My Color Classic soon to be mystic?

[System6+Vista]

Somehow I'm pretty sure I managed to score a working LC575 motherboard with an ethernet card onboard, and it is supposed to arrive in the mail later this week! It has been a dream of mine to get the CC on the internet for email, wikipedia, etc. but now that I've gotten the machine to work consistently I can totally understand why its performance is called "pedestrian," so I'm eminently glad to be able to find such an upgrade. I am posting to look for advice in case there is anything I need to do other than slip the LC575 motherboard in.

1) I am getting the sense that I;ll need a system enabler. I have not worked with one of these before an I am wondering when I should slip this in and when the computer will ask for it - for now i am sticking with the 512x384 resolution and i believe that requires a specific enabler that is not the standard LC575 enabler. Where can I get this?

2) I currently have the stock 80mb HD installed with system 7.1. Perhaps I can just boot from this hard disk? I also have an external Apple 2GB SCSI drive that I was thinking of trying to slip in there if I am able to take it out of its enclosure...but I assume installing system 7.5 or so from floppies would not be fun.

Any advice? I'm not quite ready to do the 640x480 resolution hack, though I'm thinking about it.

 

[Bunsen]

http://colourclassicfaq.com/

Alarmingly, Stuart Bell's Power Colour Classic page seems to be down, but here's the archived version

 

[Bunsen]

Also:

http://www.kevinomura.com/macs/colorclassic/index.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20010617164459/http://lowendmac.com/macdan/010523cl.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20021007024949/http://www.jmac.org/~jah/ccvmod/

Amazing what five minutes on Google will turn up :

 

[LCGuy]

A little tip - if you're going to keep it running System 7.1 after you install the LC575 logic board, make sure that you've placed a copy of the System Enabler 065 into the System Folder, otherwise you won't be able to boot off the internal HDD with the new board. If the 2GB drive is already in an external enclosure, you're probably best off just leaving it as is - doing an internal HDD upgrade on the Colour Classic involves taking the back off, which does tend to scare some people, even though you don't go near the HV stuff.

 

[System6+Vista]

Thanks for the responses. I had seen a bunch of those webpages when searching myself, but it is a comfort to be redirected to them by people who know more and still trust the websites. One more thing I'm not clear on - Will I have to resedit system enabler 065 or will it automatically work at 512x384 pixles?

Also - will the machine be upset when I remove sys enabler 401 out while the system is runnig?

I've alraeady taken the back of the CC off (not so bad!) and feel comfortable putting another HD in as long as I can get the external one out of its enclosure...I won't try to do that until I can get the external SCSI to work!

 

[Mars478]

Good Luck! Let us know how it goes!

 

[LCGuy]

Also - will the machine be upset when I remove sys enabler 401 out while the system is runnig?

The best thing to do would be to remove System Enabler 401, then place System Enabler 065 in the System Folder, and then shut the Mac down and perform the upgrade, as the Colour Classic board won't boot with System Enabler 065, but at the same time, the LC575 board won't boot with System Enabler 401. And yes, you will have to modify the System Enabler, with the instructions here, before you do any of this. Use the instructions for System 7.1. Best of luck, and have fun. :beige:

 

[System6+Vista]

Can anyone e-mail me a copy of system enabler 065 version 1.1? All the download links appear to be broken at this point!

 

[LCGuy]

Direct from Apple

 

[System6+Vista]

Thank you LCGuy, although from the filename it looks as if this could be version 1.2, although I specifically read I need version 1.1 Any thoughts?

 

[System6+Vista]

MY COLOR CLASSIC IS MYSTICAL! Thanks for the help.

For the record, Sys Enabler 065 version 1.1 can be found here: http://pc.2ch.net/i4004/kako/1014/10144/1014458913.html

Apple only provides the updated 1.2 version, but apparently you need this version for the CC hack.

Now to return to trying to get this guy on the web. My motherboard only came with 12mb installed - what type of RAM do I want to buy to max out? There is just one stick of 8mb currently and only one slot.

thanks,

Dave

 

[LCGuy]

The LC575 takes 72 pin SIMMs, officially any size from 1MB to 32MB, unofficially, up to 128MB. They can be found for sale on eBay, on here, and inside Pentium 1 and late 486 era PCs, and other old Macs that used this RAM (LCIII, LC475, LC/Performa 520, LC/Performa 57x, Performa 450, Performa 460, Performa 47x, Quadra 605, Quadra 610, 650, 800, 840AV, Power Mac x100, and the Performa 5xxx/6xxx series). Ideally, go for a 16 or 32MB module, which should be fairly easy to find, and cheap.

 

[beachycove]

My Mystic CC ran with the software hack rather than the 640x480 hack, as I did not want to destroy the analog board: with 36MB ram, a full 68040, a 1GB drive and MacOS8.1, however, it was quite the little powerhouse. The software hack worked flawlessly. I installed every upgrade to QuickTime etc. that I could, and had After Dark doing some funky things on that little screen.

