PB145B’s finds

[PB145B]

Just got this in.




Good old M0130 400k drive, made in 1985! 
 

Was sold as parts because it “does not accept a disk,” and boy were they right! The entire mechanism was ceased, worse than I have ever seen on any other drive, but it’s working great now after about an hour of work. Makes the coolest sound! The glowing red lights in the drive are really neat too. 

There is something else on the way for this that should be here later today. It’s something I have wanted for a very long time.

 

[PB145B]

It has arrived!!!!





I can’t believe it. I have wanted one of these for ages.

How could it possibly be any cooler?  
 

It’s a 128K that’s been upgraded! Presumably by Apple, as the badges have been changed out too, which is not something an individual would have likely went through the trouble to do.



Notice how there’s no “W” at the end of the serial, indicating this was in fact a 128k at some point! It was made in the 41st week of 1984. I could not be happier.

It did power up in the eBay photo, but I’m gonna open it up before I power-test it, in case something came loose in shipping. I have to service the 400k drive anyways. It’s stuck down, like a disk is in it, but there’s no disk in it. 
 

I will be making a new thread on the restoration of this machine.

Very excited!

 

[Crutch]

Congrats on the Fat Mac. Now you must carefully study @Dog Cow’s excellent blog, as I do each time he updates it  

 

[PB145B]

Congrats on the Fat Mac. Now you must carefully study @Dog Cow’s excellent blog, as I do each time he updates it  

Thank you! I’ll definitely check out DogCow’s blog.

A quick little update on the 512: it works fine, but the internal 400k drive doesn’t, unfortunately. It has the “click of death” and the optical sensor doesn’t appear to be the problem (stepper still turns with it unplugged). 

So I think I’m gonna track down another M0130 external drive and steal the drive mechanism out of it to put in the 512. Thankfully the M0130s aren’t too hard to find and usually not too expensive in untested condition. These are pretty reliable drives, so I feel confident the next one will probably be good.

The 512 does boot from the external drive just fine though!

 

[PB145B]

Some GREAT news! I sprayed the sensor on the 400K drive with alcohol, scrubbed it with a toothbrush and it works! No more clicking and it boots from the drive now! So now I don’t have to buy another drive. Awesome!  8)

 

[Crutch]

Which sensor? I have a bad 400k drive despite being lubed and cleaned. I don’t know much about them. 

 

[PB145B]

Which sensor? I have a bad 400k drive despite being lubed and cleaned. I don’t know much about them. 

The sensor that is discussed here:

https://lowendmac.com/2001/vintage-mac-400k-floppy-drive-repeating-click-of-death/

 

[PB145B]

Wow, it’s been over a year since I’ve posted here!

I’ve finally gotten a MessagePad running NOS 2.0, something I’ve been looking hard for for the last month or so. I recently pulled my MessagePad 100 back out and it has inspired me to start collecting more Newtons.

I found this really clean MP120 and I’m really happy with it!









Battery compartment is nice and clean, unlike the first one I bought that I sent back because the seller didn’t disclose that the battery had leaked VERY badly and caused damage to the unit.

This one also came with a really nice leather case, the manual and floppy disks for PC and Macintosh.







Check out that silver lining in the case! I thought that was super cool.

I was shocked how good the print handwriting recognition is in NOS 2.0! Even my sloppy handwriting is recognized most of the time. Really like it.

After spending more time using both my MP100 and this MP120, I’ve really grown to like these Newtons just as much as my Palms. Not “better,” but just as much. They were (still are) both excellent platforms!

I would love to whet an MP2000 or 2100 next, but people keep outbidding me on them! I would really like to get a decent working one (with the serial adapter) for around $200 or less if at all possible.

Anyway, that’s my latest Apple find!

 

[PB145B]

Crazy that's it's been almost two years since I last posted here! I haven't went anywhere though. Still loving my vintage computers (Macs and PCs).

I did find this nice little Mid 2009 20" iMac recently at Goodwill. Was untested but ended up working fine! I had wanted one of these early aluminum iMacs for a long time. I just think they look great and are really well designed.



Pulled the agonizingly slow 160GB hard drive out (which you can see sitting under the iMac!) and replaced it with a 250GB SSD. Also maxed the RAM out to 8GB. Runs like a totally different machine now!

I absolutely LOVE how these computers come apart. The way the glass is held on with magnets and stuff. Just such a good design. So much easier to service than the previous generation white intel iMacs.

This is the basic educational model. So it has the basic (but reliable) Nvidia 9400M graphics chipset and no Bluetooth. I was able to get my Apple wireless keyboard working with a USB Bluetooth dongle though!

I'm amazed how well it still performs. It even plays HD Youtube videos fine! The speakers really surprised me also. They sound great with plenty of bass response. Once again much improved from the previous generation iMac.

