Macintosh SE/30, Macintosh IIfx

[Cosmo]

Macintosh IIfx

- 200Mb HDD

- 16Mb RAM

- Superdrive (auto-inject)

- Apple Macintosh II display card

- 3Com NIC card

- One PRAM battery leaked, cleaned but not yet tested for function.

Macintosh SE/30

- Have SimasiMac -problem, horizontal lines on boot. Need to try reseating memory, look at battery if that helps...

Apple 80Mb 3.5" SCSI HDD

 

[bibilit]

Huge conquest !!

 

[Cosmo]

The new member at 68kmla.org, julehti (local macintosh user and a friend) might able to help me with the SE/30. He's having similar issues with his original-owned SE/30 as well.

Oh and Welcome Juhani! :simasimac:

 

[Cosmo]

Ended up tonight doing some parts-swapping. Took from the "leaking" IIfx the RAM, HDD, 3.5" drive and graphics card and put them to the better unit i got before. Now having 20Mb RAM (need to test for functionality), 200+Mb HDD, two 3.5" disk drives, Radius Lemans GT and Apple Macintosh II Display cards. At first for not remembering the Bank A-B thing, inserted the 4Mb RAM's to Bank B and got the not so lovey "chime of death" (specially when our daugher was sleeping in the next room) and made me thinking what did i do wrong 8-o Anyway, atleast found out that one RAM bank was broken, the small metal holders were missing but the RAM stick well there anyway. If that's the problem, i can always clean up the "leaked" motherboard and have one working unit, let's hope that's not needed.

More testing tomorrow.

 

[Cosmo]

Working fine, 20Mb RAM, 220Mb HDD. Sadly 2nd 3.5" disk drive not working, needs some cleaning and let's hope can have it working. Otherwise need to cannibalize some other machine for the drive.

Was bit problematic to get picture to the LCD monitor. For some reason none of the adapters worked out, expect one with DIP-switches finally did with the Macintosh II display Card. System 7.1.2 and that Macintosh is indeed "wicked fast!". Now need to get the Radius LeMans GT working! Haven't located the driver set for System 7 yet.

Gotta just love that machine, it's a huge beast!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Gamba2 doesn't have the LeMans listed, but the rest of the Radius cards will do 1024 x 768 @ 60Hz, so if you set it up that way just about any adapter should get video to your LCD.

The only refresh rate listed on LEM for the LeMans is 1024 x 768 @ 75Hz, but the older 12" card is listed as 60Hz OR 75Hz, YMMV, Adapters certainly do.

It's interesting that there's not a full picture of resolutions/refresh rates, even when you combine the info on both sites. :-/

 

[Cosmo]

It's difficult to find information on Radius LeMans GT -card for some reason. Can't believe it would be that rare.

I had it working finally quite well on OS 8.6 (PM 7100) and it did work on IIci under System 7.0.1 expect RadiusWare software itself did not work. Might work with 7.5 or so, don't know yet.

Old test by byte (URL dead):

"Macintosh users searching for a graphics accelerator with sports-car

performance should look into the LeMans GT. Our pick for the

best-overall NuBus adapter blew away the competition in our 1024- by

768-pixel resolution tests. In fact, it bested the competition in

features and usability scores, too. Its features include 24-bit color

support at up to 1152- by 870-pixel resolution, on-the-fly resolution

and bit-depth switching, and a PhotoBooster utility that offers

additional Photoshop acceleration. Like all the Radius boards we

tested, the 3-MB, VRAM-based LeMans GT comes with a lifetime warranty.