I still have a floppy disk with all the required bits and pieces on it, but as I am presently away from home for a month, I cannot tell you whether the System Enabler I used was the later one or the earlier one. I suspect, however, that the later enabler would work just fine, as the crucial thing is the ResEdit work.

I recently acquired a really nice LC575 shell, however, and, wanting a logic board for it, took the 575 board from my CC and instead, sourced an LC550 logic board for the CC. I then downsized to System 7.5, and am even happier with the machine as THE fast 68030 Compact Mac (33MHz 68030 with a 33MHz bus). I am probably going to revert to 7.1 for even more thrills, but I find 7.5 very stable on 68k hardware, and I like its little extras.

One advantage of this setup is that disk utilities, etc., will work on it without modification, as the machine identifies itself as a CCII. I'd be nervous, e.g., running Norton Utilities on a Mystic with the software hack, because any utility will likely think there is something wrong with the machine and try to "fix" it.

I agree, however, that some modification is desirable, as a stock CC is for me almost unusable.

 

[System6+Vista]

So would the 575 board take any 72pin SIMM cards up to 128mb? I see many different manufacturers on eBay for 72pin.

Two weird things are happening with the new board:

1) Startup time is varying a lot. When I first put the new board in and hit soft power it immediately started and made the bong. Then it went to the color "Welcome to Macintosh" screen for a good five minuites or so, which had me thinking that I had messed up the ResEdit stuff. Then, just as I was going to restart it, it very slowly started loading extensions and the background image. Then it booted into 7.1 very quickly, and worked flawlessly. The next times I restarted it, it started a good deal quicker than original CC board. Now when I start it, it takes a very long time on the first exention (time and date) and then moves along snappy after that... any ideas?

2) Some weird color changes. I just played a quick game of Bert (my favorite game on my Classic, but so much better in color ) and notcied that while I was playing the colors would change on the screen every minuite or so. I had a few times where the colors would just lose their vividness, and then about 30 seconds it would come back...they were all washed out with more whiteness and less color. This happened several times. The ColorSync profile is still set to "Mac Color Classic" and I was able to move my colors to "thousands" whereas I think the previous board limited me to 256 colors. Any thoughts?

One more mystic question...What are the specs of the audio device on the 575 motherboard? I don't see them listed other places. I am wondering bit-depth/sample rate and also mono/stereo. The LC575 looks like it had stereo speakers, but the CC has just one mono speaker that is working, so I'm wondering if the line out on back is possibly stereo? What is the sample rate/bit depth for microphone recording? I do a lot of studio recording and would love to be able to use the CC as a simple scratchpad for recording ideas.

 

[LCGuy]

Theoretically it should...a couple of members on here have had success using 64MB and 128MB SIMMs in their machines. I haven't dealt with any SIMMs over 32MB myself.

As for the startup time...there could be something up with one of your extensions or control panels. Can you tell us what extensions and control panels you have installed?

As for the LC575's sound specs, it supports 8 bit stereo sound out, and 8 bit mono sound in, both at 22 kHz from memory.. And yes, the sound output port on the back IS stereo.

 

[Mac128]

As for the LC575's sound specs, it supports 8 bit stereo sound out, and 8 bit mono sound in, both at 22 kHz from memory.. And yes, the sound output port on the back IS stereo.

Yup. Of course you can always add a stereo sound-in card in the PDS slot. The Color Classic analogue board actually contains the traces to add a right stereo speaker. All one needs to add is the Amp, caps, resistors and a connector for the speaker. I've actually done this with one of my CCs using a spare CC speaker which fits perfectly back-to-back with the existing CC speaker, and cannibalizing the parts from my 575 analogue board (which of course is now mono). The path from the logic board is already wired to the analogue board, so the CC wiring will route the 575's L&R signals where they're supposed to go.

 

[tyrannis]

So would the 575 board take any 72pin SIMM cards up to 128mb? I see many different manufacturers on eBay for 72pin.

I think Mike sells the 64mb SIMMs on the Adopt a Mac website. They work fine in the 575 board, and are probably cheaper than the eBay options.

Congratulations on getting your Color Classic upgraded. I am contemplating the 640 x 480 mod as well, so let us know how that goes if you end up trying it.

EDIT: It appears the 64mb SIMMs are not listed and I should have checked first; maybe he ran out, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

 

[System6+Vista]

Wonderful. Unfortunately I don't have a 575 board to get the other analog components for stereo speakers, but I don't know if 8bit 22khz sound is worth it for stereo anyways. Very interesting info though, seems like they were planning the Classic II/LC575 parts when they originally designed the CC analog and logic board.

Adopt a Mac only seems to have 36mb sticks right now. Not bad, but if this machine can do 64mb or 128mb and I'm hoping for internet, it only seems smart to go higher.

Because this CC I found is in immaculate aesthetic condition, I've decided not to do the 640x480 hack in case I want it to be a great example of a CC with its original logic board in the future. If I get another CC somewhere, perhaps not in tip-top physical shape, I'd be very interested in doing the hack. It just isn't very easy to find another CC analogue board!

 

[Bunsen]

Well, you could use the LC 575 board, and save the CC board for later restoration.