Daniël's Conquests

[Daniël]

Since I've started acquiring more and more 68k and PowerPC Macs, I suppose opening a personal conquests thread is appropriate  ;D

Now, I've had a lot of good finds in the past, and I might make posts about them here, but I'll denote them as old finds as to not create any confusion 

Anyways, to kick off this thread, I'll talk about today's find, a Macintosh SE/30. Since it's late and I don't feel like setting the Mac up for a photoshoot, I'll just borrow the seller's photos:

There is a catch however, this SE/30 is no longer working, therefore we agreed on the price of €30. The seller had suspected that the analog board had gone bad, as when turning on the Mac, no image would appear on the CRT at all. He also said it didn't chime, but he thought it was due to the speaker cable not being attached to the logic board. It had been a while since he last messed with the SE/30, so he couldn't remember a whole lot about it, he thought it was still running Linux 68k, and that he had replaced the PRAM battery at some point.

Once I had picked it up and gotten back at home, I swapped the logic boards between the SE/30 and my SE, which I know is working as it should, and something interesting happened: The SE board booted up fine in the SE/30 chassis, and the CRT worked fine. The exact opposite happened to the SE/30 board in the SE chassis, it was doing exactly the same as it was doing in its own. Also, the chime never played, but this was no surprise as the speaker cable was attached to the SE/30 board when I took it apart.

After looking around, I noticed that a trace had been eaten away, with copper sticking up. One end of the trace went to a pad, which in turn had a jumper wire soldered to it, which connected to a pin on the chip marked as UI6 on the board. The other end of the broken trace seemed to go to the Gate Logic Unit chip. After looking up the Apple part number for the UI6 chip, which was 341-0665-A, I found out that this is a PAL HSync chip.

The schematics I found, if I'm reading those correctly, seemed to show that the jumper and trace connect pin 8 of said chip, which is for the FC0 line, to pin 29 of the GLU chip. I'm a little tired, so I could be wrong on that, but I am fairly certain this is correct. It would make sense for the SE/30 to fail to display a video signal or even boot if a data line for the HSync of the video signal is missing, and the Mac could potentially also have bad caps, worsening any symptoms this could have already caused.

I'm not very good at soldering beyond simple components, but with some patience I should be able to double check my suspicions, and resolder that jumper wire straight to the corresponding pin on the GLU, bypassing the broken trace. That, along with a board cleaning and a recap job, should get this SE/30 back on the road. I also found out that the SE/30 has been fitted with a 100MB IBM SCSI drive, and four 4MB RAM SIMMS, totalling the system RAM to 16MB.

 

[joethezombie]

Neat!  Keep us informed of the repair progress.  Also, I love seeing pictures of our old friends before being "cleaned up" or retr0brighted.  I especially love to see how individuals personalized their equipment, especially with stickers.  Thanks for sharing!

 

[Daniël]

Yes, the sticker definitely adds some character to this Mac, and I think I'll keep it neatly on there. The seller had it as his computer for when he was studying, and since he had kids that makes me think he was about my age (I'm 18) when he got this computer, probably second hand as the floppies he gave me with it all date to '97. It can't be earlier than '94, since the sticker on the side is from a radio station that used that specific logo between 1994 and 2003. It's a funny logo, of a chick with sunglasses: 

The station was (and to this day still is) aimed at teenagers/young adults, and the chick comes from a TV ad they ran. 

There's also a  few scuffs on the same side that I'm not sure I can remove, and if that's the case, that sticker won't be alone for much longer

 

[Daniël]

EDIT: 68kMLA decided to not actually embed the pictures despite showing them in the editor. Click on the JPG names to open them in a new tab!

Dusting this thread off, given I found something Mac related again. The thrift shop I go to nearly weekly, posted a picture of their computer and A/V section recently, with a PowerMac G3 B&W sitting amongst the PC towers.

Went over the next day (which was yesterday), and it was still there, untested for €20. Other than being pretty dirty, it looked in good shape, no cracks in the plastics, etc.

