Mac IIfx and Mac Portable added to the collection!

[Huxley]

Whew! This has been quite a week for my Retro Mac hobby - first I get that in-desperate-need-of-TLC Mac SE/30, and now this!

I met a gentleman named Bill a while back who, in the course of conversation, mentioned that he'd been a Mac user many years ago, and had owned both a IIfx and a Portable. I joked that I've been lusting after both machines since I was a kid reading Macworld Magazine, and that if those systems ever needed a good home to let me know.

Surprise surprise! I got a phone call a few weeks ago - Bill had just returned from a vacation to discover that a water pipe had burst and flooded the entire first floor of his home. While trying to salvage what he could, he moved a ton of boxes into his garage, where he (re)discovered both old systems! He called and asked if I was still interested in them (duh!), and asked what I'd be willing to pay for them. I just threw out the first number that popped into my head - $50 each, and he said sure, come and git 'em!

So, I'm currently stuck at work, with a pristine Mac Portable and IIfx in my car's trunk. 8:00pm can't come fast enough...



Huxley

 

[Dan 7.1]

oh wow. grats dude, thats quite a score!

be even better if the portable's adapter works.

 

[Huxley]

oh wow. grats dude, thats quite a score!
be even better if the portable's adapter works.

Agreed. I'm waiting till around 6 or 7 tonight (when my store quiets down), and I'll bring the Portable in and see what happens when I hit the power button. I understand that the odds of the lead-acid battery still working after all these years is pretty slim (and IIRC, the Portables need a working battery to boot), but it'll be fun to check it out.

I'll be sure to post the results (and some more pics) as they happen...

Huxley

 

[Dan 7.1]

well it is just a lead-acid, so i'm sure there are hacks out there which would enable you to substitute it.

i did that for my Tomy Omnibots waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa(aaaaaaaaaaay)aaaaaaaaaaay back in the day.

 

[Huxley]

Well, I gave it a try, but the old lead-acid battery wasn't willing to cooperate, so the machine didn't boot. I'm not surprised - the original owner told me that it'd stopped booting years ago when the battery started losing its charge. Given the utterly immaculate condition of the system, I'm fully confident that it'll boot up with a rebuilt battery.

On that topic - has anyone here performed a rebuild on a Portable battery? Is it something that I (tech-savvy, but pretty much zero soldering experience) could hope to do on my own?

Any tips would be great - I'm dying to fire this puppy up and find out what's in there!

Thanks,

Huxley

 

[bluekatt]

you can order new ones but they are not cheap http://lowendmac.com/pb/portabattery.shtml

 

[tomlee59]

Unlike the PB100, the Portable has easy-to-rebuild batteries. Once you've opened it up (some minor cracking required), you'll find ordinary gel-cells inside. If you can find a source of new cells, it's easy to swap out the bad, swap in the new.

I had a stash of smaller gel cells, so that's what I put in. The battery life isn't as good as with the original, but still plenty good enough.

 

[funkytoad]

Very nice haul!