re4mat
Well-known member
So I picked up a new Colour Classic on eBay. The photos were pretty bad, but it looked like it was in decent condition. The listing said "Mac color classic, very nice condition, starts right up! It has very light yellowing and is very clean and well kept." It arrived yesterday, and it definitely doesn't match the description. The only part that does match the description is the front bezel, which is actually in very good condition. ('Just needs a couple hours in retrobrite to brighten it up a little bit.) But the rest of the case I wouldn't categorise as "very nice" at all.
The right side of the back bucket looks like it's been sanded. Sanded! Uggggggh. There were no photos of this part of the case in the listing. There's also a couple gouges further back that didn't show up well in this photo. I was a tad furious to discover this.
But okay, whatever; I can use the best back bucket from one of my other CCs. The front bezel on this one is in the best shape out of the three that I now own, so okay. Let's turn it on and see how the electronics are.
I plug it in, plug in my keyboard and mouse, flip the switch on the back, press the power on the keyboard, and… nothing. So I leave it plugged in overnight. This morning I try to boot it up and… nothing again. "Starts right up" indeed. Time to pull the logic board and see if there's anything wrong.
The poster didn't mention anything about the PDS card, but I could see from the rear photo in the listing that it had some kind of ethernet card. Imagine my surprise when I pull the logic board out and see this little guy:
Pretty nice bonus! After I pull that off, it's time to take a look at the logic board itself. It doesn't look too good. Underneath where the Presto Plus was seated, it's pretty dusty. There may be some electrolyte in there, but it's hard to tell.
Over by the PRAM battery, however, I'm pretty sure that's electrolyte. It looks like it's even corroded some of the pins on that chip next to it.
I'll be pulling the back bucket off in a few minutes to see how everything looks. I can see a lot of dust around the fan exhaust, so I expect it to be not the cleanest. If it's not too bad, though, I'm going to pop in the working logic board I have and see if I can get it to start up with that.
The right side of the back bucket looks like it's been sanded. Sanded! Uggggggh. There were no photos of this part of the case in the listing. There's also a couple gouges further back that didn't show up well in this photo. I was a tad furious to discover this.
But okay, whatever; I can use the best back bucket from one of my other CCs. The front bezel on this one is in the best shape out of the three that I now own, so okay. Let's turn it on and see how the electronics are.
I plug it in, plug in my keyboard and mouse, flip the switch on the back, press the power on the keyboard, and… nothing. So I leave it plugged in overnight. This morning I try to boot it up and… nothing again. "Starts right up" indeed. Time to pull the logic board and see if there's anything wrong.
The poster didn't mention anything about the PDS card, but I could see from the rear photo in the listing that it had some kind of ethernet card. Imagine my surprise when I pull the logic board out and see this little guy:
Pretty nice bonus! After I pull that off, it's time to take a look at the logic board itself. It doesn't look too good. Underneath where the Presto Plus was seated, it's pretty dusty. There may be some electrolyte in there, but it's hard to tell.
Over by the PRAM battery, however, I'm pretty sure that's electrolyte. It looks like it's even corroded some of the pins on that chip next to it.
I'll be pulling the back bucket off in a few minutes to see how everything looks. I can see a lot of dust around the fan exhaust, so I expect it to be not the cleanest. If it's not too bad, though, I'm going to pop in the working logic board I have and see if I can get it to start up with that.