Quadra 840AV

[Byrd]

Hi,

I seem to have won a Quadra 840AV on eBay for $32, should turn up this week.

It's in fair condition - missing optical drive bezel but appears to have a couple of nubus cards installed (one looks like Radius 24X, the other full-length - oooh).

The good thing is I've a mint 8500/150 case sitting here that should do for salvaging duties, to bring the old beast back into life Must have 4 x 32MB SIMMS here too, and a 2GB SCSI HD, oh a 32X SCSI CD-ROM sitting around.

What version of Photoshop has support for the DSP (4.0+?), any other aps worth checking out that utilise the DSP in effect?

JB

 

[LCGuy]

Nice machine! 840AVs are rare here in AU

 

[Byrd]

Yeah, it provides some nostalgic value to me too, as I used to use one predominantly during uni days (it was old then!). The one I used certainly didn't seem like a 68K, more like a fast PPC.

And I've just remembered I've a spare 18GB SCSI drive, just itching for service in this little corker

JB

 

[Unknown_K]

Photoshop 3 and 4 support DSP, not sure if 2.5LE does.

The 8500 case has different hole placement for the power button then the 840av does (which also has a hole for reset), the cdrom bezels should be the same (unless you are using a Caddy drive in the 840av).

Let us know what Nubus cards are inside.

 

[macintoshman]

You are very lucky! Enjoy making cool Tv stuff.

You have the fastest 68k i think.

 

[Maccess]

Yep. Fastest 68040 and fastest NuBus implementation. It would be sweet if you could find a Radius SpigotProAV to do codec work for the video side.

You can find the driver for that at

http://www.bug.co.jp

a company that bought up Radius' old stocks and wrote better drivers.

 

[Bunsen]

AAAARGH

I can't STAND it when I sleep in and miss the close of an auction.

Well scored bYrd, I've been seeking an 840AV in Australia for years.

 

[LSD]

Bastard, you stole it from me

 

[Bunsen]

Ah well, I shall not be bitter. You did give me that 660AV bYrd

 

[slomacuser]

I got Q840av, if anybody interested it is in same condition as on above ebay link

 

[Bunsen]

AU, not EU

 

[Temetka]

I would kill for an 840AV.

I have a nice BeigeG3MT with tons of upgrades that I would swap for a stock 840....

 

[Maccess]

Go on, Temetka.....I have an 840AV I'd swap with that....hmmm.... I'm out in Asia.

 

[Temetka]

Hmm indeed.

Coming to the states any time soon?

 

[Byrd]

Finally got the 840AV tonight - and also BOUGHT A HOUSE! Nice day this one.

So, barring house details, 840AV is in fair condition, needs a very good clean.

Cards installed:

- Nubus 10/100 NIC

- Rasterops Paint Board LT 2618 Nubus graphics card, full length (any good?)

Not fired up yet nor RAM checked (see above house stuff!!!)

JB

 

[Byrd]

Tonight I dragged out the motherboard (they're not *that* bad, the 8xx0 cases!), and found the power switch clean snapped off, with a past hard-core attempt to repair it ... with Blu-Tac Heaps of broken plastic in the case, mainly the plastic power switch extender I hope - looks like I'll be borrowing heavily from the 8500 here to bring it back to a decent life.

No RAM/VRAM, think I've just enough for 128MB spare though, do the VRAM slots need to be populated for onboard video to function?

JB

 

[LCGuy]

Finally got the 840AV tonight - and also BOUGHT A HOUSE! Nice day this one.
So, barring house details, 840AV is in fair condition, needs a very good clean.

Cards installed:

- Nubus 10/100 NIC

- Rasterops Paint Board LT 2618 Nubus graphics card, full length (any good?)

Not fired up yet nor RAM checked (see above house stuff!!!)

JB

VERY nice!!! And congratulations on the purchase of the house!

 

[beachycove]

No RAM/VRAM, think I've just enough for 128MB spare though, do the VRAM slots need to be populated for onboard video to function?
JB

No, there is already 1 MB of onboard vram, so it will drive even a large monitor just fine, but the av functionality is much reduced without the extra vram chips. You need 256k chips, by the way.

 

[Byrd]

Today I was able to dismantle the 840AV, and see if I could bring it back to life. A few parts of better condition (eg. floppy, CD, hard disk) were switched from my donor 8500/120, and the 840AV blasted with an air compressor to clean out years of dust within.

The front bezel is in poor condition, all the tabs on one side are snapped clean off, so I'll have to use some hot glue to secure the bezel back in place.

Once cleaned and reassmbled, the Quadra would only boot one out of ten times. I checked RAM, replaced PRAM and all connections. It didn't appear to do much, however after a while it seems to have attained reliability again, and now boots reliably.

Now it's specced to:

- 128MB RAM/4.5 + 18GB HDs

- Nubus 10/100, Rasterops Prism 12" graphics card

- 24X CD-ROM

It's by far the fastest 68K Mac I've ever used - much better than a LC630@40Mhz and Colour Classic @ 33Mhz (both full '040s) - in fact, seemingly twice as fast!

Once I get the front bezel sorted, it's well on the way to becoming my favourite 68K beast.

JB