Kendall's Collection and Finds!

[Gorgonops]

I am new to the Apple II world -- can someone identify the two cards and third "add on" I found inside the machine?  (See pictures attached).

I don't see any identifying marks to tell the manufacturer but the card with the chip labeled "HD6845R" is almost certainly an 80 column video card. It's a different layout from my Videx Videoterm but it has essentially the same components. Likewise I see no useful identifying marks on the other card but since it has a Z-80 CPU on it it's undoubtedly for running CP/M. It looks suspiciously like the Unitron Z80 card here, but I also see poking around that what looks like the same card was sold under other names with different silkscreens. So maybe it's a "Wacky Bob's House Of Computers Z-80-o-tronic" house brand.

(There's also a directory for 80 column cards on the same site, you can probably match your card there.)

The last dingus, the Sup-R-Mod, is an RF Modulator for hooking up to a TV on channel 33 UHF instead of a composite monitor. Guessing you probably don't need that.

I also have a question -- when I tried to load a couple of games, it said that it could not run them because the diskette required 64k of RAM.  I was confused by this because this Apple II plus has the language card in it and therefore HAS 64k of RAM.  Also one of the games (Oregon Trail) is one that I see all sorts of Apple II plus-es running on Youtube..

So what happens when you boot a plain old DOS 3.3 MASTER disk from cold? The first thing that should come up on the screen if the system is working is a message telling you it's loading Integer basic into the language card. I'm sort of wondering if maybe the language card has some issue that's preventing it from being detected? (In which case your system is acting like an-Applesoft-only 48k Plus?)

 

[Gorgonops]

I don't see any identifying marks to tell the manufacturer but the card with the chip labeled "HD6845R" is almost certainly an 80 column video card. It's a different layout from my Videx Videoterm but it has essentially the same components.

Actually, I stand corrected; your card is almost identical to a Videx Videoterm, it's just missing the silkscreen in the corner and there are a few component changes. I wonder if it's some kind of knockoff. (Such things were not rare in the Apple II Plus' day; in fact, my Apple II Plus is a real Apple motherboard in the case of a clone; the original Clone board is alas lost to history but it was nearly trace-for-trace identical to the real one.)

 

[khannonnd]

Thanks for the info!

Unfortunately, I know *nothing* about Apple II's so I have no idea what booting from a DOS 3.3 MASTER disk from cold means, haha.

I have an Apple IIc which I configured to do ADTPro stuff (making disks and the like), so if there is a disk I should make let me know.

What is weird is sometimes I get it to load those programs that it says requires 64k -- for example, with Oregon Trail, I can get it to START loading, but the first few screens have a series of anomalies and then it eventually freezes.  Another game will just get to the loading screen.  No rhyme or reason as to why it will try to load sometimes and say it needs 64k RAM other times.

 

[khannonnd]

Actually, I stand corrected; your card is almost identical to a Videx Videoterm, it's just missing the silkscreen in the corner and there are a few component changes. I wonder if it's some kind of knockoff. (Such things were not rare in the Apple II Plus' day; in fact, my Apple II Plus is a real Apple motherboard in the case of a clone; the original Clone board is alas lost to history but it was nearly trace-for-trace identical to the real one.)

Interesting.  Seems like this one is missing the cables coming off the board.  Im guessing this board is pretty worthless then and I can probably remove it from the machine?

 

[Gorgonops]

Interesting.  Seems like this one is missing the cables coming off the board.  Im guessing this board is pretty worthless then and I can probably remove it from the machine?

If you want to use the board I can probably give you the pinout of an output cable from my board and it'll no doubt work. (That board really does look like a straight-up clone.) Mine doesn't have the back panel thing, it just has a cable that plugs into that header. (Mine actually came with a *different* setup to allow switching between the 80 and 40 column modes on the same monitor, but the card will also work simply as a "second head" inside the system.) I would recommend removing it during any troubleshooting you're trying to do, though. Same for the Z-80 card for that matter.

(If you really aren't interested in either board I could possibly be willing to take them off your hands. Heck, if you decide the whole computer is a loss I could probably use a spare. I mention this because based on your location it'd probably be a local transaction.)

 

[Gorgonops]

Unfortunately, I know *nothing* about Apple II's so I have no idea what booting from a DOS 3.3 MASTER disk from cold means, haha.

I have an Apple IIc which I configured to do ADTPro stuff (making disks and the like), so if there is a disk I should make let me know.

I use the Apple II disk server to make disks for my Plus; the one you'd want would be the DOS 3.3 image on the top there, but given you don't trust your Plus definitely make your DOS 3.3 disk with ADTPro on the IIc instead. (I'm sure you'll have no problems finding the one in the usual places.)

