Classic II (my first 68k Mac and it's a compact!)

[protocol7]

Just arrived in today. I bought it off a guy who advertised it on a board I stalk.

There's some ink marks on it for ports etc and a couple of removed stickers show up the yellowing, but it seems in good shape otherwise. Hardware tests all passed in MTP.

Has 4MB RAM and a 40MB hard disk. Running 7.1.

I think I overheard the Amigas grumbling amongst themselves earlier. They were kings of the 68k hill here for well over a decade. But now a contender has arrived...

 

[Gil]

Very nice! Ironically, I just got my first compact Mac yesterday - an SE dual 800k.

 

[protocol7]

Very nice! Ironically, I just got my first compact Mac yesterday - an SE dual 800k.

Nice! You'll have to put up some pics when you get a chance.

I went through the hard disk clearing out the dozen or so personal docs, which left me with ClarisWorks, Works 2 and a few games (IAGO, Shufflepuck, Wheel and Lost In a Maze). It's feels pretty sluggish (probably due to System 7 and 4MB RAM) so I'll try installing 6.0.8L later and see how it feels with that.

One nice thing is that it seems to use the same PRAM battery as the G3 iMacs, so I can replace that easily as I have a few spares (unlike the 4.5v ones). But that'll have to wait until I get the right T15 screwdriver and enough courage to tackle opening this thing.

 

[Dog Cow]

That's weird why someone removed the serial number. Anyway, have fun with your second-class Mac.

Bonus Questions for oldbies/whomever:

1.) Why is the Classic II second class?

2.) To which Mac is it second class?

 

[Mars478]

1.) Why is the Classic II second class?

2.) To which Mac is it second class?

Apple Purposley hampered the RAM.

And it is second only to the venerable SE/30!

 

[protocol7]

Not to mention putting the 68030 on a 16-bit bus.

I created a 6.0.8L disk set, initialized the hard disk and put on a lean install (Classic II System Software only, no printers) and the speed difference is crazy. Perhaps the old installation was a bit flaky but from chime to desktop it now takes 10.5 seconds!

One problem I'm noticing is that the speaker will start crackling after a while. Volume goes down lower and eventually you can't even hear the startup chime. Loose wire maybe?

 

[Mars478]

One problem I'm noticing is that the speaker will start crackling after a while. Volume goes down lower and eventually you can't even hear the startup chime. Loose wire maybe?

Capacitors.

 

[protocol7]

Urk so that's why I see so much re-capping talk. One more thing to look at when I get it opened then.

 

[beachycove]

Some of us think washing the little buggers a viable (if temporary) alternative to The Full re-capping Monty, but YMMV.

What version of 7 was on there? 7.0 should be snappy enough; 7.5.5 would be unbearable.

A CII running System 6 is, however, an elegant and very usable machine, which will run Word 5.1 etc. very nicely. The plastics in the photos look good, too.

 

[protocol7]

Washing them? Interesting. When I get it opened I'll take some pictures of the board and caps and let you guys see what they look like.

Yep the casing is in great condition (bar the yellowing) There's a couple of small scratches on the right hand side inside a non-yellowed spot, so I'm guessing there must have been a microphone holder attached there at some stage.

The original system was 7.1. But it took quite a while to load and even moving files into folders or deleting them took a number of seconds with the busy cursor popping up. Felt like everything was happening in slow motion. MTP did say the directory structure on the disk needed repair so perhaps that was to blame. In any case after re-initializing the disk and putting on 6.0.8 it's flying now (and without virtual memory, which 7 was using).

I might try 7 again at some stage (the biggest problem I have here is finding disks that will format all the way) but for now I'm gonna spend some quality time in System 6 as I've never really done that (apart from my early forays into Mac emulation with vMac). I had to tear myself away from the Wheel game (word puzzle). It's one of those games you decide to have a quick bash at and find yourself hooked. I've uploaded it here (MacBinary) for anyone who wants to have a look.

 

[30pin]

The Classic II is a great little unit. Very sleek looking for a basic box. Very usable for a lot of writing jobs. Adding a newer harddrive will speed things along. When you do open it up, vacuming the air intake screen helps keep things cool. I have seen the screens 90% plugged with lint and fur!! There are lots of vintage games available. Loads of information on repairs and mods too!

 

[Unknown_K]

The two major issues with compacts is capacitors dying and screen burn/focus problems.

I find it odd how Apple went from expandable SE/SE30's to a Classic 2 with no expansion whatsoever. While few people needed a CPU upgrade, not being able to have built in ethernet is a pain.

 

[joshc]

I find it odd how Apple went from expandable SE/SE30's to a Classic 2 with no expansion whatsoever.

Maybe stupid, but not odd. There's a simple explanation which is adequately documented in many Apple history books. It was a change in Apple's strategy and part of their objective to roll out a line of simple, cheap consumer Macs which could be manufactured very cheaply - the first of these was of course the first Classic. But if you look at Apple's past, they made quite a few crippled machines - so I guess you could just count the Classic II as one of those.

 

[Dog Cow]

The original Classic was released as part of a line-up which also included the LC and the IIsi. All three of the machines were intended for the low-budget market: Classic as the cheap b&w compact, LC as low-cost color, and the IIsi as a low-cost Mac with slots.