Performa 430 and Performa Monitor repair questions

[r34per]

I recently picked up a performa 430 and performa monitor(M9101ll/B) for a great price, and am working on getting them both fixed up.

The 430 does power on and boot up, but the hdd is shot(no surprise), though the caps on the board began leaking which i have replacements for on the way. I also have some on the way for the psu too since they are known for being bad as well.

There's some noticeable rust on the metal plate that is attached to the top plastic cover of the case however, so my question is can i just remove that metal part and leave just the plastic case? The rust to be on both sides, so cleaning it will be quite a challenge. There's also some rust on the power supply housing as well as the rear db15 connector, would something like vinegar be sufficient to remove it? Any other suggestions for cleaning the rust off?

The db15 connector on the monitor is a total loss as it's so rusted parts crumbled in my fingers. Is there a place I can get a replacement cable for the monitor, or if not how feasible would i be to cut the old connector off and solder on a new db15 connector?

And one last question, there's empty solder pads for where the fpu socket would plug into, if i were to solder PLCC socket into that could i plug a 68882 into it?

 

[Johnnya101]

For the rust on the case metal part, personally, I would remove it and soak it in evapo rust, then replace. You don't NEED it, think its for interference reasons, but always nice to keep things complete.

 

[Byrd]

The rusty RF shielding on the plastic cover cn be removed by breaking off the plastic blobs that hold it in - if significantly rusty sand then respray with rust killer, reapply putting hot glue onto the blobs of plastic you removed

 

[joshc]

Evaporust is good. The PSU case shouldn't really be painted however, best to leave that as bare metal.

And one last question, there's empty solder pads for where the fpu socket would plug into, if i were to solder PLCC socket into that could i plug a 68882 into it?

Yes

The db15 connector on the monitor is a total loss as it's so rusted parts crumbled in my fingers. Is there a place I can get a replacement cable for the monitor, or if not how feasible would i be to cut the old connector off and solder on a new db15 connector?

Got a photo of that cable? Can't recall what the back of that monitor looks like.

Easiest way would be a DB15->VGA adapter and then just use a VGA monitor instead

 

[volvo242gt]

Re: the monitor cable, I'd either do what @joshc suggested and get an adapter, then use a generic VGA monitor, or get a M0401/M1297 or M1212 monitor. At least you'll have a trinitron tube, instead of the shadowmask tube used in the cheaper Apple monitors. The Sony tubed monitors usually are more expensive, but you sometimes can get them for $60-$80. I got my M1212 for $63, plus tax. They also match the LCII's case better than the Performa/Performa Plus monitors do.

With respect to hard drives, if you still want a spinner, I'd grab at least a 250MB drive. You'll fill up an 80 or 160MB drive real quick with downloads from the Macintosh Garden, etc.

System Software-wise, a P430 version LCII ran System 7.1P3, but it can run 7.0.1 or the rare 6.0.8L, if you want to run something that uses less memory. Otherwise, regular 7.1, 7 Pro, 7.5 on up through 7.6.1 will run on it. With regular System 7.0.1, 7.1, and 7 Pro, the machine will be identified as an LCII in the About This Macintosh dialog box. To add that capability to 7.5.x/7.6.x, the Mac Identifier extension/cdev will need to be installed. Might also work with the 7.1P versions, which were like 7.6, where anything 68K was identified as "Macintosh".

Due to the 10MB maximum memory limitation, I probably wouldn't try to run 8.0 or 8.1 on it with the Born Again patch. It'll run, but you probably won't have much RAM left over for applications.

 

[Cory5412]

Welcome in!

Apologies for the long post:

If I remember correctly, these monitors have a fixed cable, but you should be able to chop the end of the cable off and attach a new connector. These followed a normal pinout, which should be in the developer guide for the Macintosh LC and LC II.

Repairing this monitor is going to be the most Authentic Performa Experience, and if you feel up to it, I recommend it. I had this monitor (if it's the Performa Plus or Performa Plus II) in the past and it was basically Good Enough. Apple's better monitors, are, well, better, but in the context of 2022, I don't know that I think it matters that much.

It's not like we're out here doing color critical work on a 30 year old computer, and not every vintage Mac has to be a DTP or video editing workstation, after all.

That said, in general office LCDs from ~2005 and on work great. Dell Ultrasharp 17xx, 19xx, and 20xx should work great, and Dell P19xx (especially newer ones like P1914, which sort of replaced the old UltraSharp 19xx series) will be great. Especially 4:3 and 5:4 models, although higher end and newer ultrasharps have 1:1 modes, so you can in fact run a 640x480 display in the center of a 2560x1440 one if you want to.

Another way to add an FPU and also to get some other good flexibility with this machine is to get an LC PDS ethernet card, most of those cards have the socket for the 68882 on them. I don't know if there's any performance difference between putting the 68882 directly on the motherboard and putting it on the ethernet card.

As a bonus, you can then get access to networked storage using netatalk2 or a moderately newer vintage mac. Ethernet on these won't max out 10megabit/sec, but it will be a bit faster than using LocalTalk on the serial ports, although that's a solid option that will work with ethernet bridges and netatalk2.

The great things about networking are:

• You can use the 7.5 Network Access Disk diskette to connect to a file server in order to reinstall the OS using data from a file share
• You can store data files on the network for safer keeping.
• You can run programs from the network, this was common in US K-12 environments and it'll be faster for you today than it was as a kid because there won't be 30 of you trying to launch an application at once.

W/re OS versions: up to 7.6.1 should work on this machine, 7.6.1 will be a bit poky and you'll get more miles out of it if you clean the system folder, but it will work and it should play basic early '90s games and do basic productivity software with no trouble. (I have run ClarisWorks 4 and 5 on a Classic II, which is a very similar machine, with no trouble.)

7.1 is probably the sweet spot, but if 6.0.8L does run on these (I always forget which machines that supports) then it'll be the fastest and it'll be really good for system 6 era software and games.

7.5 is really mostly 7.1 with batteries included and 7.6.1 redoes a few things and is really a product of its time, which is "five or six years after this machine launched".

 

[volvo242gt]

^Officially, it's the Classic, Classic II, LC, LCII, and PowerBook 100. I seem to remember some people talking about getting it to run on a Quadra 700, back in the LEM forums era, though. Unlike regular 6.0.8, it will not boot an SE, IIci, etc...