Just for a sanity check, could you post a picture of the interior of the system with the language card in place? Since you're missing at least the one cable I've vaguely wondering if there could be a problem with how your language card is set up. Just for sanity's sake: There should be a 16 pin jumper cable running from the card to the motherboard, plugged in in place of one of the 24 16k RAM chips. That all looks good, everything's seated properly?

 

[khannonnd]

For Christmas, someone got me an Apple I schematic printed on aluminum and signed by Steve Wozniak.  Will go nice above my little "museum."

 

[haplain]

That's awesome!!!

 

[redrouteone]

That is awesome. I had no idea something like that existed.

 

[khannonnd]

Acquired an SE/30 that looked great on Craigslist (worked, case in great shape).  However, it got damaged in shipping.  Case was cracked and the HD was never screwed down so it flopped all over and appears to have damaged the CRT.

Motherboard seems nice (and will send it off for recapping) and it had an Asante Maccon PDS ethernet card (which I think sell for some decent money).  Kind of a bummer that I won't have a functioning SE/30 like I had hoped...

 

[khannonnd]

Called my old high school to see if they had any old macs they were getting rid of. They said they had two "real old" ones going to e-recycling this week.

Went and picked them up. For free.

One is a G5 of unknown vintage.

The other is an 8 core 2.25ghz Xeon Mac Pro with 12 GB of RAM and two hard drives for a total of 1.3 TB of space.

Pictures to follow. I'll probably be looking to get rid of the G5 if anyone is interested.

 

[khannonnd]

G5 appears to be a 1.8ghz dual processor model.

 

[CC_333]

You got a *FREE* 8-core 2009 Mac Pro with 12 GB RAM???!!! I want that!!!!!!!!

Well, I have my modest 2008 8-core Mac Pro with *24 GB* RAM, so I don't really need it :lol:

Seriously though, I hope you enjoy it! They're really nice machines, and they're reminiscent of the G5, without all the shortcomings (excessive heat and power draw, lack of modern OS and app support from Apple).

c

 

[khannonnd]

You got a *FREE* 8-core 2009 Mac Pro with 12 GB RAM???!!! I want that!!!!!!!!

Well, I have my modest 2008 8-core Mac Pro with *24 GB* RAM, so I don't really need it :lol:

Seriously though, I hope you enjoy it! They're really nice machines, and they're reminiscent of the G5, without all the shortcomings (excessive heat and power draw, lack of modern OS and app support from Apple).

c

With an upgraded graphic's card are they still usable for processor or graphics intensive stuff (like gaming)?

 

[CC_333]

Yeah, I suppose. Particularly the Quad G5 (which seriously competed with the 1st gen. of Mac Pros in some areas, especially early on when most commercial programs were still PPC only). It's a pity the Liquid Cooling Systems are so prone to failure, or else they'd be that much nicer.

The 2008 Mac Pro, however, is 100% modern and useful, and can support 32 GB RAM (official Max) or 64 GB (actual Max). I can probably push 32 GB without breaking the bank, but 64 is beyond reason, and probably will be for some time.

I did put a nice new video card in it, the ATI Radeon HD 5770, hoping to support Metal, but Apple, in all their wisdom, decided to drop the 5770 from the list of compatible GPUs at the last minute

Anyway, it's probably getting a bit long in the tooth, but it still does all I need 100% perfectly, so there's no need to replace it for at least a few more years (I've been using it for 7 years now, and I plan to keep it going for at least another 3).

So anyway, enough about that. This is your thread!

c

 

[khannonnd]

Updated office setup.  Two new machines (the Mac Pro and the Apple II+) required some rearranging (not to mention all the computers and furniture were removed from he room so I could use it as a ringworm quarantine room for my cats. Ugh).  Now I just need to figure out where I am going to hang up the Woz-signed Apple I schematic.

 

[khannonnd]

My new office set up, including my nifty new rack so all my machines could come out of the closet!

New addition is an original mac and external 400k disk drive (with original boxes) I bought from OlePigeon (Thanks Doug!)

 

[Hotdog Zanzibar]

With an upgraded graphic's card are they still usable for processor or graphics intensive stuff (like gaming)?

A little late to reply, but to answer your question - YES, absolutely. Especially an 8-core Nehalem. Nearly every new nVidia card will work out-of-the box with your Mac Pro as long as it's running Lion or later. It will run El Capitan with no extra coaxing. You can max the RAM out at 128gb, but 12 or 16 should be just fine for most use today. 

If you plan on doing any gaming, I would recommend converting one of the hard drives into a Boot Camp disk and install Windows. Gaming on the Mac will be totally possible, but games always run much better on Windows — a sad fact that took me a long time to come to grips with.

 

[olePigeon]

DirectX 12 has breathed new life into older Xeons.  With an upgraded video card, your 2009 Mac Pro will make an excellent Windows 10 gaming machine.

 

[khannonnd]

I thought i read somewhere that Apple will not support Windows 10 on pre-cylinder Mac Pros.