Gave it a lookover, it has a RAM config of 1x512MB, 2x256MB, and 1x128MB, totalling up to 896MB usable as the PMG3 treats 512MB DIMMs as 256MB. It had two HDDs, presumably the original 12GB Apple branded Quantum Fireball, as well as an Apple branded 4GB WD Caviar 24300, presumably ripped out of some older Mac. It also had an Avid audio workstation card, but more importantly, it actually has a Sonnet Encore G4 upgrade! The 500MHz, 1MB Cache version to be exact. Although this is a nice bonus, it's kind of a bummer because I'd like to have it as a G3, so I have a PowerMac of every "G". Maybe some day I'll find the 1.1GHz PowerLogix card, so I have the fastest G3, fastest (stock) G4, and fastest G5.

 

[olePigeon]

I've noticed that several threads are losing their pictures.  Something's definitely odd going on.

 

[Cory5412]

This is an error we know about. When wthww has an opportunity, whatever's causing this will be fixed. Uploads directly to the site should be fixed at that point as well.

Some more information is available in the site bug-tracker thread in the lounge, starting with this post:

 

[Daniël]

Saw an ad for a Quadra 800 on Facebook Marketplace yesterday. I occasionally check it, although I hadn't found anything truly interesting there yet. Well, a Quadra for €20 definitely is! Was shown next to some PC monitor, which turned out to be a Trinitron (made by Sony sticker on the back). It was listed just 8 minutes ago when I saw it, so I pounced on it immediately.

Got to pick it up, it came with a box of PS/2 mice, as well as two ADB mice and a serial Logitech mouse (which will be useful for my old PCs). Also two keyboards, an Apple Keyboard II with some melted caps, and a dirty and partially yellowed Apple Extended Keyboard II. I think I have an AKII with a busted cap, if so, I'll cannibalize that melted AKII for that cap, and chuck it. The AEKII is getting a good clean however, that's definitely a keeper.

It also had a bunch of floppies with it, most related to design work. I did check the seller's FB profile, where I noticed that he was a retired graphic designer, so it's not too surprising that he had a Mac Quadra 800 back then. Weirdly, it also came with an ASRock SIS-chipset Socket A board from the early 2000s, and an Arris DSL modem. Chucking the modem for sure, but that ASRock board might be good to test and sell on if it's good.

Checked it out at home, got a bit nervous when I couldn't get video out of several VGA monitors, even when playing with the DIP switches on the adapter provided with the Quadra, but eventually I just dug out an Apple Trinitron I had, and yep, works just fine! I was already hearing it chime, and beep once booted (due to unsafely shutting it down), when messing with it on VGA monitors, but seeing it work was a relief.

For the eagle eyed amongst you, you might see one of the reset/interrupt buttons is missing. It broke off when taking the case off, typical Apple Spindler plastic. I'll probably clean out the case and Mac thoroughly, and epoxy it back on.

But yeah, very pleased with this system at this price. I wanted a 68k tower Mac to go with my Compact 68k Macs, and this is just what I need. Most powerful Mac that can run A/UX too, which is very nice

 

[krishnadraws]

Love the form factor on this Quadra. I remember drooling over these Macs when they were new.

 

[Daniël]

Yeah, I quite like the "Espresso" design language Apple had at that time, even on Macs like the Color Classic. That said, the internal design on the 800 is ridiculously over complicated, and getting the board out requires manipulating plastic snaps that are made out of that horrible "Spindler plastic" that was already notorious for snapping back in the day, let alone now. Thankfully it doesn't have electrolytic caps on the board, so I realistically don't need to get to the board often, just now to pull the PRAM battery, and at some point maybe for memory upgrades. NuBus stuff is horridly expensive these days, so unless I luck out again, I'll leave well enough alone!

 

[joshc]

Yeah, I quite like the "Espresso" design language Apple had at that time, even on Macs like the Color Classic. That said, the internal design on the 800 is ridiculously over complicated, and getting the board out requires manipulating plastic snaps that are made out of that horrible "Spindler plastic" that was already notorious for snapping back in the day, let alone now. Thankfully it doesn't have electrolytic caps on the board, so I realistically don't need to get to the board often, just now to pull the PRAM battery, and at some point maybe for memory upgrades. NuBus stuff is horridly expensive these days, so unless I luck out again, I'll leave well enough alone!

