IIsi Complete System & Extras

[jessenator]

Well, I got a little impatient on my SE/30 swirling, ethereal plans and acted on this local classifieds ad. I got more than what I was expecting.

The Whole System

Bought it from the original owner's grandson, which was bought new in '91, it seems like there was no major updates done to it! Not even a major system update. Seemed motivated and reluctant to sell as he was moving. Once I get my SCSI2SD I'm going to get him the contents of the internal HDD as they contain family members' life sketches and so forth, and I want him to have the original files. I might even get plain-text versions as I'm not entirely sure what can open ancient WordPerfect files anymore.

The monitor is one I remember from being a "student technician" in high school with the degaussing button on the back. Man I've forgotten how loud the soft power-on was! ...and how loud the SCSI HDDs are. Definitely not going to miss that.

Start-up was fast. It's using some custom disk manager called "KidsTime" which doesn't let me see the system folder. But it's running 7.0.1

I wasn't expecting all of these extras  

And individual Shots

Sealed (hard to see)

Seal appears recently broken?

What needs done that I can see:
With only 3MB of original RAM, I could probably give it a boost with the RAM I original purchased for said phantom SE/30.

The disk drive will need tending to as well (see above).

The monitor has a green tinge on the black areas. Is that fixable with some re-capping? It's not terribly noticeable in the drawn areas with the full desktop going.
I'm guessing the GGLabs ROM SIMM I have won't really do anything on this machine. Am I wrong there?
Definitely going to re-cap the logic board and most likely the PSU
Rtr0brite on the cases, which aren't terrible, the monitor being the worst, will be in order, too

Anything else?

 

[IlikeTech]

GET THAT MAXELL OUT OF THERE is number 1 priority. :scrambled:

 

[jessenator]

GET THAT MAXELL OUT OF THERE is number 1 priority. :scrambled:

yeah, not a moment too soon... thanks! I was too excited to remember what I just watched not 15 minutes before about that very thing...

 

[Johnnya101]

Gotta ask... What do you have for local classifieds? Or do you just mean craigslist? All of the normal places to look are dry by me.

I've got a dual pds riser card for a IIsi, could load it with an Ethernet card and accelerator or something?

You NEED to recap the logic board and the PSU. The IIsi PSUs are really bad quality cap wise.

 

[IlikeTech]

Oh dang that was close :/

 

[jessenator]

Good to know, thanks. I'll make them a priority, thanks! Edit: I took a closer look and yeah, they're leaking onto the board already...
I was going to PM you about a couple of things, actually, now I have this...

In Utah, and some of SE Idaho, we use KSL classifieds more than CL, although I have spotted some non-Mac-related things there that don't show up on KSL. Some use both, depending. That's the place I made an offer for the SE/30, and he's nice guy from as much as I've talked to him, but he's making his buyer do an awful lot of work and following up. I think his attachment is more sentimental, because as far as I'm aware he's never tried listing it on ebay. Or maybe he doesn't like it  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ While vintage mac stuff doesn't come up often, and if it does, most of the time people use ebay as their model for pricing. There was a mystic CC up for all of two days, and that was the best price I've seen in a long time, even less than what I paid for this lot. I should've jumped on it quicker. My other SE/30 potential is from an unlikely source: I randomly posted a comment about them being worth preserving on imgur and a guy mentioned I might want his. He's pretty busy it seems, because I haven't gotten regular correspondence from him. But I won't give up hope on that front. There's also some idiotic state rule about school surplus, so none of that ever saw public auction or anything. Some of it went to DI (Deseret Industries), the local equivalent of Goodwill, but that was mostly private University surplus, not public schools. I remember probably back in '98 or '99 seeing CARTS of II-series machines being loaded up in the back of the local DI near me. And those are always barren, even worse are the Savers.. most of the time PC towers are missing motherboards... It's like, wtf do you even put it out there if you scrap it?

Since my main goal was to get the Mac, there is lots of miscellany I might put up in the trading post soon, if that's even stuff people are interested in. I'll certainly do it here before the 'bay.
 

