jmacz journey

[jmacz]

As 2023 began, I stumbled upon a listing for a Quadra 700 while searching for non-related camera gear. Although I'd been using modern Macs for quite some time, I hadn't thought at all about the 68K Macintoshes I had spent a ton of time with growing up, the 512K, SE, Macintosh IIs, Quadras. I then left for an extended time working on Linux, NextStep, BeOS, Windows, Solaris. Then came back to Apple with the modern Macs in the mid 2000s.

That unintended find of the Quadra in January turned into 8 months of fun rediscovering that spark from decades ago. Starting this thread really for myself to keep track of all the adventures this past year, and the ones to come in the future.

January, The Return to 68K (documented restoration here)

Power supply rebuild and conversion to ATX, fixed a bunch of physical cracks in the case.

January, Recapping of Macintosh 16" Color Display (documented here)

Recapped the monitor which resolved weird shadow issue.

 

[jmacz]

February, Attempt to Use Miniscribe HD Sounds for SD SCSI Emulators (documented attempt here)

 

[jmacz]

January, Recapping of M1297 Apple 13" RGB Monitor Saved from Junkyard (documented here)

Recapped all 80-90-ish capacitors.

 

[jmacz]

April, Restoration of Macintosh IIci (documented here)

Recap, rebuild of power supply and conversion to ATX.

 

[jmacz]

June, Fix of Damaged SuperMac Spectrum 24/IV Video Card (documented here)

Replaced RAMDAC and some surface mounted capacitors and resistors.

 

[jmacz]

July, Beginning of Diagnosis of SuperMac Spectrum 24/III with Artifact Issues (documented here)

This one is still not fixed yet. But getting closer to the cause.

 

[jmacz]

July, Restoration of Macintosh II (documented here)

Recap, trace repair, power supply rebuild and conversion to ATX.

 

[jmacz]

July, Fixed Faulty DayStar FastCache Card for IIci (documented here)

Replaced faulty memory chips with new (old stock) chips.

 

[jmacz]

July, Fixed Faulty SuperMac Spectrum 24 PDQ Video Card (documented here)

Problem caused by corroded SRAM module. Added bodge wires to fix it.

 

[jmacz]

August, Conversion of Macintosh 16" Color Display to LCD (documented here)

Failed tube replaced with Samsung SyncMaster 512N 15" LCD panel.

 

[jmacz]

August, Finally Tested 3COM Etherlink/NB Nubus Card (mentioned here)

No fixes or anything. Just finally got an AUI transceiver so that I could test/use the card.

 

[jmacz]

August, Started Restoration of a PowerBook 540c (documented here)

This is my current project.

 

[cheesestraws]

You're having fun! I'm enjoying your writeups and diagnosis threads, even if I don't usually have much to add to them.

 

[joshc]

Likewise I am enjoying your write-ups, and the quality of your work is really impressive. You have more patience than I do as well. Please keep it up as long as you're enjoying it!

 

[jmacz]

Ok great... addiction... thanks to some nudging from @3lectr1cPPC, I've got two 5300s on the way (a 5300cs and a 5300c) both not working. Two more things for the back log.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I’m sorry!!!

 

[jmacz]

Started a thread on a IIfx I acquired over the weekend. Another project (documented here).

 

[LazarusNine]

Recapped all 80-90-ish capacitors.

This fatigues me just reading about it.

 

[jmacz]

This fatigues me just reading about it.

LOL

 

[jmacz]

From the recent lot I picked up, there was a battery bombed IIci... this one's going to take some work.



Need to get a new oscillator Y6 and a new crystal Y5. The battery holder has to go. D7/D8 transistors probably need to be replaced. I am not sure UK14 RTC is going to be salvageable. I need to clean it up and see how much of the legs are left. And then there's some corrosion on the ROM chip. And that's not the end of it:



It also has cap caused corrosion. A chip already fell off (UD13) and UE13 is about to fall off. UB13 also not looking good. And there's some damage to the pins on UA13. At least UB13, UD13, UE13 are all easily replaceable and cheap. But UA13 and UK14 from the other picture I think might be Apple specific chips? I'm not in a hurry to fix this so will have to keep my eyes open for a donor if those chips are bad.