Evie's Conquests

[EvieSigma]

Yep, TRS-80 Model 4. Apparently some kind of special student workstation model with 64k and RS-232 pre-installed. No floppies though and apparently the expense to add them is more than paying $210 for a FreHD so I guess my machine won't be using any software for a looooooooooooooooooooooooong time.

 

[EvieSigma]

Got a free unibody MacBook tonight, don't know whether it's 2.26GHz or 2.4GHz and can't currently test. It's a bit cosmetically challenged on the outside but the inside looks fine. Can I fix the peeling rubber bottom or is it just a lost cause?

http://i.imgur.com/wp8EOSr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cHcQV4e.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bAdpV64.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OUUnz1x.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1kKeDi6.jpg

 

[belgaonkar]

Apple had a recall program where owners could get a new bottom case for free. I'm not sure if they will still honor that recall since the MacBook is 8 years old.

 

[EvieSigma]

They don't but I found one on eBay.

Unfortunately for me someone yanked the RAM and both the hard drive and the hard drive cable, so this one's gonna take some time and money to get back into functional condition.

 

[EvieSigma]

Okay, this one is really special.

For one thing, it's a complete Mac 512k in great shape, which is already nice enough. However, not only that, it's also a complete 512k in great shape with SCSI and with its tote bag! I forgot to take a picture of the tote bag but it's a red compact Mac tote bag, and a nice rugged one to boot.

http://i.imgur.com/l2vIlYA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/sJxf4T8.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/e6sbVLm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/QTD8sKV.jpg

I popped it open to take a look...it looks like a normal compact Mac from this angle...

http://i.imgur.com/BK7rexP.jpg

...but then if you look closer you notice things like this fan (the black thing with screws running through it).

http://i.imgur.com/vtTgBqA.jpg

There's also some kind of add-on board you can see all around by looking through the various holes in the frame, but no matter what I do I can't get the motherboard out! It just gets stuck halfway out and I'm too nervous about breaking something. The seller did mention a math co-processor though, which leads me to believe this mystery upgrade board is either a 68020 or 68030 upgrade with additional SCSI breakout.

http://i.imgur.com/VJdtJZw.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/oAP5YQr.jpg

Also I heard somewhere that 400k drives have a little glowing red light inside them. Well this 512k doesn't have that light so maybe it's been upgraded to an 800k drive.

 

[Macdrone]

sounds like the 512k upgrade with scsi board.

 

[EvieSigma]

I saw a socketed chip on the board that looked purple though...

I actually went and made a thread in the Compact Mac section trying to figure out another way to get the motherboard out.

 

[EvieSigma]

Awwwwww YEAH! It IS a 68020 upgrade board, with 68881 FPU too! This is awesome, my first accelerated Mac!

I can't say I've heard heard of Quesse Computer Co before though. Must have been either a small time operation or a company selling their products under a more familiar brand name.

http://i.imgur.com/RXPAc5x.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/n7sUeXS.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/wvkkN8x.jpg

I noticed the base 512k board simply says Macintosh and is copyrighted 1983.

http://i.imgur.com/GtSEW8E.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1wS4eDg.jpg

Here's the serial number, can someone remind me how to read these? 

http://i.imgur.com/WLJS6tk.jpg

 

[EvieSigma]

Turns out my 512k had been upgraded to a 800k floppy drive, as it was actually able to read my one 800k disk (an iffy System 6 boot disk that just doesn't work quite right).

Also, got myself an affordable external SCSI hard disk for both my 512k and my dual-floppy SE. ClubMac apparently was some catalog that sold Mac accessories? It powers on and I hear the drive inside spin up but I had to order a DB25 to CN50 cable and a terminator for it. Also, I can't figure out what size the hard disk is, just that it's either 1.2, 2.1, or 3.2GB. 

http://i.imgur.com/0uGRHQw.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/g15vwIT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/noN8Dle.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/uFlVNlf.jpg

 

[Macdrone]

Yes clubmac was like newegg for mac before the internet really hit.  Catalog based hardware sales.  It is the Other World Computing of its day.  They also had clubPC.

 

[EvieSigma]

It's a decent little hard drive unit, all metal aside from the front plate. It's too bad though that I won't know what capacity the hard drive is and what's on it until I get my cable and terminator in the mail. 

Hoping there's an OS on there but if not I'll just format it and install System 6 (maybe with a 7.1 partition as well?) on it.

 

[Themk]

It's too bad though that I won't know what capacity the hard drive is and what's on it until I get my cable and terminator in the mail.

Disassemble the drive enclosure, and read the label on the top of the hard drive itself.

 

[EvieSigma]

One of those pictures is a closeup on the label. There's no size given, just "Model 1.2S, Model 2.1S, Model 3.2S".

 

[Themk]

Hmm, that's unfortunate. There appears to be a label that fell off, perhaps that might have been more informative.

May I ask, where did you get that drive enclosure, you mentioned it was 'affordable'?

 

[EvieSigma]

There's kind of a small local mall that calls itself a farmer's market and one store is an electronics store. I got the hard drive for $25, which, while not a screaming deal for the ages, is cheap enough to please me.

 

[EvieSigma]

Alright, got my 10 pack of 720k floppies today so I was able to successfully make a System 6.0.8 system disk for booting the 512k and the SE. Sure enough, I get 4MB of RAM showing up in the Finder. What utilities disk would I find the Enabler on to see if the 68020 is recognized by the OS?

http://i.imgur.com/FGC3vB0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/37abhqm.jpg

I could probably run System 7.1 on this machine if I felt so inclined but I'd like to have a hard drive setup for it before I do that. 

 

[EvieSigma]

System 6 boot floppy works in the SE too, thank goodness. And apparently my SE was upgraded to 4MB of RAM somewhere along the way, that saves me like 20 dollars.

http://i.imgur.com/M4q9aUZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/E27xusm.jpg

 

[EvieSigma]

Finally got to see my IIsi running as it should after plugging it into one of my UltraSharps. A paperclip in the eject hole managed to unstick the drive and make the "phantom disk" error go away, thank goodness.

http://i.imgur.com/6j1y7JI.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tNtUwYy.jpg

 

[EvieSigma]

Not a Mac but I thought maybe someone would like to see what I got to today...a Sega CD and a Sega 32X as well.

http://i.imgur.com/fykYWIp.jpg

 

[EvilCapitalist]

Very nice!  The 32X didn't have a huge library but the titles it did have were pretty solid (The Chaotix intro is my ringtone!) and I would absolutely have bought a Sega CD/Mega CD if there hadn't been a pretty solid port of Sonic CD to Windows.  I'm assuming you have a Genesis to go with these?