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This thing is bonkers. 256MB in an SE/30? Completely ridiculous. I just bought one. Excellent work, all.

Back in the day there were specific test jigs from Sony that the service data instructed you to use. Obviously if any of those still exist they're in the hands of specialists or rotting in the back of a closet somewhere and so you're not likely to find one. The other option is to use a...

Sonnet's slogan is (or was) "No switches. No control panels. Simply fast." So their products are generally fixed and/or auto-configurating drop-ins. Apple slot CPUs have fixed oscillators on them that generate the bus speed, so it stands to reason that Sonnet cards do, too. This is how you can...

I usually prefer spinning disks in those older machines just to keep the feel. However, if I do go solid state (especially on SCSI-based PBs where replacements aren't easy to get), I tend to use CF cards under 16GB. Those older cards are usually more compatible and those old machines rarely have...

The only pre-G3 desktop Mac I know for sure uses an ATA CDROM is the 4400 (and clones based on the Tanzania board). For a beige G3, depending on configuration (i.e., is it a low-end model with the Whisper personality card, or a high-end model with the Wings A/V and/or DVD decoder) I'll put in...

On Macs with double SCSI buses like the 8 and especially 9 series machines, usually they had the standard MESH cell (providing internal and external SCSI) integrated into whatever combo I/O chip they were using, and the fast SCSI bus (internal only) was implemented on a licensed copy of the...

There aren't really any major differences except in the power wires: the NuBus models use one 12V, two 5V, and three ground pins (though the grounds are all basically ganged together). The PCI models turn the innermost ground pin into a 3.3V supply. If you wanted to, you could make a universal...

Honestly I've never run a manual drive in a II. I never saw a reason to. I prefer the autos in either case. They're less PC. It's possible the manual inject drives are tolerant of undesirable signals in a way that the older autos aren't. I know they switched a couple pins around for the manual...

Yeah I don't know what the deal is. Another person on here a while back did the same mod to a 2.7 with the same results: overheating on some apps, normal on others. It's not apps but the OS that's supposed to control the fans, either directly or by communicating with a thermal subsystem...

I usually don't have problems with adapters. They tend to be passive devices so as long as they don't look like they're made of garbage they should function as intended. One of the reasons most people are happy that SCSI and ATA went away in favor of SATA and SAS is that there's basically no...

There was a bridge period from about 1992 to 1994 where auto- and manual-inject drives were switching in and logic board upgrades were common, so several boards were available that could do both types (for example, LC 475, LC 575, Quadra 650, the NuBus PowerMacs). Some models such as the Quadra...

I prefer using spinners in classic computers but they're getting expensive and they're all gonna die someday *stares into the distance and contemplates own mortality* Anyway, basically any SCSI drive will work with the onboard SCSI subsystem. If you get something that's not a 50-pin drive, such...

Why did they do it? Well an 83MHz bus is ~20% faster than a 66MHz bus. The G3s were clocked at 250 and 292 because those were the closest they could get with the standard .5 multipliers (the 250 was probably actually rated at 250 while the 292 was rated for 300). Why did they stop? It added...

Good to see there has been some progress on this. On a related note, on YouTube a user called dosdude1 has successfully swapped a 740 onto Action Retro's TAM. Any chance one or both of them are members here and can be asked what went on for that swap? Supposedly it was done at one of the VCFs...

Neat. The only question is: how effective is it? Does the Mac stay cool under load? I did an air mod to a DP 2.7 and, while it mostly works, sometimes the fans will not spin up under load and it starts overheating. I did thermal recalibration on it and it passed. If I open specific programs like...

Battery-bombed or otherwise damaged boards (for example I have a CC board where apparently something dissolved half the legs off the '030, which is really weird) can often be used to save something else. If the missing components aren't unavailable ASICs or anything, the major stuff can be...

Nice. The mechs are basically the same across the board (at least, as far as the classic externals like this go) so if you have a SCSI type with the click and a working parallel type, you can swap mechs and restore the SCSI one. I don't believe it's difficult to prevent the click but it does...

Yeah that Moto chip basically is there to double the incoming frequency (which would be 16MHz in an LC/LCII/CC) to drive the new CPU (which is 33MHz here). Interware had a few cards that operated like this. Personally I don't know why they bothered with the one specifically for the IIvi...

Well that's too bad. I've had a couple machines just... quit on me. Working fine and then 'oh hey I'm dead now, bye.' It could still be a RAM problem with the soldered RAM. I think that's what happened with my iBook G4 1.42 years ago (never fixed it; just replaced the board). I have a couple...

I can probably get you a set of original ROMs if needed. I have one or two battery bombed boards that won't be working again.