jmacz
Well-known member
Picked up a IIci a few weeks ago which was having boot consistency issues as well as a few other problems. Using this thread to document some of the work I've done to it, figure out what was in it when it came to me, and journal a few ongoing issues I'm having with it.
The above photo is after clean up. It wasn't in too bad of a shape but I had to take out a bunch of scratches, marks, sticker residue, the usual. A lot of the work done matches what I did on my Quadra 700 in my other thread. Work includes:
I made the decision to recap the motherboard based on the following issues:
GE Power Supply and Monitor Power Passthrough Port
My Quadra 700 had an Astec power supply. This IIci came with the GE unit. Unlike the Quadra 700 where I just direct wired the monitor power port to the main power port, for this conversion I wanted to keep the monitor power port only active when the IIci is on. I should have taken the time to do this on my Quadra 700 as it was really straightforward.
The above is a picture of the stock GE power supply opened up. The monitor passthrough power port has a relay attached to it. It enables/disables the power based on a 12V pin (it's the two wires inside the heat tubing in the upper part of the picture). One of the wires is ground, the other is the 12V line. It connects to the 12V pin in the 10 pin power supply connector which goes to the motherboard. Basically the soft power circuit from the motherboard triggers the power supply to turn on. Once on, the 12V pin is hot. This then goes to the relay enabling the power to the monitor port. Works great.
E-Machines ColorPage XL 8bit Accelerated Video Card
The IIci came with an E-Machines ColorPage XL 8bit accelerated video card. Looked very clean, almost new. I couldn't find any information about this specific card online anywhere, just a few mentions in archived MacWorld articles. @Phipli provided a link to the 3.5.5 driver package on Macintosh Garden which worked with this card. It drives 640x480 at 8bit only. I haven't tried with a higher resolution monitor so not sure what resolutions it supports right now. If anyone has more information on this card I would totally appreciate it.
I initially thought the card and/or driver was causing my IIci to crash/lockup. I was getting all sorts of issues. Even downgraded from System 7.5.5 which is what I had installed on it to System 7.1 (as the E-machines driver apparently has some compatibility issues with System 7.5 and above). But it looks like the card/driver might be fine as I think the crashing issue might be something else (discussed further below).
As you can see, the card identifies itself as a Color Page XL (part number 030-01330) with ROM version 1.200. Looks like it's from 1991.
National Instruments NB-GPIB Card
Also got one of these with the IIci. Looks like it's an IEEE 488 interface board for reading sensor data? The original hard disk had the software and drivers for it. The card seems to be detected although I don't have anything to test it with. As you can see, the card looks super clean. Not sure what to do with it nor what it's worth.
3-Com EtherLink/NB Card
Also got one of these. Not sure if it works or not. I don't have the adapter needed to try it with my ethernet network. I guess I have to hunt one down on eBay. Drivers were included on the hard disk but again, no idea whether it works although the card was super clean.
DayStar FastCache Card
So this was in the cache slot in the IIci. Not sure how it compares to Apple's cache cards. But I think something is wrong with this card (see below).
Stability Issues
Post recap, I started noticing stability issues with the IIci. I did not play with the unit enough before recap so quite possible it was already there before the recap. There were so many other problems (as described earlier) before the recap so no way I would have noticed it anyway.
Stability issues I'm seeing:
Then I removed the DayStar FastCache card. Problem looks to have gone away. I've been playing with the machine for a few hours now with the card out and I can't reproduce the issue anymore. I've put the original memory back in, put the E-machines video card back in, the original ZuluSCSI back in, and still, I cannot reproduce the issue anymore whereas previously, I would hit the issue within 5 minutes of boot.
So it looks like something's wrong with this DayStar FastCache. I'm going to have to research this card some more and figure out what could be wrong (haven't searched yet). I do see two caps on this cache board so I'll have to check those.
The above photo is after clean up. It wasn't in too bad of a shape but I had to take out a bunch of scratches, marks, sticker residue, the usual. A lot of the work done matches what I did on my Quadra 700 in my other thread. Work includes:
- PSU (GE) was having some issues (even when transplanted into my Quadra 700) so took it apart and did a stealth ATX conversion on it.
- MeowToast CR2032 pram battery replacement.
- Recapped the board using the capacitor kit from Console 5.
