wanted to pay, I don't currently have the ability to. Donating computers to services like this cuts severely into the supply of cheap, local machines that less-well-off hobbyists like myself strive to find. With more and more of these vintage and unique systems going to the crusher, the retrocomputing hobby will become exclusive to the upper class.

As for places like Freegeek, I don't have anything like that nearby. I live in rural Georgia.

One more thought about reusing old computers -- I've come accross this too. I actually really hate when hobbyists and cheap people try to tell me what to do with my old machines. I recently bought a new machine and am in the process of cascading all of the machines down into new roles and a few machines are about to fall off the back of the truck, as it were. These machines, which are all a decade old and all have broken parts, are for all intents and purposes, useless. I was feeling pretty happy with my accomplishment (I have a small hoarding problem, much smaller than the hoarding problem most people on this site have, but it is still something I accomplish stuff against from time to time) so I went online to tell some people about it, and IMMEDIATELY I experienced pushback. I should spend my time and effort cleaning, maybe fixing, and then donating or selling these machines locally, ultimately at an even greater loss than even keeping so long would have been, instead of donating them.

Alternatively, just sell them on here. If the price is right I'm sure someone would take them, heck, if they were up for free plus shipping I'd take 'em, broken or not.

Any job where you frequently fear being fired is a job you should quit, on good terms if at all possible. Just tell them you found another job, thank you for the opportunity, have a nice day.

Well, it's really more of a training program that I'm in. I'm trying to ride it out so I can get enough money to move to California to live with my boyfriend, so I can't really leave it.

 

[CC_333]

As far as i know, the battery will only be charged if the battery is showing a minimum amount of voltage.

Right! As far as I can tell, the little "computer" inside the battery expects all the cells to be a minimum of 1.6 volts before it'll allow the main computer (iBook itself) to charge them. What happens when the batteries become un-chargeable, I've found, is that one or more of those cells dips below that minimum voltage, which deactivates the circuitry, and manifests to the user as a battery that won't take any charge (the computer will try, as indicated by the indicator light glowing amber for awhile), doesn't charge at all (the computer won't even try, and the light stays green to reflect this), or isn't even recognized (indicated by a battery icon with an 'X' through it in the OS).

As for the soldering iron... In all honesty, I've never used one, but next paycheck I might see about getting one if I can find them at the local walmart.

In California, I've never seen soldering irons in any Walmart stores I've been to (I haven't even looked, honestly, mainly because I've never needed one except occasionally, and I never thought to look around Walmart to get it). Perhaps over there in Georgia, Walmart does carry such things.
c

 

[BlastoiseBlue]

Hmm... Maybe Hobby Lobby carries them?

 

[ianj]

Yeah, e-Bay. I know, it exists and that's where most people go to get their stuff but I'm not like most people. I make minimum wage and don't even have a bank account, so there's no way I can use PayPal.

I've worked pretty close to minimum wage before, and that didn't stop me from having a bank account. You should probably get one, especially if you live in a remote location where there isn't much to buy locally.

Donating computers to services like this cuts severely into the supply of cheap, local machines that less-well-off hobbyists like myself strive to find. With more and more of these vintage and unique systems going to the crusher, the retrocomputing hobby will become exclusive to the upper class.

To be blunt, collecting things, especially things that tend to be large and require parts and maintenance, is a luxury. I'm sure some people have managed to maintain old computer collections on minimum wage, but it's not an entitlement. People who don't have much money and want a computer these days are going to Best Buy or Wal-Mart, not Goodwill, so it's not hard to understand why they are doing this. The idea of donating old computers to people who can't afford a new one used to be a huge thing, when computers were more expensive and standards weren't progressing quite as quickly, but that model doesn't work anymore, and these days giving an old computer to someone who isn't into them for their own sake is doing them a disservice. Goodwill is primarily in the business of helping the less fortunate, not helping hobbyists, so it is no surprise that they are getting the computers out of the way so they can focus on their mission.

 

[Cory5412]

Donating computers to services like this cuts severely into the supply of cheap, local machines that less-well-off hobbyists like myself strive to find. With more and more of these vintage and unique systems going to the crusher, the retrocomputing hobby will become exclusive to the upper class.

I'm sorry, but what a load.

If you wanted to find these machines, you'd be able to.

Plus, nothing about working minimum wage (a place EVERYBODY has been) prevents you from having a bank account or opening a paypal account.

Electronics recycling goes on not to keep you out of a hobby (which you should consider leaving if you can't ever afford to consider paying for some of the material needs of that hobby) but to save the earth. These systems have dangerous and harmful chemicals in them, and if not stored properly or recycled, they can have a massive impact on the physical environment. This combined with the fact that most people who are already in the hobby aren't just collecting, they're hoarding, means that there really is plenty to go around if you ask nicely enough.

Plus, there's places other than thrift stores to get machines. You could post on the local freecycle, trawl the local freecycle, or do the same with craigslist.

There's no evil empire or machine to rage against here.

 

[trag]

Hehe, yeah. I've brought this up with them several times, but their argument is that no one would buy computers from Goodwill, .

You might point out that in several locations, Goodwill actually has dedicated computer stores called ComputerWorks. http://www.austincomputerworks.org/ for example.

That doesn't mean it's a good idea in your area, but Goodwill can sell used computers at least some of the time.

 

[BlastoiseBlue]

So whatever, let's get that behind us. I saved this particular example from a very untimely death and that's all I'm trying to get at. I'm sorry, but I really don't care about how "green" something is, and I'd rather not have this topic turn into debate hall on the ethics of computer recycling.

As for the bank account situation, I'd like to play the blame game and point a finger at my current legal guardians. I currently don't have a driver's license (I do have a car, however) and despite my constant requests, they still haven't taken me to start one, and it's an eight mile walk to town so I'm practically stranded here.

As for the stores, I've thought about suggesting an age cutoff for machines that get processed, but I doubt they would take the suggestion D:

Again, no offense guys, but I'd like to get back to the meat of the topic. I've found a piece of hardware that plugs into the back of my laptop that has an ADB port in the back of it. I also found a black cable that appears to be an ADB cable. Is there any way I could install something that lets my laptop (Dell Latitude D610 running XP SP3) interact with my Classic? Maybe through Mini vMac? Any info is appreciated!