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tommijazz91 conquests

tommijazz91

Well-known member
I never started a comprehensive "conquests" thread until now, mainly because I never thought I'd buy many things in these last years. But I came across some really nice pieces, so I'd like to share them with you guys. Some things may have been already posted, but I don't remember what was lost in the recent data loss so here they are.

Last year I came across a non-working Color Classic for 50$. Since then, I searched for LC550 and LC575 logic boards to upgrade it as soon as I had a chance to repair it.

My first conquest was off Buyee, this LC550 logic board. Untested, but promising as there are no signs of corrosion, just sings of humidity around some chips:

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I realize now I already posted it last year, but....whatever :)

Next, and I am sure many of you remember, I won a LC575 that arrived completely destroyed. Here is the picture for posterity:

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Fortunately, the logic board survived. Very dirty, dust everywhere, but no signs of corrosion or broken things. Aside from that, the only surviving piece I could find was the front buttons for volume and brightness. Maybe floppy drive and CD drive work, who knows. Can you believe that?

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I am really looking forward to the time I'll be able to put everything together. Building a nice Color Classic (CCII or Mystic) would be amazing! But I don't have the skills, so it'll have to wait until I find someone who can help me.
 

tommijazz91

Well-known member
Some months later, thanks to @slomacuser , I got this beautiful Powerlogix G3 500Mhz card to upgrade my PM 9600/300: my very first accelerator!
I haven't tested it yet but it's clearly in excellent shape! I'm sure I'll feel the difference in speed with this one!

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jessenator

Well-known member
w/re: the heatsink—just be sure when/if you replace the thermal paste you don't crank too hard on it or it'll bust the thin mounting adapter that the heatsink screws into! Otherwise you'll have to use zip ties 🤣

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tommijazz91

Well-known member
That's a really visually striking heatsink design! I like it.
Thanks! It's also the first time for me!

w/re: the heatsink—just be sure when/if you replace the thermal paste you don't crank too hard on it or it'll bust the thin mounting adapter that the heatsink screws into! Otherwise you'll have to use zip ties 🤣
Thanks, I'll remember that! I hope it will be something I have to do in the distant future 😆
 

tommijazz91

Well-known member
I just had the chance to open a package I left in a corner for a while because of lack of time…I found this nice but very yellowed Macintosh Plus, with mouse and keyboard, for 25€ just 2 hours by car from where I live!
The owner said he bought it in order to modify it internally with a Raspberry pi and LCD 😱. He also told me it made buzzing sounds when trying to turn it on.

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Once unpacked, I tested keyboard and mouse with a working Mac Plus, and they work flawlessly! Also the keyboard is nice, has Italian/French layout and only needs a bit of cleaning. The mouse has corroded pins but works very well.

I then proceeded to inspect the Mac itself:

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Not promising at all hahaha….I felt a shiver down my spine and started opening it. Of course I forgot about the screw behind the battery compartment so I wondered for quite a while why the case wouldn’t detach 🙃.
And here it is:

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At this point I suddenly remember the words of the previous owner, saying the garage the Mac was kept in was flooded and water came running down the walls…..oh well, can't complain for 25€, but it was sad to see.
I then looked at the logic board, and I was quite surprised to see it like this:

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Aside from the metal parts near the ports, the board looks almost pristine!
The analog board also looked quite unaffected by corrosion, but I will not try to start up this machine as I have no skills in this field and cannot repair it. It was a nice find though, and the keyboard is especially nice.
 

cheesestraws

Well-known member
I have no skills in this field and cannot repair it

Well, if you wanted to start learning, the Plus is an excellent machine to start learning on—it's reasonably simple, pretty robust, and they're common enough that if you make a mess of it it's not too upsetting.
 

tommijazz91

Well-known member
Well, if you wanted to start learning, the Plus is an excellent machine to start learning on—it's reasonably simple, pretty robust, and they're common enough that if you make a mess of it it's not too upsetting.
I thought about it, but I really don't have the time for it right now, university and other things are absorbing almost all my time in a day…but maybe in the future I'll reconsider it. I often feel that having these skills would spare me a trip to a repair store 😀.
 

joshc

Well-known member
Like @cheesestraws said, the Plus is a good place to start because it is a pretty simple machine, and thankfully, the repairs needed are well documented and a Plus is usually not very difficult to get working again. Even back when these were in regular use in the 80s, problems with the analog boards were common and several books were released covering the methods to repair them. Since then, modern resources have become available (e.g. YouTube videos, web pages) that explain what to do. If you decide to look at getting it running, I'd be happy to post resources that will help you make some progress.
 

tommijazz91

Well-known member
Thank you so much, @joshc ! In fact I found a friend who is interested in lending me a hand…the thought of repairing it ourselves is very tempting, and in the next months we will probably look into it!
I will post again here if there are updates 😃
 
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