carbide
carbide@bitbang.social
<p>I’m just your every-day computer geek with interests in homelabbing and retrocomputing, especially vintage Macintoshes.</p>
Posts
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Post #3054344
Related to my last post, I discovered something… interesting? About the Apple System Restore disc set for the Quicksilver 2002. No idea if this applies to other versions - it does not recognise a blank HDD. After first thinking I had either a bad drive or a bad sata to ide adapter, I got the system to boot with my OS X Leopard installer and disk utility wa able to see it and set an initial partition. After that the restore software would work.
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Post #3054343
Pictured: 38 years of computer storage evolution. 100,000x the capacity (20MB -&gt; 2TB), 1/20th the price ($2,859 -&gt; $140), 4,833x the speed (1.5MB/s -&gt; 7,250MB/s), some ridiculously small fraction of the size.
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Post #3054342
Been quiet here, but I’ve made progress on my (still growing) collection of Macintoshes. The quicksilver is fully operational now. I got a new dvd drive, case fan, and video card for it. The GeForce Ti it came with appears to be dead, any tips on dealing with that are welcome. I also found a 1.4GHz cpu upgrade; it runs both OS 9 and Tiger pretty well, as well as a collection of older games I’ve put on it.
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Post #3054341
I have also acquired a very clean 867MHz DP mirrored drive doors G4 that needed little work to get running. I upgraded its CPU and did the resistor mod to get it running a 1.42GHz DP CPU. I think it’s going to move up to my office too. I have fond memories of playing with GarageBand on my old PowerBook and I’ve installed the same version on this one. Only remaining upgrades for it I’m waiting on are a replacement speaker and USB 2.0 card.
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Post #3054340
Finally, that Macintosh IIci. I disassembled and cleaned it, and it is in decent condition. However, it needs a full logic board and power supply recap. I got the parts for it a couple weeks ago, now just need to clear my workbench of G4s and I can start on it. I’ll post pictures of that one as I work on it.
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Post #3054339
Coming in just under the wire for #MARCHintosh is the successful recap of my Mac IIci! It was my first time doing surface mount work and it went pretty well. I credit the numerous times I’ve watched @mac84tv and @thisdoesnotcomp demonstrate it on YouTube for not making any major mistakes. Two issues remain - the internal speaker doesn’t work, and the screen output doesn’t always work on first boot. Any tips would be appreciated!
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Post #3054338
Still need to get the floppy drive disassembled and cleaned, but I did install the twisted pair nubus card I picked up at VCF Midwest and got the right version of the Network Software Installer downloaded and transferred over. My IIci is now network-enabled under system 6.0.8 and 7.1!
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Post #3054337
This might be the grossest Mac floppy drive I’ve had to clean. My sample size is only 6, but still.
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Post #3054336
Also, I think I ‘solved’ the video output issue on the IIci - my Mac to VGA adapter doesn’t seem to like waking up my monitor. Some kind of signal issue? If I toggle the monitor to an active input and back to VGA it works fine. Getting my multimeter out this weekend to troubleshoot the sound output - my money is on an issue with the switch inside the jack.
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Post #3054335
Partial success with the floppy. It cleaned up nicely, but something is up with its eject motor unsurprisingly. I might have spare gears or a spare drive to test later. However, the HDD works just fine and has a complete system 7.0.1 installation on it. Only other software installed is a copy of FileMaker Pro 3.0 registered to a still-in-business print shop in Louisville, KY. Data has been cleared previously, though it tried to connect to an appletalk network on boot.
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Post #3054334
My Macintosh SE (my first Mac, had it since ~94) is now set up in my office; one of my coworkers suggested doing a rotating display of my vintage computers and i liked his idea. Made the most sense to start from the beginning.
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Post #3054333
Finally re-disassembled my IIci to check the sound issue. As far as I can tell, it is an issue with the jack. With an external speaker plugged in, I have continuity where I expect to across the circuit but once it’s unplugged, it stays open from R10 to the internal header. Per the Bomarc drawings, I should have continuity there. Anyone know the right replacement for the jack? Is there one?
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Post #3054332
Don’t you just hate it when it turns out multiple things are broken? The saga of my Mac IIci continues. I replaced the speaker jack on it, and in the process damaged a trace. Got some bodge wire and fixed it. Rang it out and everything looked good. Plugged in the internal speaker, booted it up… no chime. Double-checked everything and still was getting sound through the jack. Then I checked the original speaker, which I never did before… and it’s blown. Anyone know if a replacement exists?
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Post #3054331
The IIci is complete for now. I bought a replacement speaker that works, though it’s smaller and quieter than the old one. Next steps when I return to it are finding a cache card and more network/internet shenanigans. Maybe find a MUD to connect to? Or a network game?