Keep an eye on your Quadra's PSU - my Power Mac 8200 uses a similar one and it blew up (literally, one of the ICs exploded) - unfortunately I don't know why or how it happened. I've heard stories of this happening with Quadra 8xx machines too unfortunately.

Agreed, the case design is horrid inside! You can definitely see the Steve Jobs influence as the design of the G3 era machines is much simplified compared to these.

 

[Daniël]

I've mentioned this one a few times, figure it was time to snap a few pics and post it here. 

I picked up this 6100 locally for €20. It's not in the greatest shape, and initially I wanted to just go as cheapo as possible fixing it up. However, I get sucked into wanting to kit out my Macs and other computers pretty damn quick, and with the AV and HPV cards not being that pricey, I might grab that if I can get a riser. Not gonna get a Crescendo for it, as I want this to be my post-040, pre-G3 machine. 

Because it's not in the greatest shape (back I/O plastic is fragile as hell, one chunk is gone, another part snapped off, one of the reset/interrupt button plastic bits was already gone, the other snapped off, etc.), I do feel like doing a few mods on it. I want to desolder the AAUI connector, and wire up a regular AUI to RJ45 transceiver internally to the pads of the AAUI connector, so I'll just be able to mount the RJ45 connector where the AAUI originally went. I'll make a custom bit of shielding with some holes for activity LEDs. I'm also thinking about getting rid of the HDI-45 connector, as I don't plan on getting an HDI-45 monitor, and adding in the DB-15 and ADB connectors in its place, so I can attach an extra ADB device and do easy dual monitors on this Mac if I get an HPV card, and otherwise just to have video out at all. If I don't get an HPV card, I might keep the HDI-45 in place, but make a custom PDS card slot blank with the holes for the connectors, and just run wires from the solder pads of the HDI connector to those connectors (I do have the original plastic blanking plate, just disattached in this pic as I was doing some measuring).

It has a few rust spots, which I will have to tackle at some point. Think I'll just sand it, and hit those areas with some automotive primer. Doesn't need to be pretty, just keep the rust away. The SCSI drive is toast, as is the floppy. The machine got fed some soy sauce or pancake syrup (smelt awfully sweet in those areas) in the floppy slot, which caused corrosion there, and someone also stuck in a bunch of toothpicks, probably to try and shove a floppy in as the foreign liquid mixed up with the lubricant which made it rather sluggish. The top head's slightly knocked out of place, probably due to that, as is its ribbon cable, so I've figured it's not worth for anything but spare parts. 

The PSU fan was shot, but I found another 80mm fan, also by Adda, in a scrap PSU in the garage. It's slightly thicker, so I did have to persuade the PSU to go back together a bit, but it appears not to short out anything or be obstructed, and puts out a nice amount of airflow. I might put a blower fan under the hard drive space, as I've seen in a YouTube video by @IIfx, to aid with airflow. I figure with a card in there, it could use the extra cooling.

So yeah, I figure this one is going to become another money vacuum, but hey, I want to have fun with old Macs and I'll sure as hell have it with this one!

 

[IIfx]

I might put a blower fan under the hard drive space, as I've seen in a YouTube video by @IIfx, to aid with airflow

Glad you found that tidbit potentially useful. The cooling design of the 6100 is barely sufficient. Once you add a hot card (486DX2 or a G3/G4) it will cross the thermal threshold under load. Age has made these less stable, with leaky caps. I recapped mine and it's now super stable.

6100 is a good machine but it isn't perfect. It's a representative pizza box system of 1994, along with the SPARCStation 4/5 and SGI Indy. All of these had their benefits and their target markets. I'd say a 6100 is most fun with the PC Compat card. Otherwise it makes a good 93/94 era Mac gaming machine.

Nice finds - the 800, the G3, and this will make a great pair.

 

[Daniël]

My Quadra 700 arrived today! I got it after offering the seller with the whole boatload of 68k and beige PowerPC Macs on Marktplaats to ship him a box he could ship it to me in. I've wanted to get into YouTubing about my old Macs and other computers, so the unboxing and initial inspection of the Mac is how I'm kicking off the channel!

