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Hotdog's Stand

Posted by: Hotdog Zanzibar on 2015-06-01 21:53:35 I haven't posted a conquest in a long time, and recently I've gotten several. Seems like people tend to create an all-encompassing thread for their findings, so this is mine! Last fall, at our annual fall company picnic, I happened to mention that I collected vintage Macs. One of the salesmen said "hey, I have some old Macs at home in the attic, want to stop by and check them out?" He mentioned having a "blue iMac, a G3 tower, and a couple of the old compacts."  I stopped by that weekend and sure enough, he had a blueberry iMac G3, a G3 tower (which his wife said she wanted to keep, for whatever reason), and next to those, a 512k and an SE/30. I grabbed the compacts. 🙂 512k & SE/30 - $50 The 512k works just fine, but the SE/30 locks up after running for about 5-10 minutes. My work area has been a shambles for months but I'm just now getting things organized and will be opening these up to check them out soon.   Along with the two compacts, he had an assortment of old manuals & floppy disks, mostly of apps that never caught on and instructional programs. Then I came across this:  Looks like a bunch of 256k SIMMs of varying speeds. Anyone concur? Here's something else that's cool:  The instructional cassette, still in its original wrapper. The disks are missing, as is the programmer's switch, but the picasso case is very nice, with no cracks in it.  Bondi Blue iMac G3 - free This poor guy is a little worse for wear. It sat in the pressroom at work for years, collecting dust... literally. Printing presses use a fine spray powder to help keep sheets from sticking together. Guess what that stuff does in a computer with no fans? 🙂  When I picked it up by the handle, you could see about an inch of the stuff "flowing" back and forth in the bottom of the case. The worst part is, someone cemented the screw on the bottom, and I stripped it out before realizing this. I'll have to drill it out now.  I'm pretty sure the screen has serious burn-in, because it was on ALL that time. Employees used it to log into their timesheets. I may end up turning it into a cat house, but I'd rather get a couple nonworking graphite iMacs for that. Sawtooth G4/400 - $20 As I mentioned in the Trading Post, I'm gutting this machine and using the case parts to do the "clear-case" mod on my B&W G3 tower.  20" iMac G4 - free This belonged to my folks, and I upgraded them to an Intel iMac for Christmas last year. I maxed out the RAM and installed a 250gb 7200rpm drive in it. Still has the speakers and runs/sounds great.  2007 24" iMac 2.4ghz - free (with cost of new power supply) They were going to recycle this at work because the power supply blew. I snagged it and waited til I found a good replacement. It has a 1TB drive in it. I'm going to replace it with a Velociraptor drive from my Mac Pro, put the bigger drive in the Mac Pro, and RAID5 it with a couple other big drives. It has 2gb RAM. I'm on the lookout for a cheap way to upgrade it to 6gb. It's now running Mavericks. Display is very yellow, though. I may just use it as a Minecraft server. 2006 20" iMac 2ghz C2D - free Logic board's toast. Looking for a new one.  22" Cinema display (ADC version) - $8 Bought this on craigslist. It's in excellent shape and works beautifully. She really must've wanted to get rid of it! It's going to look GREAT with my G4 Cube.

Posted by: Hotdog Zanzibar on 2015-06-01 23:04:30 Correction! I was just fishing through the box I brought the 512k home in, and I found the original system disks AND the programmer's switch! The machine has all four rubber feet, too.

Posted by: Hotdog Zanzibar on 2015-06-05 22:32:52 Finally got into the SE/30 tonight. I have to say, it's an incredibly clean machine. I was pretty surprised, since it sat in the guy's attic for years. The bad news is, there's definitely some electrolyte on the logic board. I'm sure this is why it will freeze after running for a few minutes. Charles - do the PSUs on these need recapped as well?  Some photos: Just a very fine layer of dust on everything... Good news! The battery is fine.  This thing really is super clean. I really think I lucked out. The ORIGINAL battery was still inside. Not a bit of corrosion. I have a feeling these are 8 1mb SIMMs. ROM simm looks brand new.  Logic board is in good shape, other than the electrolyte. Connector pins are all shiny and clean.

Posted by: Hotdog Zanzibar on 2015-06-05 22:35:47 Not sure why some of those got rotated a little funky. The pic of the ROM SIMM is completely upside down...

Posted by: TheWhiteFalcon on 2015-06-05 22:35:51 Mine was strangely clean inside as well, my other Macs all had more dust on the board.

Posted by: Hotdog Zanzibar on 2015-06-05 22:42:38 The thing was buttoned up pretty tight. It took some gentle coaxing with a rounded flathead screwdriver and a spudger to get the case cracked open. Of all the compacts I've opened up, this is definitely the cleanest.