OVERALL GRAPHICS

SCORE ACCELERATOR

BEST Radius LeMans GT **** Radius Custom ASICs

RUNNER-UP Radius Thunder II GX 1152 **** Radius Custom ASICs

RUNNER-U

P Radius PrecisionColor Pro 24XK **** Radius Custom ASICs

RUNNER-UP Radius PrecisionColor Pro 24X *** Radius Custom ASICs

RUNNER-UP Mirror Tornado ** Proprietary ASIC

AS TESTED

RAM (MB) PRICE

BEST Radius LeMans GT 3 VRAM $1999

RUNNER-UP Radius Thunder II GX 1152 3 VRAM $2599

RUNNER-UP Radius PrecisionColor Pro 24XK 2 VRAM $999

RUNNER-UP Radius PrecisionColor Pro 24X 3 VRAM $1399

RUNNER-UP Mirror Tornado 3 VRAM $699

GRAPHICS SCORES

1152x870/ 1024x768/ SCORE

16.7 COLORS 256 COLORS FEATURES USABILITY

BEST Radius LeMans GT 4.4 9.7 *** ****

RUNNER-UP Radius Thunder II GX 1152 4.4 6.8 *** ****

RUNNER-UP Radius PrecisionColor Pro 24XK

3.7 7.4 ** ***

RUNNER-UP Radius PrecisionColor Pro 24X 3.1 3.0 *** ****

RUNNER-UP Mirror Tornado 1.4 2.8 *** ***

KEY

Excellent ****

Good ***

Fair **

Poor *

And good information:

http://www.vintagemacworld.com/radius/precollm.html

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

What are the Copyright Dates on the PCB and ROM? It will be interesting to compare the dates. My PrecisionColor Pro 24AC is '93 on the PCB and '94 on the ROM, IIRC. Your card looks like it has features of the 24AC and the Thunder IV. I'm too tired to dig out the Thunder IV GX 1600, but I'll guess that the IC with the silver sticker is the 10 bit DAC, it looks like the same IC on the Thunder IV series.

What was the date of that review?

I think the LeMans might have been on the threshold of greatness, better technology than the 24X series, but overshadowed by the later Thunder IV series with oodles more VRAM.

I've got no idea where the 24AC fits in. I snagged a pic off an eBay auction for a LeMans a while back, now I wish I'd bid on it. :-/

 

[Cosmo]

I'll take a look of the card at home. I remember the year being '93 that's all.

That picture was from an sales add where i copied the Byte-article reference. The byte article link was dead.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

So many great NuBus VidCards, so little time before the advent of PCI = GREAT collecting opportunities and NuBus Mac PlayTime! :approve:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I took another look at my cards, none have the VRAM package shown in the photo above.

All mine appear to have VRAM in the same package type as the later Thunder IV GX 1600.

Very strange. :?:

 

[Cosmo]

Finally had time to take some photos of my card, so here they are:

 

[Cosmo]

Few more;

 

[Cosmo]

The SE/30 i got, we tested it tonight at friend's home. He had almost mint SE/30 and few boards, so we tested around.

First tested his working board with my memory chips on my SE/30 -> result as on the picture. Looks like an analog board problem? The HDD seems to be working and under the "chess board effect" can see the desktop, mouse movement and folders.

Then tested my board on his almost mint SE/30 and it... worked perfectly. Good to know the board is fine as well the memory.

Now either find motherboard-broken SE, could swap the SE/30 board to SE (should work) or get somebody to fix the analog board, i can't do that.

 

[julehti]

As Cosmo wrote, I have also not anymore working SE/30. I suspect, that it has a broken flyback transformer. This on 1990 bought SE/30 worked till last winter, when I got noisy screen after startup. I thought, that it was a SimasicMac. So I replaced capasitors C1, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7, C8, C9, C10, C12, C13 with proper radial capacitors. But the screen remain the same. So probably it wasn't SimasiMac.

Herei you can see the screen, when SE/30 is powered. Oh gurus, is it broken flyback transformer thing or SimasiMac?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I can't help you with that particular problem, but I can welcome you to the 68kMLA. Welcome aboard, julehti! [] ]'>

Cosmo, could you get a closeup of the VRAM on your LeMans? That's a real curiosity, as it's a major difference betwee it and the other high end Radius Vidcards from that era. I wonder if the Thunder II series used the same IC Package? It's off to google pics! [] ]'>

 

[Cosmo]

Trash - i'll take closer up picture for you later tonight.

 

[tt]

That LeMans card makes me wish I had a Nubus slot... wondering...is it compatible with a IIci?

 

[Cosmo]

Here's the closeup's are requested by Trash. Sorry for the dust 8-o