Macintosh IIFX

[boitoy1996]

I see a IIFX on Craigslist, but it only has 1 floppy drive, and its 800k.  I was wondering if its possible to take the 1.44MB Drives from say, 2 dead SE FDHD machines and have dual, high density drives.  I'm about to drop over $200 on this IIFX, its going to be Christmas money that I'll be getting from my mom this year.  But a low density floppy drive will not be good enough because I can't write 800k disks with a PC

 

[IIfx]

The Macintosh IIfx shipped from the factory with 1 or 2 1.44mb Superdrives only. Are you sure that IIfx has an 800k disk drive? If so it's probably a retrofit original Macintosh II with a Macintosh IIfx logic board. Normally the upgrade from a II to a IIfx or IIx would include a new 1.44mb Superdrive. If it has an 800k drive then it was probably a hobbyist retrofit. If it indeed is a IIfx with an 800k drive you can swap it back to a 1.44mb Superdrive no problem.

Do you have any photos of the machine on craigslist?

A IIfx with an ethernet card can talk to modern systems via FTP, or even HTTP. So there is another avenue to moving files over beyond floppies or other disks.

 

[boitoy1996]

Okay, so I went to the guys house today and took a closer look at the IIFX.  The floppy drive is indeed an 800k Drive.  Also it does not say FX on the machine anywhere.  I believe it to be a IIFX mobo stuffed into a II case.  Thanks IIFX, due to me pointing this out the guy dropped his 200 dollar price tag to $45 and I bought it with my gas money I had left.  I'll admit im lazy, I'll get pics up later, but I do want to get two SuperDrives in this thing even if I can ftp stuff over.  As this will be my only 68k Machine for a long time, at least a few months, I want to fully deck it out.  Two floppy drives, 36 Gig SCSI drive, AppleCD 300 with caddies, the works.  there is also a 2nd video card in here.  Its an Apple 8*24 GC card, theres an Ethernet card and a card by orange micro that I have identified as a Mac286 Card.  It seems only fitting to put two floppies in here and a CDROM along with a large hard drive. 


 

 

[Juror22]

Sounds like a nice box for a very nice price - hope that you didn't have to drive too far.  Good luck with the upgrades!

 

[IIfx]

The Apple 8*24GC is a very nice video card. It's actually designed to go with the IIfx and supposedly has some special speed advantages when used in one. I have been looking for one for a while. For now my IIfx has an Apple 8 24 AC which is a rebadged Radius Precisioncolor card.

Be sure to replace the two PRAM batteries on the logic board and inspect the capacitors for leaking. The two SMD electrolytic caps on the back right corner of the logic board tend to leak. Most IIfx boards are 90% tantalum capacitors, but some may have a higher ratio of electrolytic caps. I had to recap mine to make it run stable.

 

[boitoy1996]

Wow.  So here is the story of this machine.  Once apon a time it was a regular Macintosh II.  Then it was in someones basement when the basement flooded.  Then it got into the hands of a hobbyist.  the hobbyist removed the board and put in the board of a IIFX that he was recapping for a customer in 2015, but the customer never came back for his board.  Turns out the customer had to move rather suddenly and just left the board behind so the hobbyist put the board into this Mac II with intentions of beefing it up but  then he died in a car wreck and his dad collected all his things and the male that i bought it from was his dad.  So its sort of a FrankenMacIIFx.

So right now I need to get my paws on a pair of superdrives.  This thing has 24MB RAM in it.  The 400MB SCSI Drive is dead but I have a 36 Gig that I can put in.

Also is there a difference in powering it up from the KB or using the power button on the back of the machine?

 

[IIfx]

No difference between the ADB on button and the logic board on button. The IIfx requires two good PRAM batteries to start up, otherwise you will need to perform a "jump start" procedure by shorting a certain pin off of the power supply. I cannot recall which pin is the one you need to short to jumpstart without fresh PRAM batteries.

That Mac has a very sad story attached to it; was the hobbyist a member here perchance?

 

[boitoy1996]

I do not know if he was a member here, I know he was around my age based on the pictures in his father's house I saw hanging up.  The guy seemed rather upset already.  I am guessing that looking at the stuff that brought his son joy must have triggered happy memories that he knows he will no longer have.  Yes it does have a sad story and the CMOS batteries say "best if used by 2025" and look rather new based on the designs on the battery.  This Mac will get its full glory once I find a steady job again. 

 

[joshc]

Any progress on your IIfx yet? 

 

[beachycove]

He’s apparently been shuffled off this mortal URL, so we shall likely never know.

 

[trag]

I wonder if the car wreck victim was PhreakOut.    He disappeared suddenly a while back and he used to do board recaps for folks.

 

[CC_333]

@trag I remember him. He vanished sometime not long after I joined up, I think.

Around the time he vanished, I remember there being some rumors that he had been put in jail for some reason (or maybe it was someone else?). Can't remember what.

c