 

[olePigeon]

I think you seriously lucked out.  I'm surprised that machine wasn't in a hundred pieces.  Not enough packing material.

 

[olePigeon]

I didn't know the CPU card blocked one of the remaining 2 NuBUS slots.  That's unfortunate.

 

[Daniël]

I think you seriously lucked out.  I'm surprised that machine wasn't in a hundred pieces.  Not enough packing material.

In hindsight, yeah, I should have had more packing material and a bigger box, but in my defense, this was packed with the Dutch postal service in mind. My track record with them has been nothing short of excellent when it comes to package handling, I've had sellers do truly garbage packing jobs (or lack there of!), which still did not destroy the contents. A free Lian Li PC60 case for example, the seller was willing to ship it if I paid for that, and it was just set in a box and shipped like that. Not a single dent on it. So my aim was to make the Quadra 700 just not shift around in the box, which for PostNL should make it safe enough. 

I didn't know the CPU card blocked one of the remaining 2 NuBUS slots.  That's unfortunate.

Might be a good reason to use it in the Quadra 800, with its higher NuBus slot count. Though, that said, I don't really have any plans to get NuBus cards with current market rates, but who knows what will come my way.

 

[olePigeon]

@Daniël Oosterhuis  When I was shipping a lot of computers, I used to buy those foam pool noodles on Amazon or large discount store.  They're usually only US $1 a piece.  You can then cut them however you like, and they worked great for shipping compact Macs (even one to Japan.)  Didn't have a single one break the plastics (though I did have 2 break off the LED connector from the SCSI2SD ... which must have been quite the jostle.)

If you cut out a 90 degree wedge into the foam noodle, you can then line them like bumpers along the edges of the computer (or printer, or monitor ,or anything.)  Glue them together with hot glue.  Cheap and effective custom foam shipping inserts.

 

[olePigeon]

Might be a good reason to use it in the Quadra 800, with its higher NuBus slot count. Though, that said, I don't really have any plans to get NuBus cards with current market rates, but who knows what will come my way.

In hindsight, it seems they designed the CPU accelerator to fit the most machines.  So Quadra 800, 900, 950, etc. can probably use it just fine.  It's just the 700 where it's an issue.

However, someone could make an angle adapter for the Q700.  That would be pretty useful to keep the 2 NuBus slots while still using the accelerator.

 

[Daniël]

Got this Quadra in a few days ago, as the 68k brother to the 6100. It's a Quadra 610, fitted with 28MB of RAM (4MB onboard, one stick of 16MB and one stick of 8MB), as well as the full 1MB of VRAM (512KB onboard, two sticks of 256KB) and a 1080MB IBM Pegasus SCSI-2 HDD. 

Now, if you thought the Quadra 700 was inadequately packaged, this one was much, much worse. The seller used a similar box, but practically no packaging worth a damn. He put the Quadra diagonally in the box, as that was the only way it fit. It sat with the back of the computer against one of the bottom sides, and with the front of the computer to one of the top sides. It was wrapped in a bath towel, yes, a bath towel, with some airpacks and cardboard packaging material thrown loosely in the box, practically serving no purpose to protect the Macintosh.

Like I mentioned though, PostNL is fairly gentle on packages, and only three small chunks of the deeply yellowed and brittle back panel came off. That plastic is really awful and fragile as it is, just like on the 6100, so with the packing job, I think that's really not that bad. What is annoying is that clearly some bits of plastic were already missing as I didn't find the chunks for those, specifically the clip on one of the sides where the latch clips on. With that gone, that side is just loose. Good thing it's a horizontal pizzabox machine, where gravity (and maybe a monitor, although knowing the brittleness of the plastic, no CRT!) will keep it in place. 

The good news is that it works, even though the caps have leaked. The leakage seemed fairly fresh, and a small patch that bubbled with the computer turned on came off easily with some alcohol and a good scrub. No damage to the traces, so it should be a relatively easy recap job. With this machine, I now have five machines capable of running A/UX, once I get all of them up and running I really ought to do something with all of them