Really have nothing bad to say about it! Wish I had gotten one years ago. I'm currently running El Capitan on it which is the highest officially supported version. I may try the High Sierra patch on it and see how that goes. Definitely wouldn't want to push it any further than that though.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I dare you to install Ventura on it.

 

[PB145B]

I dare you to install Ventura on it.

Hah, I'm not even sure that's possible on a C2D! Probably not. I think High Sierra would do decent enough though, as long as there aren't too many weird glitches or hardware incompatibilities.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

It's possible!

OpenCore Legacy Patcher

Experience macOS just like before

dortania.github.io

They list yours as an Early 2009 for whatever reason (9,1), but it's completely possible. Probably not very fast though!

 

[PB145B]

It's possible!

OpenCore Legacy Patcher

Experience macOS just like before

dortania.github.io

View attachment 59204
They list yours as an Early 2009 for whatever reason (9,1), but it's completely possible. Probably not very fast though!

Wow, that's crazy! I really didn't think that was possible. The Early 2009 is very similar to the Mid 2009. The mid 2009 is a slightly cost and feature reduced version of the early 2009 for the educational market.

Would be fun to see it run on here, but I don't think it'd be much fun to use. Cool that it's possible though!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Certainly is! I'm really tempted to try it on my Early 2008 15" MacBook Pro. It's the oldest one supported, but at the same time... I don't really want to spend hours waiting on the poor thing. The OpenCore people do great work.

 

[PB145B]

I ended up installing High Sierra on the Mid 2009 iMac with @dosdude1's patcher. Very happy with how it runs! I swear I think it runs even better than El Capitan did on here. Only issue is every time I boot the computer up it starts with the brightness all the way down and I have to turn it back up (the brightness adjustment itself works fine however). Pretty minor issue though and well worth the trade off to be able to use newer software IMO.

Big thanks to @dosdude1 for making this awesome patcher!

 

[PB145B]

I have wanted a 15" first-gen unibody MacBook Pro for a while now, and I finally have one! It's a mid 2010 model I built from two different units.



This one was originally a 2.4 i5, but It now has a 2.66 i7 board in it. It also had a non working aftermarket battery which has been replaced with a used but working genuine battery. There was also a bunch of missing screws and screws in the wrong places. That has all been corrected now as well.

It has the max 8GB of RAM and I threw in a 500GB SSD too. It's crazy how fast this 13-year-old laptops runs now!

Went ahead and repasted the CPU and GPU while I had the board out also.

And as you can see, it has the high-res anti-glare display as well! That's one of my favorite things about this laptop. I think the silver bezel looks really sharp too.

It's crazy how simple these MacBooks are to work on. Most everything is pretty obvious during disassembly. Nothing is glued down either!

Might try a patcher for a later version of Mac OS eventually, but for now I'm perfectly happy with High Sierra.

Really happy with this MacBook! This is a computer I will definitely get good use out of.

 

[joshc]

Those are great. I was a little sad recently to sell my mid-2012 that I’d had from new but it wasn’t being used any longer. I’m sure it will serve the next user well.

 

[PB145B]

Those are great. I was a little sad recently to sell my mid-2012 that I’d had from new but it wasn’t being used any longer. I’m sure it will serve the next user well.

Yes, they are some of the best MacBooks ever made in my opinion because of their of build quality and serviceability.

I'd love to get a mid-2012 13" or 15" (or both!) at some point.

 

[CC_333]

I'd love to get a mid-2012 13" or 15" (or both!) at some point.

I have both, and they are indeed quite nice. I can replace pretty much every major part without too much fuss, which is more than could be said for newer models (especially post-2016). Never mind that the RAM and HDD are replaceable, which is good if some memory happens to go bad (on the retina models, unless you're extremely good at soldering very small surface mount components, if the RAM dies, the logic board is junk).

c

 

[PB145B]

I have both, and they are indeed quite nice. I can replace pretty much every major part without too much fuss, which is more than could be said for newer models (especially post-2016). Never mind that the RAM and HDD are replaceable, which is good if some memory happens to go bad (on the retina models, unless you're extremely good at soldering very small surface mount components, if the RAM dies, the logic board is junk).

c

Nice! Yeah, it's crazy how easy these first-gen unibodies are to service. I only had to reference a take apart guide once during the restoration/rebuild of this 2010. I like the retina models a lot too, though I do wish the memory was socketed.

Soldering the SSD in on the 2016 and later (I think that's when it started?) models is where they really crossed the line.

Comparing this mid 2010 to a new 2023 model is just sad in a lot of ways. It's like 2 steps forward and 10 steps back.

 

[CC_333]

Yeah, the latest models are basically immutable, and if anything breaks (except maybe the lid), the machine is instant e-waste.

c