Finally got an original Macintosh

[apm]

I've been collecting 68k Macs on and off for years, but I've never had anything older than a Plus. So when an original Macintosh turned up on eBay within train commuting distance, for a non-exorbitant auction price (< £200), I jumped on it. Here it is:

 

It came with a keyboard, mouse, and an original carrying bag. Cosmetically, it's in really good shape for its age. Very little yellowing, no visible burn-in on the screen. The main flaw is a crack in the upper left corner of the case, and a couple marks where it looks like the case was opened before. Though oddly enough, the CRT doesn't sit flush with the case at the bottom. I can't find any evidence internally that anything is out of place -- has anyone seen this before?



The machine serial number (F4119NBM0001) indicates it's from week 11 of 1984. 

Internally the machine is very clean. Also I noticed the original flyback transformer, one of the smaller ones which were replaced in later models because they were prone to failure:



Since the machine showed signs of having been opened before, and also because it was advertised as working (no RAM failure), I figured it was at least 50% likely it had been upgraded to a 512k somewhere along the way. But no, it remains a stock 128k!



And the machine does, mostly, work. It boots, and the floppy drive works perfectly (not at all sticky unlike a lot of the more recent machines I've found). The main problem is with the vertical height on the screen:



The picture will stretch and compress quasi-randomly, and is partly shifted off the bottom of the screen. At its tallest, it is nearly normal height, just a bit offset downward. At its lowest, it occupies about half the CRT.

Obviously the analog board needs a full recap. My guess for this specific problem is C5 (47uF which separates a couple op-amp stages in the vertical sweep circuit). The problem affects the entire picture equally, rather than distorting only the top or the bottom half, so I doubt the problem is in the push-pull output. And if C5 were working properly, then even a change in height should still stay centred on the screen. I'll post back here once the recap is finished.

Still, cap problems and minor crack aside, I'm happy to find an original Mac in such nice condition.

 

[rsolberg]

Nice find! That's a mighty clean 128. My guess is that a tab on the front bezel has been bent and is wedged between the bezel and CRT's frame. I had a similar issue with my SE after shipping. Backing off the front bezel screws took the pressure off of the bent plastic tab and it popped back into place. I retightened them without over tightening and it looks good as new.

 

[Carboy7]

Isn't there a manual screen adjust knob on the inside, or am I thinking of a different model?

 

[unity]

Nice revision one machine! Even has the often removed heat deflector along the top of the analog board. Its pretty rare to find these early machines in all original condition. Really good score!

 

[joethezombie]

Very cool! For all it's "incapable-ness", it's still my favorite. The red glow and musical tones of the drive, the simple-ness of basically one disk per application... For some reason, even though it commands a little patience, it's well worth it! An external drive to pair with it goes a long way. Congrats!

 

[olePigeon]

I always though of the 128k and even 512k as fancier Apple IIs rather than incapable Macintosh computers.  They're sort of like an Apple II with better graphics in terms of operating it.  You had a floppy disk with an application on it, then you booted from the floppy to run the application.  Just like an Apple II.  At the time, an Apple II was more than capable, and cost three times less.  When the IIgs came out with nifty graphics and sound, that probably made the choice even harder.

I think it wasn't until people started connected hard drives that the Macintosh really started to shine.  A 512k with a hard disk must have been pretty amazing.  When the Plus came out with a built in SCSI port and advanced desktop publishing apps were created, it was clear the Macintosh was much, much more capable than the Apple II.

Of course, Apple stopped at the IIgs.  I always wondered what could have happened with the Apple II if Woz was allowed to continue the project.

 

[novusgordo]

The original Mac was kind of crippled from the intended design. IIRC it was supposed to have a FileWare drive and 512k RAM from the beginning, but they had to cut it down because RAM was so expensive and the FileWare drives too flaky. So really, the 512ke was closer to the original intent.

 

[Carboy7]

And much more useful, in terms of speed. Think about it. The 128k had so little ram that it would lag when using fancy fonts. The Lisa and XL could do this and more, as it had more ram to spare. :lisa2:

 

[EvieSigma]

I always thought the Plus was the realization of what the 128k just couldn't be.

Proper keyboard, perfectly adequate RAM, and still possessing Jobs' original design concepts.

