Mac IIci with Sonnet 68040 & Radius Precision Color 24X

[trag]

Picked up a IIci from Ebay last week.  From the internal picture I was pretty certain there was some sort of 68040 accelerator and a video card.   Very similar to ExplodingLemur's find a couple of weeks ago.

I could only see the top edge of the video card, but based on the chip arrangement I was guessing Radius or Apple variant of the Precision Color Pro.   The card only says Precision Color, with no "Pro" listed, but it's a short card (~7") not a long card, so I think it's the Pro variant.   But I'm not certain.   I know, e.g., the E-Machines cards, the Futura series were the longer, 10"?, 11"?, but the Futura II series were all 7".    I thought the Radius Precision Color vs. Precision Color Pro were the same way, but now I'm not so certain.

Anyway, a few photos now that it's arrived.  



I was happy that the metal hard drive bracket was included.   And the front reset switches.   For some reason those seems to be missing from some of the offerings  on Ebay.





I don't know if you can see it, but there's definitely fuzz accumulation around the capacitors in the corner shown here.  Sticky capacity goo holding dust bunnies.    I need to remove the logic board, dispose of any old battery, remove the caps and clean the board.   The seller said it boots up, so I hope that means the battery, if any, hasn't leaked yet.

 

[Unknown_K]

Dust bunnies. The PS needs cleaned out as well. Even with an exploded battery the PDS cards should come out OK so hunting for a 68040 card would pay off.

 

[olePigeon]

Congrats!  Everyone's making out like bandits lately.

 

[CC_333]

@olePigeon Indeed! Next we'll hear of someone finding one of those fancy Micron Xceed gray scale cards for the SE/30, complete in box, for an improbably small amount.

c

 

[superjer2000]

You beat me. I was bidding on this one as well and let out a few choice expletives when your bid came in. Happy someone here got it!!

 

[trag]

You beat me. I was bidding on this one as well and let out a few choice expletives when your bid came in. Happy someone here got it!!

Well, if it was the same auction, it was a mess.  

The seller had two IIci systems listed, one starting at $69.99 and one starting at $99.99.    Neither included an inside photo (before the weekend), but both had rear shots showing the slots and the seller said the first one doesn't boot, and the second one does.  Also, the rear shot of #1 showed three closed slots with covers.   The rear shot of #2 showed three open slots, two empty and one with card.

I messaged the seller and asked for internal photos on Thursday or Friday.    Didn't hear a peep out of him over the weekend.   Auctions were ending, IIRC, Monday and Tuesday respectively.

So, Monday I took a look at the auctions, and he had added internal photos to the auctions, but he never messaged me back to let me know  he had.

Looking at the Internal photos he had added, the photo for #1 showed a video card and a 68040 accelerator, but also showed two open slots without covers.    The internal photo for #2 showed a IIci cache card installed, no cards, and three slots with covers in place.

He got the internal photos backwards on the two auctions, and I noticed it with about 2 hours until completion of the first auction.

I messaged him about that, told him that I was really bidding on that internal photo (his item description says what's in the photos is included) but that I thought he had the photos wrong.   

Then I won the auction for $124+, I think.

Later I got a message from him agreeing he had the photos backwards and offering either a discount, or to cancel the sale.   I asked for the cancellation, but offered him $124 + $30 for the machine #2, as $30 was the difference in the starting price for the two machines.    He accepted that, and we did a quick best offer transaction.

So, you see, even if I hadn't won that auction, you would likely have been sent a machine with just a IIci cache card inside.    Getting the internal photos reversed was a recipe for all kinds of heartache and trouble later.

After receiving it, the winner of machine #1 would have been quite upset at not getting what was in the internal picture.

One choice for me was to just ignore the auction for #1 and bid on machine #2.   By the time the buyer of #1 noticed the mix up,  #2 would have been shipped, but that would have been a mess for the seller and buyer of #1.   Probably would have actually turned out a bit cheaper though.

Anyway, I sympathize and have been in the same position myself a number of times, but I think that if anyone but me had won that auction, there would have been much gnashing of teeth after delivery.  I like and agree with the sentiment of always being a little happier when I'm outbid if it's by someone on these forums.

 

[trag]

I took out the logic board  this weekend.   It contained an unexploded Maxell battery bomb.    There was just a small patch of rust starting on the positive terminal of the battery.   It had not spread to the battery holder terminals, yet.