- The unit came to me with 8MB of memory. It's now at 20MB.
- Replaced the motor gear on the floppy drive and thoroughly cleaned and relubricated it.
- 80MB quantum drive was still working but replaced it anyway with a ZuluSCSI 1.1.
I made the decision to recap the motherboard based on the following issues:
- Some of the ICs near the capacitors were exhibiting some corrosion. There was green corrosion gunk on some of the IC pins. Not a lot. But there was some, all on the side of the chips facing the caps. The rest of the board had shiny pins.
- Startup chime was not playing.
- Audio was super feint - you can barely hear it.
- Power delivery was inconsistent - sometimes the IIci booted, other times it flickered on but quickly powered off. Sometimes it would work only when I held down the power button on the back of the unit.
GE Power Supply and Monitor Power Passthrough Port
My Quadra 700 had an Astec power supply. This IIci came with the GE unit. Unlike the Quadra 700 where I just direct wired the monitor power port to the main power port, for this conversion I wanted to keep the monitor power port only active when the IIci is on. I should have taken the time to do this on my Quadra 700 as it was really straightforward.
The above is a picture of the stock GE power supply opened up. The monitor passthrough power port has a relay attached to it. It enables/disables the power based on a 12V pin (it's the two wires inside the heat tubing in the upper part of the picture). One of the wires is ground, the other is the 12V line. It connects to the 12V pin in the 10 pin power supply connector which goes to the motherboard. Basically the soft power circuit from the motherboard triggers the power supply to turn on. Once on, the 12V pin is hot. This then goes to the relay enabling the power to the monitor port. Works great.
E-Machines ColorPage XL 8bit Accelerated Video Card
The IIci came with an E-Machines ColorPage XL 8bit accelerated video card. Looked very clean, almost new. I couldn't find any information about this specific card online anywhere, just a few mentions in archived MacWorld articles. @Phipli provided a link to the 3.5.5 driver package on Macintosh Garden which worked with this card. It drives 640x480 at 8bit only. I haven't tried with a higher resolution monitor so not sure what resolutions it supports right now. If anyone has more information on this card I would totally appreciate it.
I initially thought the card and/or driver was causing my IIci to crash/lockup. I was getting all sorts of issues. Even downgraded from System 7.5.5 which is what I had installed on it to System 7.1 (as the E-machines driver apparently has some compatibility issues with System 7.5 and above). But it looks like the card/driver might be fine as I think the crashing issue might be something else (discussed further below).
As you can see, the card identifies itself as a Color Page XL (part number 030-01330) with ROM version 1.200. Looks like it's from 1991.
National Instruments NB-GPIB Card
Also got one of these with the IIci. Looks like it's an IEEE 488 interface board for reading sensor data? The original hard disk had the software and drivers for it. The card seems to be detected although I don't have anything to test it with. As you can see, the card looks super clean. Not sure what to do with it nor what it's worth.
3-Com EtherLink/NB Card
Also got one of these. Not sure if it works or not. I don't have the adapter needed to try it with my ethernet network. I guess I have to hunt one down on eBay. Drivers were included on the hard disk but again, no idea whether it works although the card was super clean.
DayStar FastCache Card
So this was in the cache slot in the IIci. Not sure how it compares to Apple's cache cards. But I think something is wrong with this card (see below).
Stability Issues
Post recap, I started noticing stability issues with the IIci. I did not play with the unit enough before recap so quite possible it was already there before the recap. There were so many other problems (as described earlier) before the recap so no way I would have noticed it anyway.
Stability issues I'm seeing:
- Random hangs from time to time.
- Random system errors (differing error codes).
- Random finder errors (differing error codes).
- Video artifacts around text (in menus, in text when I open SimpleText, etc).
Then I removed the DayStar FastCache card. Problem looks to have gone away. I've been playing with the machine for a few hours now with the card out and I can't reproduce the issue anymore. I've put the original memory back in, put the E-machines video card back in, the original ZuluSCSI back in, and still, I cannot reproduce the issue anymore whereas previously, I would hit the issue within 5 minutes of boot.
So it looks like something's wrong with this DayStar FastCache. I'm going to have to research this card some more and figure out what could be wrong (haven't searched yet). I do see two caps on this cache board so I'll have to check those.