Posted by: CC_333 on 2015-06-05 23:20:43 I'm not Charles, but I'd suppose that the PSUs do need to be recapped as much as the logic board nowadays, since their caps, like the ones on the LB and AB, are beginning to leak and fail due to age. Very nice machine, too, by the way! It deserves a nice upgrade, like an 8MB custom ROM SIMM, 128 MB of RAM and a SCSI2SD (money permitting, of course). c

Posted by: Hotdog Zanzibar on 2015-06-16 13:46:01 I may be covered on the RAM -- zackl sold me a bag full o' RAM a while back and there are lots of 30pin SIMMS in there.  Does anyone here sell the 8mb ROMs and SCSI2SD?  What's the benefit of the 8mb ROM?

Posted by: Hotdog Zanzibar on 2015-10-28 11:01:07 Not really a conquest, but more of an upgrade... I use a Late-2012 Mac mini as my home theater server running Plex. I have a 1TB external USB 3.0 drive connected to store TV & movies. The mini came with a 500gb 5400rpm drive that's always felt more sluggish than it should. Plus, between the OS, Plex, and various related software, I'm only using about 36gb of storage.  OWC is having a blowout sale on their 6G Mercury Electra 60gb drives for $38, so I picked one up, along with a Seagate external enclosure for the 500gb.  I really love OWC's brand packaging. The drive itself is a cool electric blue with labeling to match - all clearly marked and easy to read. The packaging is minimalist but attractive, and instead of fighting with a welded plastic seal around all sides, it has a convenient perforation across the top, so you can just tear it off and pull out the drive.

Posted by: Hotdog Zanzibar on 2016-06-07 07:47:57 Finding vintage Macs for sale in the central Ohio area is like finding a diamond in the Sahara these days -- so you can imagine my reaction when a guy placed a local ad for an SE/30 - for $50. Hopefully going to pick it up some evening this week or this weekend...

Posted by: tanaquil on 2016-06-07 09:37:47 Whoa, lucky! Hope it's in good shape, I look forward to pics. I know what you mean, the craigslist treasures are thin on the ground around here.

Posted by: Hotdog Zanzibar on 2016-06-07 11:17:40 He had a picture of it, and it looked a little dirty, but I didn't see any massive scratches, cracks or dings. He said it works. I'm assuming it hasn't been recapped, and that it it will probably need that done.

Posted by: Scott Baret on 2016-06-11 10:44:23 There was some variety of 128K or 512K on the Columbus Craigslist not too long ago. Did you pick that one up?

Posted by: Scott Baret on 2016-06-11 10:46:11 Also, there's a nice Snow iMac on there right now: http://columbus.craigslist.org/sys/5627478577.html If you don't want it, I may drive up and get it...but since you're the local guy, you've got dibs!!

Posted by: Hotdog Zanzibar on 2020-02-09 18:43:05 Well, it's been a minute, but I wanted to share my latest. SUPER happy about this one, as it's been a "holy grail" item of mine for well over 20 years. Apple Network Server 700 200mhz CPU card upgrade (original 150mhz card included) 80mb RAM 4gb SCSI HDD 24x CD-ROM The condition is excellent -- no leaking caps, amazingly clean. The only thing in need of repair is the LCD on the front, as you can see in the photos. It'll be an easy fix. I plan to install AIX, but the previous owner also included a copy of Yellow Dog Linux that he'd been planning to install, just for kicks. I'm particularly interested in finding accessories for this machine, but I'm pretty sure it'll be like trying to find unicorn poop. Specifically, I'm on the lookout for: Network Server 8mm Tape Drive (20GB/40GB) in Removable Tray (M4026Z/A) Network Server DAT-2 4mm Tape Drive (4GB/12GB) in Removable Tray (M4025Z/A) PCI RAID Card (M4030Z/A) PCI 100BaseTX Ethernet (M3906Z/A). A very fast card that is not the same as the Apple Fast 10/100 Ethernet card which is much more common. The easiest way to distinguish them is that the ANS 100BaseTX card has only two LEDs; incompatible cards intended for generic PCI Power Macs have four.

Posted by: Byrd on 2020-02-10 03:59:44 Magnificent ANS!  Looks in amazing condition; I own an ANS 500/200Mhz and recently installed AIX onto it. If you would care to post up your adventures with Yellow Dog Linux, I’d love to read how you get on with it. I’m not particularly a UNIX fan and the steep learning curve required to get YDL on this beast is beyond my capabilities.

Posted by: cheesestraws on 2020-02-10 04:02:30 Ahhhh, such a nice ANS.

Posted by: EvilCapitalist on 2020-02-10 05:33:49 Wow, that's a very nice conquest!  I have to imagine it was in some sort of clean room environment, or it was exceptionally well taken care of, because it's rare to see a machine that's seen use of any sort that has so little dust.

Posted by: ScutBoy on 2020-02-10 06:51:00 Nice! Welcome to the club. My ANS has BSD on it, but I've run AIX in the past. I have all the Apple media for these guys, including the demo products, etc. so if there's anything you need, let me know.

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