Twentieth Aniversary Mac Motherboard in 6400 Case

[Compgeke]

Unfortunately my TAM's LCD got shattered during the earthquake or move and my PSU for it has hid itself in the garage but I'd like to dump the ROM and such off it. 

I seem to remember reading once that the 6400\6500 boards are the same as TAM boards with only the external ports changed. The edge connector looks to line up with the one from my 6400 and my board has all the ports (including SCSI) so I'd assume it's just based on that.

Because I don't want to screw up a board I'm just looking to confirm that you can, in fact, throw a TAM board into a 6400's case.

 

[unity]

The TAM has no external SCSI connector. The only fitment issue I can see is this small board added. Here is a pic from another thread. If it looks like it will fit, it probably will.

As for the screen. Any PowerBook 3400 LCD will work. They sometimes come up new on eBay, but thats rare. So finding a cheap 3400 with a good display is your best bet.

 

[Compgeke]

Mine's actually an EVT and has all the regular ports on it and doesn't have that small board.





Knowing it should work fine in a 6400 case is good though as it's far easier to make sure the board works in that than in the actual TAM chassis itself.

 

[unity]

Nice! And good to know that is one does the reverse, one can leave the external port soldered in!

 

[Macdrone]

I have some 3400 screens if that what you need.

 

[360alaska]

Would you trade a 6500 board for your tam board?

 

[haplain]

Damn man your proto TAM got destroyed? That's awful. Your TAM (with the bronze inside) looks like mine. I've never seen another like it before. The plastic on mine is super fragile.... So is your entire proto unit destroyed sadness? My EVT TAM also has the headphone jack style ports on it like yours. 

 

[Compgeke]

Unfortunately. I didn't intend on stuff falling on it. Also missing the back panel somewhere, not entirely sure where that is but probably in a box in the garage. The casing isn't wrecked though, nor are any of the cables. The only pieces missing from the case that I know I had are the CD front and rear cover but I'm 99% certain I have both of them. The optical drive and keyboard with leather I know I don't as they were in storage which was lost in auction and I never had the speaker grills. 

Does your EVT's PSU have a tag on the bottom with a number? I know mine has a hand written tag "SN006" which I only assume is "Serial Number 006" but I don't know the history on it.

Related to the hardware though: The motherboard works fine in a 6400 case. It seems to be a revised 6500 board, complete with a 200 MHz 603ev (not 225 or 250 MHz 603e). 3D Rage II graphics, no onboard ROM (SIMM only) and regular 6400\6500 ports. The ROM is actually a stock 6500 ROM however there is a ROM flashing program that was on the original HDD that has the "Gazelle ROMondo" file, which is the stock 6500 rom.

 

[bibilit]

The motherboard works fine in a 6400 case. It seems to be a revised 6500 board

Does the board in the 6400 case produce the TAM chime ?

Any idea what the ROM flashing is for ?

 

[Compgeke]

It does, kind of fun hearing a 6400 with the TAM chime.

I assume the ROM flasher is due to it originally having a beta ROM image that wasn't compatible with newer Mac OS versions or whoever owned it originally didn't have to give it back so just flashed it to a production ROM to keep using.

 

[haplain]

I understand and hope that you can find your parts. If your's is like mine, the paint is a different color so doing a part swap isn't that simple. The rear cover on mine is also different than a stock TAM. It has vent holes on the bottom of it. 

My Bose unit does have a serial tag on the bottom but I can't recall what number. 

I can't quite recall what speed processor mine is. I want to say it's 250Mhz but it's been awhile since I looked at the specs on the machine once it's on. I use it for music and such as it has a 128GB  SSD in there with ~7k songs. Really cool to know there is another out there like mine though.

Does yours have a glossy screen cover on it? My speaker covers are also black versus the gray color that typically come with the TAM. Like yours, my TAM also has the stock 6500 board with a custom headphone connector for the sound.

 

[Compgeke]

Mine used to have the glossy screen protector on it but the glue fell off shortly after I got it. I doubt I'll find it again, it was just a piece of stiff plastic with a white border that fit where the trim piece on a production went.

 

[haplain]

Gotcha. 

 

[bibilit]

As for the screen. Any PowerBook 3400 LCD will work

The TAM was really a mix and match of several existing products:

The board was a modified 6500 board, the screen was the Pwb 3400's one, the keyboard coming from a 190/5300/3400 PWB, as well as the trackpad probably... all in the unique 20 th AM casing.

PSU was a modified Powermac 6400/6500 in the Bose enclosure.