Radius 81/110 teardown

[Hotdog Zanzibar]

So I finally drug my old 81/110 out of the storage room yesterday. I forgot just how well-built these cases were. It's a friggin' tank.

I know I've done it before, but I cannot for the life of me remember how the front faceplate comes off. The plastics are strong, but I don't want to test them, so I haven't really used much pressure. 

 

[Hotdog Zanzibar]

Aaaaand never mind... LOL.  I applied just a smidgen more pressure and it popped right off. 

SO well-built, these cases. The plastic is entirely superficial, as it should be. The metal parts are what holds these cases together. 

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Another ode to the first of the clones:

Radius 81/110 - Steel Fortress, Clone Quality

 

[Hotdog Zanzibar]

Here's another question - can you combine FPM and EDO in the first-gen Power Macs? Or any Macs, for that matter? 

I have some 72-pin EDO simms sitting around and am contemplating putting some of the larger ones into the Radius. I know FPM and EDO are closely related, and I've used both in other Macs, but never together. 

 

[Macdrone]

I have not had any issues personally, it usually works or it doesn't.  I always put 1 stick in at a time.  The 7500's are finicky on ram I have found but my 9500 doesnt care in comparison.

 

[omidimo]

I was in total awe of the Radius clones, and always wanted them. 

IIRC EDO was not recommend at all until DIMMs (6400 being the first), and you need simms in pairs, so you can try different pairs, but SIMMs are so cheap now. 

 

[Hotdog Zanzibar]

Thanks guys, I'll give it a shot. There are already a pair of 32mb FPM SIMMs in there, but I've got 2 more pairs of 16bm EDO that I'm going to test. 

Trash80 - your post was the first one I checked when I was having my front faceplate problem.  I had forgotten just how well-built this machine is. Tons of room to work in, too. 

I have a big box full of Sonnet G3 & G4 upgrade cards. I know at least 1 or 2 are for the old 601 machines. Think I'll drag that out, too. 

 

[Hotdog Zanzibar]

Well the RAM works fine -- however I can't get a monitor to work on the AV card. Onboard video works, but it's like the machine doesn't see the AV card at all. I thought it might work for a 2nd display, but no such luck. There is a connector on the AV card, but there's nothing plugged into it. Am I missing something? It's been probably 17 years since I last had this machine on and I'm drawing a blank. 

Is there a control panel or extension for the AV card?

 

[Hotdog Zanzibar]

Well apparently the AV card isn't working. It's plugged into the PDS slot, but no monitor will show a picture when attached. I've tried an LCD with a DB-15 to VGA adapter, and an Apple 12" RGB display. My Apple 13" RGB display works fine on the motherboard port, but not on the AV card.

 

[Macdrone]

Is it the apple branded AV card? I might have one if you need one take a picture of it.

 

[Unknown_K]

From what I remember you had to take half the machine apart to get to the PRAM battery, that was a pain in the rear. Very heavily built case that's for sure.

 

[Hotdog Zanzibar]

Yes it's the Apple branded card. They had two "AV" cards - the AV card and the HPV card. This is the one with the DB-15, S-video-in and S-video-out ports.

And yes, you have to slide the motherboard carrier all the way out to get the battery out. Lots of screws to remove, but it's nowhere near as big a pain as the 8100 cases.

Does the AV card work under OS 9?  The machine is running 9.1 right now...

 

[Macdrone]

it should run just fine.  all my 6100 and 7100 with G3 upgrades output video just fine.

there are a few caps on that card tho, 47uf 16volt no less.