 

[IIfx]

Ah the Iisi! I’ve always liked those. Had one for a while with Nubus adapter but ended up selling it to fund other Mac projects.

Architecture wise it’s an interesting combination of a cut down IIci with a SE/30 compatible PDS plus some chips from the LC like the Combo SCC/SCSI controller.

This System looks really clean.

 

[jessenator]

From what I gathered from the original owner's grandson, the thing hadn't so much as been opened in its lifetime.

In fact the only "neglect" to the machine could really be the dusty floppy.

I just ordered new caps and disassembled the whole thing to retr0brite it. The monitor scares me a little, but I'll rustle up some bravery. I had a real bad jolt some years ago working on an old combo organ and haven't liked high voltage since... Those Apple monitors had bleed off components, right?

 

[Johnnya101]

Yup, pretty much everything 1986-1987? And later.

For retrobrite, please for the love of God do not use cling wrap. Use a brush and do not do it in direct light. Sally's 40 volume. Brush every 15 to 20 minutes alternate stroke directions. Wet with water every other brush or so.

 

[Cory5412]

Very nice find!

I just ordered new caps and disassembled the whole thing to retr0brite it. The monitor scares me a little, but I'll rustle up some bravery.

To be perfectly, 100% honest, unless you heavily retouched or color corrected those photos, I wouldn't retrobright it.

Both because I personally don't retrobright things, the plastics on most of these old Macs and monitors are old enough as it is and if I remember correctly it was not fully known what retrobrighting does to the integrity of the plastics, and, as yellowing goes, this system is very mild.

I'd probably get a damp lint-free cloth and wipe it down if you haven't yet.

 

[jessenator]

Very nice find!

To be perfectly, 100% honest, unless you heavily retouched or color corrected those photos, I wouldn't retrobright it…

…as yellowing goes, this system is very mild.

Thank you!

I wondered that very thing. Yes it's not yellow, by any stretch. I did some color correction (still trying to get used to Fujifilm vs Nikon which I used to shoot) and I'll upload a SOOC shot tonight. This one shows the most contrast, I think:

It will be interesting to see what retr0brite hath wrought in the coming years…

 

[Cory5412]

If you balanced it to the paper background you're using, that should be good enough.

It will be interesting to see what retr0brite hath wrought in the coming years…

Yeah, the places where I worry about it most are the very oldest of systems and plastics, like when people retrobright an Apple II, and in situations where people retrobright bits of machines whose plastics were already in bad shape, such as Power Mac 7200+ or Quadra 800+ machine.

In the '90s, Apple thinned down a lot of the plastics it used for clips for things like holding parts together and soaking those kinds of pieces in the formula for retrobright can't possibly improve that situation.

That said, yes, I know that those systems in particular are probably not being retrobrighted as often.

 

[netfreak]

I had all of those exact items when I bought my IIsi (my first computer) in the early 90s. Damn was that an exciting day... I still own the IIsi but no matching CRT.

 

[jessenator]

I was very surprised that the CRT still works, to be honest. It's probably all down to the original owner.

My first computer was a Plus I got from a computer shop that had used stuff. Ten whole US dollars... A few years later I bought a Quadra 610 with 15" multi-scan. Wish I still had it... I was able to connect on my own to the internet. By that time 7.5.3 was freely available on Apple's ftp site. I think I eventually tried and failed to use 8.0... memories of early digital freedom.

 

[jessenator]

So with my plans to chip the 030 in this (socket/pin to replace with the original) would a heatsink like this one be adequate? Also, would my forthcoming FPU also need a heatsink or just the CPU? 

I measured the CPU roughly, so if a 21x21mm piece is too big/small I'll find a different dimension. Just curious if the omni-fin adhesive heatsinks will work.

My fan still works a treat and makes hardly any noise at all.

 

[jessenator]

Question: are the PSU's daughtercard caps notoriously difficult to solder back on?

After getting everything removed and cleaned I'm starting with the PSU. I've got a 1/32" conical tip, but I'm super worried that my joints are cold. It's close quarters and almost surface to surface with the caps on the board

I ordered D package tantalum caps, do I need to order C package so there's more room to get good contact?