Strange Beige G3 Tower with “Not approved by the FCC” sticker and black tape everywhere

[NoTrueSpaceman]

Hi! I recently picked up an empty Beige G3 Tower that is odd in two ways.

First, and probably less interesting, is that all the openings have been covered with gaffer’s tape. Additionally, the power button has been rigged to just a simple off the shelf red push button. There’s also a clearly added bolt that doesn’t seem to serve any clear purpose. It really seems like the case was turned into some sort of prop? Maybe it lit up or something? Very weird.

Second, and more interesting to me, is that it’s got a sticker on it that says
“This device has not been approved by the Federal Commimunicaruons Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold until the approval of the FCC has been obtained.”

There is a serial number and a date:
2/26/98 B-4 4:44PM XB80900CCXT

The plastic is in amazing condition; not brittle at all. Even the rubber feet are in good condition. The EMF shielding is also in good condition.

The adhesive of added tape is totally dried.

I’ve attached some pictures.

Any know what this was? Or, if you’re in Western Washington state, maybe this was your project?

 

[pizzigri]

It looks like an emission model case. One to be used in an anechoic chamber for radiation emission modeling, of some sort.

 

[MOS8_030]

We had some Macs (full systems) with that same FCC sticker on them when I worked at Motorola.
They were pre-release systems supplied by Apple for testing purposes.

For that one I'd say pizzigri's guess is as good as any.

 

[croissantking]

Wow, so weird!

Additionally, the power button has been rigged to just a simple off the shelf red push button.

That’s stock.

 

[joshc]

r@re

 

[Byrd]

The tape looks quite freshly applied; if old and cloth it'd be either dried up leaving dry marks peeled up or super tacky depending storage - what do you think?

 

[volvo242gt]

r@re

Blood rare or medium rare?

The Beige G3 I had was a production unit, so 'twas not mine, @NoTrueSpaceman. It's possible that it was a machine that the late Chris Mitchell from RE-PC might've owned. I do remember getting a Piltdown Man prototype 6100 board from him in 2012.

 

[NoTrueSpaceman]

The tape looks quite freshly applied; if old and cloth it'd be either dried up leaving dry marks peeled up or super tacky depending storage - what do you think?

The tape is very dried. I use very similar tape in other projects and I’d say this was probably applied at least a few years ago, but not like “in 1998”.

Pulling up the tape, where the dried adhesive stays attached to the case, it is a very slightly gummy but crumbly powder that easily removes with a tooth pick or finger nail. It turns into dust, so I’ll be using a vacuum.

Luckily, I haven’t seen any problems yet of where the adhesive dissolved the underlying plastic. I have found some corrosion (red rust) under some of the tape where the adhesive corroded the metal or promoted moisture retention.

PSA: Please never use tape on anything historical! It doesn’t last and it destroys the material that it’s attached to!

 

[NoTrueSpaceman]

Wow, so weird!


That’s stock.

Really?! Wow. It really looks like a hilarious RadioShack Special. I swore that these motherboards had the switch mounted on the PCB itself.

But I did notice that the plastic clip it’s mounted to looks very original and matches the other motherboard PCB clips. I figured the Tape Applier just found a switch that happened to fit.

 

[NoTrueSpaceman]

It looks like an emission model case. One to be used in an anechoic chamber for radiation emission modeling, of some sort.

Hmm. And the bolt was added to mount some kind of sensor or emitter for the testing! That would make sense. And then the tape was to… not sure what the tape would be for. It had a piece of translucent plastic taped in an arch over one of the openings. That’s what made me think light was supposed to be shining through like some kind of display.

If the tape is from that time (27+ years old), I could believe it. It’s very dried. But I haven’t found any other clues as to the date when the modifications were made. If only tape had a date code!

 

[NoTrueSpaceman]

Thanks for everyone’s help and knowledge! I’m kind of a preservationist and I would like to not modify this if it has historical value. But I’ve been researching plastics and preservation for other historical computing projects and I will remove the tape because I see it as having more potential to cause harm than be historically relevant. I have more extensive photos that will share when I ever get my site created.

Also, I will record the injection mold codes on all the pieces in case that ends up being relevant as it could be a preproduction or early version of the case.

Have fun, and enjoy these old machines!

 

[adespoton]

I used to have to apply similar tape to hardware we were submitting for FCC emissions testing. After the battery of tests were complete and all the paperwork filled in, then it got replaced with the simple FCC nutrition label with the # provided by the FCC for certification.