PowerExpress/PowerMac 9700 Prototype

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

THX, should PEx-in-a-Drawer™ ever achieve bootable status, it's headed into a clear plexi display case hanging above the pet IIfx, its umbilical connected to an external PSU/Utility Cable box tucked away between the two 21" CRT TPDs it'll be driving like it's a friggin' Cube or TAM rock star  .  .  .

.  .  .  but I'm definitely not holding my breath. :

 

[MJ313]

...its umbilical connected to an external PSU/Utility Cable box tucked away between the two 21" CRT TPDs it'll be driving like it's a friggin' Cube or TAM rock star  .  .  .

 

[captainserial]

Goody goody gumdrops! [ ]  You can probably imagine my excitement over your discovery and anticipation of that arrival. I've had to be content with listening to the startup chimes of my ROM DIMM deprived bare PEx board on an annual basis (approximately) for going on fifteen years now!

Oh yes, I understand. I stare longingly at TriPEx™ every day and suppress the urge to boot it and then pull the plug at the desktop. My SCSI2SD and PRAM batteries arrive today, and the mouse gets here Saturday. 

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

LOL! That'd make DuPEx™ of hap's PExBox.

 

[haplain]

That's for sure a pex. I have 2 at this point and all the marking are right. What a sweet unit.

I know Jim well and will ask him about his Manhattan... if he has one.

 

[captainserial]

The USPS Gods have brought the mouse a day early, as a sign that they favor this endeavor!



I now have everything I need to boot this beast. Here we go...

 

[captainserial]

Hard drive sounds bad. Knocks for awhile, then works normally, then starts knocking again. More picture momentarily.

Startup chime is like Shwa-na-na-na-na...

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I has serious jealous. :-/

 

[MJ313]

Wow, that's truly awesome! 

and to my rom-less buddy, a glimmer of light in the darkness?

 

[captainserial]

And there it stands for now. I don't want to stress the hard drive, so I'm switching to booting from the SCSI2SD to try to copy some files.

 

[ArmorAlley]

A Black Screen of Death? Is this a New World Mac, btw?

 

[captainserial]

A Black Screen of Death? Is this a New World Mac, btw?

I don't know, I've never even seen a screen like that before. I don't believe this is a new-world Mac.

 

[captainserial]

I was able to boot to an 8.6 install CD and connect to my Linux server over AppleTalk so that I could format the SCSI2SD with Lido. It would have been a lot easier with a USB floppy drive! I threw 8.6 onto the SCSI2SD since I knew that version worked.

I recovered 90% (I didn't copy some programs and damaged files) of the contents of the original hard drive, but there was nothing that looked like Apple internal or pre-release software on there. It almost looks like a hard drive transplanted from another Mac. I don't want want to expose somebody's personal information, so I won't post the whole set of files, but if anybody wants to looks through the System Folder I will post that. To my eyes it looks like a vanilla 8.6 install though.

I'm going to reformat the SCSI2SD with a bigger card and try to get some version of 9 on there, then I'll give Flasher a try. I'll post some screenshots of System Profiler shortly.

 

[captainserial]

Mac OS 8.6 System Profiler:

Picture 2.pdf

Picture 4.pdf

It's a Powerbook! lol.

 

[captainserial]

For those that need it, here is the ROM I dumped:

TriPEx.ROM.zip

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Very nice, I can't wait to find out if your dump is the same as hap's? That would be excellent news indeed. [] ]'>

 

[Powertrip]

This is even more epic than my Daystar Unicorn. Glad it still fires up!

 

[alk]

Did you guys see the $15,000 PEx on eBay right now?

 

[captainserial]

Did you guys see the $15,000 PEx on eBay right now?

Wow, looks familiar too! Is this Hap's?

Here's the (mobile) link:

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Unreleased-Prototype-Apple-Power-Express-Macintosh-PEX-9700-/152507510472?hash=item238227eec8%3Ag%3A0UgAAOSw%7ECFY7Z%7EO&_trkparms=pageci%253A9fd535d2-22b3-11e7-9f0a-74dbd1a0aab8%257Cparentrq%253A773bb4fa15b0a5eb36167e7dfff7c8ae%257Ciid%253A7

 

[belgaonkar]

yep. thats hap. He's also got the $100,000 iPod Proto for sale.