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  1. PotatoFi

    Macintosh LCII Restoration

    This is "SimCity 1.4g". I think it might be this version? 1.4g has run on my SE FDHD, Classic II, and now the LCII with no trouble. It also runs in Mini vMac emulating a Plus. I seem to have lost the color tile set for it. I'd also like to see if SimCity 2000 will run on this machine... I'd...
  2. PotatoFi

    Fizzbinn’s Finds

    This is just tragic. I've gotten to the point where I'm hesitant to buy anything from eBay for fear of receiving a machine in this condition. I'm so sorry this happened to you!
  3. PotatoFi

    Macintosh LCII Restoration

    Good to know! I'm all set, thanks! I bought a SuperDrive from someone here on the forum. Dual floppy drives is super handy. This morning, I powered on the LCII! Sadly, I got a chime of death, which I've never actually heard before. I had a feeling it wouldn't boot, as it had one stick of RAM...
  4. PotatoFi

    Macintosh LCII Restoration

    Thanks! I would definitely consider using the "full submersion" method. Remove all metal parts, and make sure the parts don't float! That is key! As for the 68030... if there's a crack, this machine will never run, as it would likely be full of water. In-person, I don't remember seeing any...
  5. PotatoFi

    Macintosh LCII Restoration

    As a final prep step, I ran around with some desoldering braid and sucked up any remaining solder from the pads. This always leaves them nice and clean! Next, I applied a tiny bit of solder to one pad for each capacitor. I always hold my soldering iron in my dominant hand, and I tin the pad...
  6. PotatoFi

    Macintosh LCII Restoration

    During the week, the logic board happened to be sitting near the dishwasher while it was running. Here's what it looked like at the time: I decided to pop it in with the dishes, just for fun. I've never done this, but I do subject my logic boards to water all of the time, so why not. Fast...
  7. PotatoFi

    Macintosh LCII Restoration

    This one actually came from Craigslist. I paid $100 for it along with a Performa 476 and empty external floppy enclosure. Since it was a nice, sunny day, I immediately put the top in the bin to retrobrite. We'll come back to that in a bit, let's deal with the shield on the bottom half of the...
  8. PotatoFi

    Macintosh LCII Restoration

    Time to restore my Macintosh LCII! This one came from Craigslist. According to the previous owner, he'd never tried to power it on. The case seemed okay, but there was a lot of tape and stuff on it. You can tell where the monitor used to sit. I'd love to find a 12" RGB monitor for this...
  9. PotatoFi

    SE/30: another battery leak victim (in the bag)

    Truly impressive work. Thank you for rescuing this board!
  10. PotatoFi

    Macintosh SE/30 Restoration

    I have a slot on my SE/30 that is similarly broken, so I made these little 3D printed parts that press over the top and hold them in. If you need me to run off a set for you and drop them in the mail, I'd be happy to!
  11. PotatoFi

    SE/30 parts machine

    What's the "expensive part" of doing that? Sheer design time (I'm sure it would take a ton of work), or size/complexity of the PCB in manufacturing? I've only done small two-layer boards that are 100x100mm at most. Those were cheap when you buy 100 of them, but they were small and I could...
  12. PotatoFi

    SE/30 parts machine

    Makes me wonder if anyone will ever do a reproduction SE/30 logic board. Probably a ton of work. Would be neat if we could take a bad board and move parts over to a new PCB. As for spares, absolutely. For example, I have a Plus analog board with a bad flyback. And I need a fresh CRT for my...
  13. PotatoFi

    SE/30 parts machine

    Congrats on the conquest! Too bad it's missing a logic board. Sadly, there are a lot more SE/30's than logic boards at this point.
  14. PotatoFi

    Performa 476 Restoration

    Yes and yes!
  15. PotatoFi

    Macintosh SE SuperDrive Restoration

    Dang, that would be about 1/2 the price, and it would get here a lot faster. I'll look into cancelling my order with Sally Beauty. I was able to get 40 proof, which I think means 20 percent (I don't understand how the proof system works). As for the hammered finish... I think that would look...
  16. PotatoFi

    Macintosh SE SuperDrive Restoration

    A good friend of mine mentioned that he had a Macintosh SE SuperDrive that didn't work, so I offered to restore it for him. He lives about six hours away from me, so last fall, a mutual friend brought it up to Boise and handed it off to me. Wow, an original box! I've never seen one before, so...
  17. PotatoFi

    Performa 476 Restoration

    Quick follow-up: I had the machine running when we experienced an earthquake. We grabbed the kids and ran outside, while the machine and four 3D printers in my office kept running. A few minutes after the earthquake stopped, we were back inside, and settling down, the hard drive started making a...
  18. PotatoFi

    Performa 476 Restoration

    Last night there were two more things to tackle: the power supply and the floppy drive. First, the power supply. To keep track of screws, I write a tiny number next to each screw hole with a Sharpie to keep track of where they all go. Uh-oh. It immediately became apparent that this Astec PSU...
  19. PotatoFi

    Quadra 605 No Power

    Follow-up on this one: I specced out and purchased new caps, soldered them in, and it fixed it! I verified that it was outputting the right voltages on each pin before send it back to my friend, who said it booted right up. :) If you open up your Astec PSU and find that it is identical to...
  20. PotatoFi

    Performa 476 Restoration

    After leaving the bottom half of the case under the UV lamp all night, I decided that it was done. Time to switch to Retrobrite for the top. I started out with it outside: Cloud cover was hit-and-miss, so I ended up leaving it under the UV lamp inside all night. After a full night, I was very...
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