 

[novusgordo]

The keyboard was intentional: Jobs' vision was that the ONLY thing a keyboard was for was entering text. Even arrow keys were supposed to give way to point-and-click. The Plus' keyboard was actually a compromise, in a sense.

 

[EvieSigma]

See, I knew he insisted on the no fans thing, but I didn't know he also insisted on the halfway-useless 128k/512k keyboard.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Congrats on a fine looking 128k! Mine's not as early as yours... Week 44...

Just put some hot glue on that crack and you won't even notice it's there.

Yeah you can't do much with a 128k, but it's the original Macintosh! That's why it's super cool! 

When you think of it, what do you use your modern computer for? Most of the time, I only need something to write on. So, the 128k isn't that useless. I wish mine was working (I think I blew the flyback, these things are fragile. You shouldn't use it for more than 3 consecutive hours without a fan like I did. I'm dumb).

 

[apm]

Nice find! That's a mighty clean 128. My guess is that a tab on the front bezel has been bent and is wedged between the bezel and CRT's frame. I had a similar issue with my SE after shipping. Backing off the front bezel screws took the pressure off of the bent plastic tab and it popped back into place. I retightened them without over tightening and it looks good as new.

I looked at the CRT and bezel some more, and I'm not much wiser than I was when I started. There aren't any tabs in the way, and loosening and reattaching doesn't change anything. Instead, it looks like the plastic mounting points on all four corners of the CRT are raised up a little bit inside. Here's one of them:



There's about a credit card thickness gap between the metal tab and the plastic surrounding. Turns out CRT itself is 1 to 2 credit card thicknesses away from the case on all sides, not just the bottom side.

For comparison, here's an SE where the CRT is flush with the bezel:



Not sure what's going on here. Case design flaw in the early Macintosh? Replacement CRT? (Sticker looks original.) Manufacturing variation with this particular machine?

Very cool! For all it's "incapable-ness", it's still my favorite. The red glow and musical tones of the drive, the simple-ness of basically one disk per application...

I completely agree. I'm actually surprised what a satisfying machine it is to use. Totally silent except for the drive noises which as you say are more musical than the later SuperDrives, and an elegant simplicity to the earliest versions of the OS. All engineering accomplishments aside (and there are many), the attention to design really shows.

 

[apm]

I managed to fix the screen issue. As I thought, it was C5 (47uF electrolytic cap). Now it's back to full working order, and I also picked up an external 400k floppy drive for it:

 

Given that one capacitor was leaking, and the AC line filter cap is starting to show some cracks, I guess the next project will be a full recap of the analog board. Hopefully, if the Apple RAM chips behave themselves, that will keep it running for the foreseeable future.

 

[joethezombie]

Very cool.  Did you ever get the screen to sit flush?  That issue is the most perplexing... there's got to be something hanging it up?

 

[aplmak]

Great find!!! Perhaps you can steal a front bezel from a 512 or something else to replace the crack.. but I understand the serial sticker is under the front below the CRT... Anyhow I was never a fan of the 128K... It was like a store demo machine.... and they left it at 128K just so they could keep the price down and sell it. I have a few Lisa's and it's amazing how much more you can do and the speed... They didn't even make an easy upgrade path for the 128K... And it was almost impossible to hook a HDD up to it. I admire Steve then and now but boy was he a son of a @#!*&. I understand that the Apple II didn't even have that much ram but remember the OS was not graphic user interface which consumed a bit of RAM.. plus the II had slots!

 

[apm]

I haven't figured out the screen/bezel issue yet, but will revisit it when I eventually recap the rest of the analog board. It's possible that it has just always been that way, and I'm hesitant to do anything stupid in the service of trying to get it to sit flush.

Agreed that it is not the most useful machine in the collection. For running actually interesting programs, I prefer the SE/30, but there's a special charm to the original item!

 

[olePigeon]

Even though the top left bezel is cracked, if you get some epoxy, you might be able to repair it from the underside.  If you squeeze the plastic together tight enough, the cracks may be unnoticeable after you glue it.

 

[james_w]

Oh nice! I saw that one on ebay and was tempted... but I already have a 128... sadly (if you want original config) it's been upgraded to 512k like most of them surely were.

If you want to get an original M0100 mouse with the squared-off connector (not sure if that auction came with one?) to match it then let me know - easy as I know we live close to one another!