Sometimes you get a funny feeling...

[LCGuy]

...that you're going to go somewhere and find some Apple goodies. As I did today. I had to go to the dentist this morning. After that I went to a nearby tip shop that I don't visit very often. Haven't been there in a few months, but its been good to me in the past. Anyway I had a look around...just the usual stuff...old cassette decks from cars, VCRs, DVD players, more inkjet printers than there are people in the Bundaberg region, etc. Near the back of the tip shop, outside, I saw this great big pile of CRT TVs. Nothing of interest....apart from a very yellowed and dirty Indigo iMac! There was a bit of stuff between me and the pile...I actually wasn't sure if any of the stuff on the pile was for sale. Quick check, nobody looking...so I went and grabbed it, brought it back into the shop and asked how much they want for it. $10. Bought it and put it in the back of the car and came home. Given that its pretty disgusting, especially underneath, I wasn't entirely sure as to what my chances are of it working. First thing I did once I brought it inside was to open the access door on the bottom so I could check the RAM/AirPort slots for any upgades ('tis stock unfortunately). The interior of the door has mud on it, which leads me to believe that this machine may have actually been in the Christmas 2010/2011 floods. Anyway I figured I might as well try powering it up...plugged it in, turned it on..and gets as far as a blinking question mark. Thats a damn good sign anyway. Next I'm going to remove the DVD drive and make sure its not damaged...I don't want to try putting discs in there until I can be confident that they won't get damaged.

As for what I plan to do with it once I get it going...not sure. Probably just keep it for spares for my iMac DV+ (which I also got at the tip shop). Its speakers will be coming out and will be replacing the blown speakers in the iMac DV+. Either way, for $10 I think I did alright.

 

[commodorejohn]

Heh, yep...I was thinking to myself yesterday morning "oh, I won't bother dropping by the recycle center, probably nothing good there now that they're clearing so much stuff out, anyway I've got stuff that needs doing." Then I get this funny feeling like maybe I ought to just drop by and have a quick look anyway. I do, and what do I find? Two 2002 MDD Power Mac G4s, that's what, and I got them for $10 apiece because the owner doesn't really care about anything but scrap value Even though one of them appears to be having hard-drive controller trouble...I'm glad I listened to the little nagging voice in my head

 

[mcdermd]

Nice finds, guys. The indigo was my first new world Mac.

I hate it when you have "the feeling" but don't find anything. Like its still out there somewhere but you've completely missed it.

 

[LCGuy]

I will admit - I do get that feeling quite a bit...and most of the time it turns out to be a false alarm...so its nice to see it actually happen for real this time.

Anyway...I've since had a look at the iMac - the CD-ROM (turns out it doesn't have a DVD or CD-RW as I first hoped it did, just a CD-ROM) is fine, and it turns out the System Folder just needed to be re-blessed. After I did that it booted straight into 9.1. Meanwhile the botttom cover and EMI shield went into the tub for a wash and actually came up rather well. As you can see the machine is fairly yellowed, and after I cranked up the sound I discovered that the speakers are indeed blown. Seems to be happening to all these machines. Either way...I'm happy...for a flood damaged machine it seems to be in very good shape. Next on the agenda (after I give the machine itself a good clean) is an upgrade to 512MB of RAM, an 80GB HDD, and a fresh install of 9.2.2 and 10.4.11.

 

[macman142]

Yuck, that's filthy!

Nice save though, I'm sure it'll come up alright with some TLC.

 

[Scott Baret]

There's hope for anything with cleaning.

ADB Keyboard from when I found it:

Same keyboard along with SE (modified with cool blue LED!), which was equally filthy prior to cleaning:

 

[antony701]

Nice found LCGuy!

Perhaps I shall visit the tip shop (I call it junk shop) more often.

 

[Unknown_K]

Vintage keyboards seem to be the dirtiest items I have come across collecting over the years. Most will look new with a complete parts off cleaning (the key labels seem to servive well enough on old keyboards).

I wish I took some pictures of my IBM PS/2 Model 90 when I got it. It looked dusty as hell on the outside but when I opened up the case it was wall to wall whitish fuzz like a pillows guts were stuffed into the case. Looks mint now and 100% functional.

 

[sunder]

Before you take out the DVD drive, you could always burn a copy of the OS on a DVD-R or a 10.4 boot CD-R and try to boot off of that. CD-R/DVD-R media is quite cheap. :beige:

Sounds like you're gonna have a quite a time cleaning this little beastie out. But look at it this way, you saved it from the junk yard.