Say Hello to my Lisas

[Schafeman]

What started as a find in what was a vintage computer shop here in the Twin Cities, turned into a new project for me!  After lots of prodding, I got both machines to boot off their Widget drives and load what was on them (turns out they are both XL's w/ video mod, 800k drives, scsi card and 1mb ram).  I also got one original Lisa mouse for it, but no keyboards.  My ultimate goal, if I don't decide to sell one of them, would be to restore one back to a Lisa 2/10 running Lisa Office, and keep the other as a fully upgraded Mac XL.  One unique thing I noticed, is one of the Lisa's has a bizarre key switch underneath, I can't figure out what it does yet.

 

[Carboy7]

:O Those are some NICE Lisas!

 

[unity]

Nice!

Note on the restore, if they started as MacXLs, then you would not be "restoring" them in any way really if you think about it.

As for the lock, probably a power switch interrupt so only the person(s) with a key can use it. While pretty common in the computer world, I think its the first I have seen on a MacXL or Lisa.

 

[Juror22]

Is the label on the one with the lock an internal Apple asset tag?

Nice job getting them both running, they look good.  Congrats on getting an original Lisa mouse too. 

 

[Schafeman]

They both have quirks. The one on the left sometimes randomly turns off on its own. From what I'm reading these power supplies can have issues with the soldier joints that cause that to happen. The one on the right seems to have a diode or something broken on the logic board but runs all day without problems. Both Widget drives squeal like the night of the living dead sometimes.

 

[james_w]

I have a 2/10 (and sold a non-fully working Lisa 2/5 a while back) but I would LOVE a Mac XL. So enjoy these!

 

[Schafeman]

I have a 2/10 (and sold a non-fully working Lisa 2/5 a while back) but I would LOVE a Mac XL. So enjoy these!

I will trade you one of my XL's for your 2/10

 

[james_w]

I will trade you one of my XL's for your 2/10

I think the cost of shipping between our countries alone for these monsters unfortunately makes that a bit untenable, but thanks for the offer!

 

[Schafeman]

I was mainly kidding, yes shipping costs would be insane.  

 

[Schafeman]

Something interesting I discovered on the Lisa w/ the keylock... it doesn't have a standard Apple serial number tag under the computer.. could this have been some sort of internal test device or prototype? Anywhere else on the system the serial number might be located?

 

[belgaonkar]

what does it look like? pictures?

 

[Schafeman]

Here's both. One has no mention of serial number on an official label I can see, my other machine (also pictures) has the standard Apple label form on the bottom.

 

[Schafeman]

*UPDATE* - I have successfully converted one of my XL's back to a Lisa 2/10.  Widget drive has now quieted down quite a bit and its running Lisa Office 3.1 like a champ.  The last nagging thing is after I swapped in the replacement CPU card w/ the 'H' roms, the screen is rolling over on the right side.  This unit doesn't have the yoke transformer replacement installed, so I have a feeling its a control somewhere I have to adjust.  I did adjust ALL of the knobs on the CRT board but I can't get it to go away.  I read somewhere that there is a voltage adjustment in the actual power supply that might help with this?

 

[ScutBoy]

Nice!

 

[belgaonkar]

Did you just post one of the Lisas for sale? I was looking at the listing and it sold instantly. Congrats.

 

[Schafeman]

Funny story.. yes, as much as I'd love to keep both, there are other things I want to buy (NeXT boxes! More Macs!), so I decided to part with one of them.  Someone bought it and then emailed me in a panic saying they thought it was the model with Twiggy drives and got Widget and Twiggy confused, so I had to cancel and refund the purchase.  He didn't believe me when I told him just a pair of Twiggy drives went for over $30k recently.  Anyways, we'll see what happens this time.

 

[mactjaap]

And for a complete Lisa 1 you need around $100000 these days!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/112373243535

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Seriously?

 

[CelGen]

Seriously?

No.

$15000, perhaps, if it's not a de-upgraded Lisa 2/5 and came with the trimmings, plus ran. I know a lot of the current Lisa I's floating around are frankenstein units made from loose parts (especially the drives). In contrast the last Xerox Alto (arguably it was an Alto II XM) I saw only managed to sell for $20000(shill bidding unconfirmed), so there's your benchmark when it comes to early GUI workstations.

With that auction he can't even say it works. When you are trying to fish for that kind of a customer is it really that hard to at least plug the damn thing in?