joethezombie's collection

[joethezombie]

I'm new to the "hobby", just starting my collection of vintage machines.  Here's my first!  The original Macintosh, rescued from the bowels of a trash bin in (very) rural Idaho.  All cleaned up, floppy drive lubricated, and now with some brand new diskettes to glide into that sexy slot.  More to come!

 

[joethezombie]

Next up is this super clean Macintosh IIsi I picked up complete for $80.  Equipped with the 80MB disk drive option, she runs System 7.0.1 on 10MB RAM.   Also included inside was the NuBus adapter with FPU upgrade, and an Apple Macintosh II display card.  Rounding out the exterior is a perfectly matching Macintosh 12" Monochrome Display, and the Apple Extended Keyboard II.

The last document saved pertains to the presidential campaign back in 2004.

She does need a little work.  The audio is VERY low.  You can hear it, but only with your ear right up next to the case.  I cleaned the weird speaker springs and treated them with GoldGuard, but no affect.  I'll change out the capacitors in the near future for sure.  The floppy is a wee bit sticky-- no doubt the grease is starting to solidify.   I already replaced the original 1990 manufacture battery.

 

 

[aplmak]

I'd take the PRAM battery out... I mean it only holds trivial settings... Then there is no fear about you forgetting it in there.. the same for your original Mac... I leave them out of all my machines.. And I also take out batteries out of laptops when I store them. I also use a label maker and put on the back with a re-cap date, and specs and I put "NO PRAM BATT".... just how I do it...

 

[aplmak]

Putting DATES on all work done is really KEY!!! It saves a lot of headaches down the line.. you know what you did and when!!!

 

[olePigeon]

Excellent work!

 

[MJ313]

The way you found that 128k still blows my mind. I'd love to find one, but yeah, I'm not holding my breath

 

[bibilit]

Congrats, the IIsi is prone to cap leakage, but a very nice computer.

 

[LazarusNine]

Congrats on the original Mac find. There must be loads of people drooling with envy over the circumstances of that discovery - myself included.

The IIsi is a cool machine. It's not one I ever felt particularly compelled to buy in the past, but there's something quite unique about it that has a certain draw. Nice one!!

 

[bibilit]

 It's not one I ever felt particularly compelled to buy in the past, but there's something quite unique about it 

The fact that the casing is unique to the model make it quite special.

 I'll change out the capacitors in the near future for sure.  The floppy is a wee bit sticky-- no doubt the grease is starting to solidify.   I already replaced the original 1990 manufacture battery.

The floppy is easy to solve, removing the old grease and putting new will produce a real difference, removing and changing caps will probably solve your audio problems.

 

[joethezombie]

... So this is a pretty fun day today, working on the IIfx!  



An old Apple-stickered Quantum 80MB drive would only spin up every 5th or 6th attempt in this machine, although it works reliably in another machine.  I wonder if this is due to the special internal "SCSI Filter" the IIfx originally shipped with, and which I don't have.  Anyway, problem solved-- I popped in a SCSI2SD with 4 1GB drives configured.  System 6.0.8, System 7.1, Drive A, and Drive B.  Works every time.  If I can ever get 20MB or more RAM installed, I'll move 7.1 up to a later version.  Anybody happen to have 4MB 64-pin SIMMs at reasonable prices?  $25.oo a stick!  ლ(ಠ_ಠლ)

I'm also looking for a decent accelerated video card to replace the Portrait.  What works good in the IIfx?  I'm pretty ignorant on video card options on these classic machines.  I want a giant freaking CRT to go with this monolith!  And of course, I'll need a NuBus Ethernet solution to get this puppy networked!  Decisions, decisions...

 

[rezwits]

IIfx's are so clean if you're going to go all out and get a II (II, Iix, IIxf) why not get a IIfx like you did.  But aren't they so much work?

 

[olePigeon]

Any NuBUS video card will work nicely.  I recommend the little red Radius Precision Color video card.  It's usually reasonably priced, and it offers accelerated video and high bit depth at excellent resolutions.  Definitely the most affordable video card until you get to the 1600x1200 cards that are expensive and rare.