Just got an LC!... with no monitor.

[bestobothworlds]

...But it did come with an accelerator card! So instead of a slow 16Mhz machine, I've got a fast 33Mhz 030 computer. But now I read about Daystar's accelerator card for 030 machines that gives 040 power. Now I wish I could use that. :'( Oh well, at least it works for me.

 

[Applemeister]

Congrats! Hope you have better luck with yours than I did with mine. When I got an LC off Freecycle, I was overjoyed. Only to discover – after having opened it – that a major PRAM battery explosion had occurred, causing irreparable damage to the ROM chips

 

[wally]

... Only to discover – after having opened it – that a major PRAM battery explosion had occurred, causing irreparable damage to the ROM chips

I've not seen such an explosion, was the logic board a total loss? Was it mainly impact or corrosive damage, or both? I think there is just one diode that keeps the +5 from charging the battery and causing pressure buildup... :O

 

[Applemeister]

The main casualty was the metal anti-static casing inside the LC's lid – there was a huge rusty patch, where the battery acid had eaten into the casing. There wasn't much left of the battery, other than a corroded lump. The damage to the logic board wasn't particularly extensive, and I managed to clean most of it up, but discolouration around the ROM chips showed that a chemical reaction had occurred betwixt the acid and the silicon.

Since then, I've been wary about accepting Macs that have been in storage in someone's attic. If there wasn't adequate ventilation in there, then the temperature can easily reach in excess of 35˚C. That LC had been in the attic for years, so clearly the battery couldn't take any more.

 

[bestobothworlds]

Congrats! Hope you have better luck with yours than I did with mine. When I got an LC off Freecycle, I was overjoyed. Only to discover – after having opened it – that a major PRAM battery explosion had occurred, causing irreparable damage to the ROM chips

I actually did! I just got a monitor for mine, and installed The Even More Incredible Machine. I've been experimenting with ways to eke the most performance out of the game. So far, I've found that running it in Black & White under Sys. 7 with the accelerator card turned on produced the best results. Sys. 6 with 16 colors is almost as good. When I try B&W in system 6, the game crashes. One odd thing I found with my LC when I hooked it up at home was that it could only do 16 colors. When I tried it at the store, it could go up to 256. Don't know what's wrong.

 

[wally]

...When I tried it at the store, it could go up to 256. Don't know what's wrong.

At the store, was it hooked to an Apple 15 inch portrait display by chance?(256 grays)

 

[bestobothworlds]

...When I tried it at the store, it could go up to 256. Don't know what's wrong.

At the store, was it hooked to an Apple 15 inch portrait display by chance?(256 grays)

It was hooked up to an apple 13 inch. When I came back for the monitor, they had a 14 inch with several connector pins missing. Maybe that's it.

 

[LCGuy]

Are you sure it was a 13"? I'm guessing it was a 12"...and the reason for it being able to do 256 colours would've been because those 12" displays work at 512x384, which a LC can handle at 256 colours with stock VRAM and 16 bit colour with 512k VRAM.

 

[Applemeister]

Yeah, LCs would've shipped with 12" Macintosh RGB displays.