Author Topic: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer  (Read 16136 times)
sol
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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #15 on: March 01, 2015, 07:01:24 PM » Author: sol
Although I cannot speak from experience, I have heard some people back in the day had less-than-perfect experiences with SCSI devices. If you have more than one, things get really complicated really fast.

Anyways, I'm glad you could get it to work with the CD and wish you all the best.
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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #16 on: March 01, 2015, 10:26:26 PM » Author: themaritimegirl
Indeed, SCSI can be really finicky. I've heard of Macs suddenly refusing to boot altogether, and the solution was to attach a terminator to the SCSI bus, despite that the inside of the computer was never touched to start with. It's a good thing IDE cards exist for older Power Macs, and the newer ones went to IDE altogether.

Thanks. The installation went flawlessly. This thing now has a clean installation of Mac OS 9. Next thing I want to do is install the 9.1 update. I could burn that to another CD-R, but rather than wasting those I'll see if I can get it to talk to one of my PCs (or, failing that, my iMac) over Ethernet, and send files to it that way.

The first video I made of it, when I had just drug it home, is now on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oGgowYhenQ
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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #17 on: March 01, 2015, 11:10:46 PM » Author: TheUniversalDave1
I'm looking forward to seeing more videos about this computer. It's got me interested!  ;D
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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #18 on: March 07, 2015, 11:33:57 PM » Author: themaritimegirl
I successfully upgraded this to Mac OS 9.1, the newest it can run. It wasn't too hard hunting down the upgrade itself, but what a time I had figuring out how to actually get it to the computer! I wanted to try and network it to one of my PCs to transfer the files over, but from what I read, you need third-party software installed on both machines to make it happen. So instead, I dusted off my iMac, which I haven't booted up in over two years. It runs Mac OS 9.2.2.

Even then I had a heck of a time getting them to talk to each other. Networking older Macs is very poorly documented on the Internet. I basically had to try random things until it worked. I had them directly connected via Ethernet, and after the first couple of hours of failure, I read on one site that you need to use a crossover cable. Luckily I have one that I made in high school. After that you need to enable AppleTalk and file sharing on both machines. Then I was able to share the folder containing the 9.1 upgrade on the iMac, but the 7300 still wasn't reporting any presence of a networked computer. Then after countless web searches, I did the most random thing, I went into the Chooser (I don't even know what that program is for), and from there I clicked AppleShare, and then I could access the shared folder on the iMac. After that, and a part of the upgrade disk image which claimed to be corrupt, even though it extracted and worked just fine, the 9.1 upgrade installed flawlessly.

The iMac also runs 10.4.11. I tried networking with that, but not only did the 7300 just produce an error when trying to access it, but I couldn't even find a place to put shared files in Mac OS X!

I've been wanting to sell the iMac for a long time, but now after using it again, I can't imagine parting with it - it's too cool, and historic!

I've filmed about 3 more hours of video about the 7300, which will be split up into three separate videos on YouTube.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2015, 11:36:38 PM by TheMaritimeMan » Logged

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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #19 on: March 12, 2015, 02:24:20 AM » Author: themaritimegirl
I just learned something rather interesting. I always thought System 7 introduced the rainbow-colored apple on the menu bar. Turns out it actually exists as far back as System 4, which was the earliest version which ran on the Macintosh II, which of course had a color display. I've attached a screenshot of System 4.1 running on Mini vMac. I had never seen a picture of anything earlier than System 7 with a rainbow apple, so I just assumed that everything prior had the black apple, even if it was running on a color machine. Really neat. You can see that it's a bit rough looking compared to the System 7 version. I wonder if the ability to display it in color was already built into the system software, or if it was a feature of the Mac II's ROM?

On a more related note, now that I have been able to get Mac OS 9.1 running on the 7300, I want to start experimenting with it.  ;D I'll start with using OS 9 Helper to install 9.2. I've read that even on the pre-G3 Power Macs, 9.2 is way faster and more stable than 9.1, so it certainly seems worth it to try out. I've also read that Mac OS X can be installed using XPostFacto, even with the stock processor. I think up to 10.2 works. So I'd like to try that, too, although it might not be possible with my 96 MB of RAM.

Finally, I've been able to procure not only a Mac OS 7.6 install disc image, but an actual Power Macintosh 7300 restore disc image, containing System 7.5.5. Hopefully they work. It'd be really cool to play with System 7 on a real Mac again; something I haven't done in about 10 years.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2015, 03:04:37 AM by TheMaritimeMan » Logged

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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #20 on: March 12, 2015, 04:54:39 PM » Author: lights*plus
Hmm, perhaps someone would like to have a vintage 386 laptop? Might be from 1986!
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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #21 on: March 12, 2015, 04:58:27 PM » Author: themaritimegirl
I'm broke, but I'm curious  :P - what kind of laptop, and how much would you want for it? Got a picture?
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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #22 on: March 13, 2015, 06:25:54 PM » Author: lights*plus
It's a NEC UltraLite SL/20 (Intel386SL 20MHz clock speed!)

Unfortunately, in the process of digging out of storage & powering it up, it won't turn on, but the battery seems to be charging. It dates from 1992. Laptop is 9"x12" with a 6"x8" screen size.

Had a 3.5" 1.44mb floppy drive, based on ms-dos 5.0 & I could get into win3.1(!) But now I'm not sure what to do with it.
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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #23 on: March 13, 2015, 08:00:42 PM » Author: themaritimegirl
Huh, that's kind of neat. Too bad there's no power. I'm not sure I would trust leaving it plugged in, as the battery could be shorted, and would subsequently get very hot. That could actually be what's preventing it from powering on, as well. You may try removing the battery.

