IIx - I think it works, but can't get a floppy to boot from - looking for advice/direction

darko66

New member
I'm retiring and while cleaning out our office I found our old IIx that I thought we'd foolishly given away years ago. I thought I'd see if it still worked. The batteries are dead, of course, but I'm able to "jump start" it. Unfortunately I can't get past the flashing disk icon.

I think I finally figured out how to write floppy disks and did a set of System 7 disks plus a network access disk, but they can't be boot from. I'm assuming it's because the system folder on the disks aren't "blessed". The floppy drive on the IIx appears to be inoperable, but I had a floppy from an SE that does seem to work. When I try to start off from the System 7 install disk I made, it goes from the "?" flashing disk icon to the "X" flashing disk icon and ejects the disk. Same with the Network Access Disk. Without a working Classic Mac, I don't seem to be able to bless the system folder. All I have is a Powerbook G4 running Classic, but no luck there.

I made the System 7 disks with WinImage and the Network Access Disk with HFVexplorer.

My goal is to sell this to someone who can make good use of it, but I was hoping to see how well it still works. Is there an economical source for working floppies – either a set of system disks or just one that would allow me to see if the machine actually fully boots? Or, I guess, alternatively a Metro Phoenix, AZ source for someplace with Classic Macs I could have bless my disks? I found a slightly less ancient SCSI 1GB internal drive I could try and install to, but odds are it's a bad drive as well.

I do have a working SCSI CD Drive and I burned a System 7.5.3 disc, but the IIx won't boot from a CD.

I was looking at the Mac ROM-inator II, but it's not compatible with the Daystar card.

Perhaps I should I just give up and try to sell it as is?

The machine has a Daystar Digital 68030 33 MHz upgrade card and I have both the original video card and a Radius PrecisionColor 24XP card. Both video cards appear to work. Not sure how much RAM - might be 4MB.

Took a few photos. The batteries haven't leaked but there are a few connections where things look a little cruddy.
 

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Juror22

Well-known member
It will need to get re-capped soon. (sorry, but you already noticed the cruddy connections - they are evident in the pictures near the caps)

The floppy issues could be that it needs cleaning if you have not cleaned/re-lubed it yet. My II/IIx/IIfx floppy drives all needed this type attention before they would work correctly. There are guides for this online, it is relatively easy maintenance to perform and it may help with booting from the floppies that you already have.

In my IIx I have, the original SCSI is drive working, but I also used a zuluSCSI to boot from while I was doing some memory troubleshooting (trying to sort out how much RAM I could stuff in, and with what software), so if you are unable to source a working boot floppy locally, let me know and I could put some (verified) bootable floppy disks together for you pretty easily and post them to you.
 

David Cook

Well-known member
Do you have a Floppy EMU? I find that is the easiest way to test startup of older Macs, like the IIx.
 

Callan

Well-known member
You could always get a boot disk off ebay or a local seller for cheap (if your local to me id give you one). Saying that since it hasn't been recapped/cleaned your best bet would be a floppy emu or a bluescsi (or Zuluacsi) . These are all newer tools that emulate older hardware and are the best way to 'boot' a unrestored machine. It will also verify your floppy port and
/or scsi port.

Sorry... just reread the thread and repeated others advice. What they said! Lol
 

darko66

New member
Thanks for the responses. Since it's not my intent to keep the IIx, I'm hoping to limit the cost, so I might go the ebay route and get a set of System 6 disks since the seller swears they are good.

I'm pretty sure the disks I made won't work because they aren't blessed, but I'll look into cleaning and lubing the two floppy drives. Thanks for the suggestion.

And, in the end, I might just end up trying to sell the video and Daystar cards separately. Much easier to ship.

I've been connecting the IIx up to an old tube VGA monitor, but the plan was to send it to be recycled when we exit our office next week. Dumb question, perhaps – if I hook it up to a more modern 1920x1080 LED that has a VGA port it should work, shouldn't it? It just won't look all that great because of the lower resolution from the cards.
 

Callan

Well-known member
If you pull the card your going to have to come up with a processor for the iix (if you intend to sell it too). It looks like they pulled the processor to install that card (the pcb your card plugs into goes directly into the processor socket).
As for the video - as long as you have a a mac to vga convertor it might work, but you'll have to change the dip switches on the convertor (they can be a pain to get to work with certain monitors. I'd make certain you can get it to work with your other monitor before e-wasting the one you have that works.
 

darko66

New member
Yes, I believe you are correct about the processor. Unfortunately I think I just disposed of the original processor. I found one, looked for what they were going for and decided it wasn't worth selling since I couldn't guarantee it worked. This was before I realized we still had the IIx.

Good advice on the monitor. I do have a few different mac to VGA convertors, so I'll try and confirm I can get it to work with the LED.
 
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