***

I've confirmed that the Mac OS 7.6 disc image I found works, by setting up the Basilisk II emulator, which I haven't played with in 4 or 5 years. I spent many hours playing with System 7.5.5 in Basilisk II - it was the first time I was able to use the classic Mac OS for any length of time. Now the next step will be getting the image onto a CD that the 7300 can read. I'm thinking now that I might also try doing a triple boot setup, with Mac OS 7, 8, and 9.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2015, 08:03:39 PM by TheMaritimeMan » Logged

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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #24 on: March 13, 2015, 08:38:27 PM » Author: sol
Ah, the text-to-speech, what fun we had with that. At the time, it was only available in English. Resourceful as we were (my sisters and I), we wrote in phonetic to make it speak in French. The results were variable... Nowadays you can download the extension from Apple to make it speak in a variety of languages. I downloaded the French ones, and now sometimes make it speak in English, just because.  8)
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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #25 on: March 13, 2015, 09:54:10 PM » Author: themaritimegirl
Yeah, a friend of mine and I used to play with it quite a bit in Basilisk II, making it say X-rated phrases and the like.  :D I think our favorite was the Hysterical voice - the one that sounds like it's sobbing.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2015, 10:12:59 PM by TheMaritimeMan » Logged

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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #26 on: March 13, 2015, 09:59:25 PM » Author: sol
One of our favorite voice was Agnes at she talked with determination and authority. Of course we would make her say things that a person with that voice would not normally say so it would be funny. We never really experimented with x-rated phrases, though. Yes, Hysterical was fun as well. I don't really have time for that anymore, but occasionally, I will fire it a phrase just for fun. I have both Canadian French and France French voices to add to the mix.
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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #27 on: March 16, 2015, 11:05:09 PM » Author: jrmcferren
Late to the thread here, but as a vintage Mac guy myself, there is nothing wrong with SCSI if you know how to use it.

SCSI checklist:

-No two devices using the same ID (internal HD is usually 0, not sure on CD-ROM)
-Terminators on the ends only. There should ONLY be two terminators active on the bus EVER. If no Device is connected externally Macs will automatically switch in a terminator on the logic board. Make sure that there are no FEWER than two terminators active on the bus.
-All devices must be powered on prior to OS boot. If you forget to switch on a device (especially a hard disk), turn the power on and Reboot or better yet, shut down the computer, power on the device and reboot.
-Make sure there are terminators at ONLY the ends and there is a terminator at each end (yes this is a dupe, but critical)
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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #28 on: March 21, 2015, 09:41:14 PM » Author: themaritimegirl
The video I made of fully testing the 7300 for the first time is now live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfcWyXQsqnY
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Re: Scored a vintage Macintosh computer « Reply #29 on: April 17, 2015, 12:56:35 AM » Author: themaritimegirl
A week ago I carried out the largest vintage electronics acquisition of any type that I've ever done. About a month ago I discovered that the e-waste drop-off box, where I found the 7300, was actually part of a project being carried out by the Faculty of Arts at school. Everything dropped into the box was not getting recycled, but being thrown into a huge pile in a gallery in the building, which was put on display for anyone to see. The pile was huge, about the size of a pickup truck. It was most tremendous thing I've ever seen in my life. I managed to speak to someone who was overseeing the project, and they told me that when the display was over (where the stuff would then be picked up for recycling), which happened a week ago, I could dig through the pile and take home anything I liked.

I successfully did so, and boy was it fruitful. In addition to two vintage camcorders I talk about here, I took home 14 computers. They are evenly divided between PCs and Macs, and desktops and laptops. I won't talk about the PCs in this thread. The Mac stuff consists of a Macintosh LC III, two Power Macintosh 7200s, a Macintosh PowerBook 180c, a Macintosh PowerBook 190cs, an aluminum PowerBook G4, and a polycarbonate MacBook. I also got an AppleDesign Keyboard, two Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II mice, two external SCSI CD burners, an external SCSI 4.3 GB hard drive, two Iomega Zip 100 Plus external SCSI/parallel Zip drives, and an Apple Multiple Scan 15av monitor.

The LC III and 7200s work perfect. One of the 7200s may or may not have a bad hard drive. I don't have a charger to test the two 68k PowerBooks, but they are in pretty hard shape - their actual physical condition is great, but the previous owner(s) removed the hard drives from them by completely disassembling the computers. They removed every screw, and then never put any back in. They are both basically piles of parts loosely held together. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get them running.

The PowerBook G4 is in good shape, just missing a couple of keyboard keys. I have a charger coming for it - I hope it works. The MacBook has the usual stress cracking in the plastic, but is otherwise in good shape. A friend of mine let me borrow his charger, and it booted up, but it worked really weird. It took a lot of fiddling to get it to boot, and then once it booted, the display backlight would shut off until you rebooted. Then after it booted again the backlight would shut off again. Not sure if I want to risk the $30 to get a charger for what may be an unusable computer.

The monitor works great, but it has this weird problem in which the display gets yellow as you go to the right-hand side. The left side of the picture looks great, while the right side is completely yellow. It's not the CRT, as when you adjust the position of the picture, the yellowness moves with the picture. The signal is getting messed up on the way to the CRT somehow.

The external CD burners and the external hard drive power on just fine. I just don't have a SCSI cable to actually test them on a computer with. I have one coming from eBay. Those burners will be great, since they will (I assume) have no problem reading CD-RW discs, which will make it very easy to transfer data to and from the vintage Macs. The Zip drives power on too, and they did come with their proprietary SCSI/parallel cables. I just need to get a disk to test them with.

All-in-all amazing finds. The LC III is by far the gem of the bunch. I may see if I have a friend who would like one of the 7200s - I have too many computers and too little space to warrant keeping two examples of the exact same computer.





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