68kMLA Classic Interface

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$4 Macintosh IIsi
Posted by: PB145B on 2018-05-24 00:30:43 I was so damn exited when I found this thing at Goodwill! At first, I saw it without the top case from a distance and thought “I know I have seen that before, but what is it?” Once walked up to it, I realized exactly what it was. Of course, I immediately went on the hunt for the top case, so I picked up the machine, and there it was, laying right there underneath it! This is a machine I have actually been wanting for a while. It’s also my first Macintosh II series machine! It’s fully complete, aside from the hard drive. It also had a semi exploded Maxell bomb in it! But, somehow, the only thing it damaged was the positive battery contact! It didn’t even hurt the board directly under the socket. I have since replaced the socket with one from a dead LC II board. Always a good idea to hang onto to those dead boards! Never know when you’ll need something off of one. Obviously the caps are nasty, so I’m going to be ordering replacements ASAP! Going to do the logic board and PSU. The case was really, really dirty but it cleaned up well (aside from a few stubborn marks that I will take care of later). It had some permanent marker on the bottom (from the place that previously owned it), but a magic eraser actually took that right off! The case is still pretty yellowed, but honestly it doesn’t bother me and for now I’m leaving it. Haven't attempted a power up yet, and don’t intend to until it’s recapped. I had initially planned on attempting a power up after washing the logic board, but the caps in the PSU are pretty nasty, so I’m gonna wait. I don’t want to eff this machine up! 🙂 I don’t know why, but for some reason I thought that the IIsi was a relatively weak machine, however upon doing some research it seems to be much more capable than I initially thought! It apparently can take up to 64MB of RAM (plus the 1MB on the logic board). So this will probably become one of my primary 68k Macs if I can get it running. I’ve already got a nice Apple High Resolution RGB monitor and plenty of keyboards to choose from. I also have one question, the power button on the back can be turned and locked, what exactly is the purpose of this? Sorry if that’s a dumb question, but I’m brand new to the IIsi. Pic 11 and 12 are after cleaning and pic 13 is the new battery holder I installed.
Posted by: MrGasS27 on 2018-05-24 00:43:31 Good find, man! However, yes, re-cap it, IIsi with bad caps tends to freeze while in System, only after re-capping my IIsi I was able to use it after years of random freezing. Fortunately it has only 47uF 16V caps.
Posted by: PB145B on 2018-05-24 08:25:27 Fortunately it has only 47uF 16V caps. Yeah, the fact that all of the SMD caps are the same value makes it really easy! I’m also going to do the two axials just for good measure.
Posted by: tanaquil on 2018-05-24 11:58:05 Congrats, nice find! My IIsi is the central workhorse of my vintage setup - it does most of the heavy lifting along with a MDD G4 for tasks that need to be done under Mac OS 9. I use System Picker to dual boot mine between versions of System 6 and System 7.1. It can run 7.5 too but I am at home in 7.1 and rarely use the 7.5 install. Only nuisance is that nearly all my IIsi's (I have several and tricked out the best one) have problems losing the sound. I probably need to send one for recapping and see if that helps. Supposedly there is also a trick you can do with a pencil eraser to remove corrosion but that did not work for me last I tried it. I'll be following your recap project with interest.
Posted by: PB145B on 2018-05-24 12:09:35 Only nuisance is that nearly all my IIsi's (I have several and tricked out the best one) have problems losing the sound. I probably need to send one for recapping and see if that helps. Supposedly there is also a trick you can do with a pencil eraser to remove corrosion but that did not work for me last I tried it. Yeah, if cleaning the speaker contacts didn’t help and you haven’t recapped yet, then caps are most certainly your issue. Going to order the caps today, so hopefully I can get this thing running sometime next week.
Posted by: olePigeon on 2018-05-24 15:06:56 Phew! Got that Maxell battery out in the nick of time! Could've been worse ... a LOT worse.
Posted by: PB145B on 2018-05-24 15:08:13 Phew! Got that Maxell battery out in the nick of time! Could've been worse ... a LOT worse. Very true! I can’t believe that it didn’t cause any damage to the board!
Posted by: techknight on 2018-05-24 16:29:10 Well looks like you caught the maxell bomb in time! But if you have a LB issue and cant fix it, let me know I think I have a spare working LB lying around.
Posted by: PB145B on 2018-05-24 16:34:50 Well looks like you caught the maxell bomb in time! But if you have a LB issue and cant fix it, let me know I think I have a spare working LB lying around. Awesome! I may take you up on that if I can’t get mine working.
Posted by: ravuya on 2018-05-26 17:34:42 Lucky find. I don't think I've ever seen a computer of any kind at my local Goodwill, but they did have a pile of really cool 1980s computer science textbooks once.
Posted by: PB145B on 2018-05-26 20:34:35 Got the floppy drive restored. All the grease was dry and the mechanism was very stiff. It was also full of dust! Tested it on my Performa 410 and it works great!
Posted by: mtm84 on 2018-05-26 21:18:44 I don't think I've ever seen an old used mac at the three goodwill's near me. I'm not sure they even sell computer stuff in general any more. I need to tell 21 year old me to buy up all this stuff back then.
Posted by: PB145B on 2018-05-26 21:27:32 I need to tell 21 year old me to buy up all this stuff back then. Yeah, I wish I could travel back to the late 90’s and just go crazy buying this stuff!
Posted by: Unknown_K on 2018-05-26 23:16:21 Early 2000's when shipping was cheap and ebay was new would be better for finding cheap 68k mac gear.
Posted by: CC_333 on 2018-05-27 00:22:51 Yes, I came in at the tail end (2005-2006), and it was fun. It wasn't long after that that prices went trough the roof, though. Even at that, it wasn't so bad until late 2011, when Steve Jobs died. Then eBay in particular became absolutely insane (it has been pretty much the same since, though some things are actually beginning to get reasonable again). c
Posted by: tanaquil on 2018-05-27 07:29:55 I feel grateful that I had a collecting phase between 1999 and 2002. I miss when working Pluses used to fall off trees (or the back of trucks). I can't even remember how I got my IIfx - someone may have given it to me for free at a garage sale. Now I'd love to get a prettier case for it (it has uneven yellowing and some cracks; the machine itself works fine, last I fired it up) but you can't get so much as an empty case for less than $200. Remind me sometime to discuss what the moxes and lotuses used to sell for back in 1999... when I thought $300 was more than any sane person would pay for a bit of cardboard and didn't bite. [Magic the Gathering, the other money sucking hobby I had to give up]
Posted by: Skate323k137 on 2018-05-27 08:30:38 I had a nice collection in the early 2000s, sadly it was stored with my "less than trustworthy" parents, who auctioned it off behind my back when they left the country to retire (loooong story) and defaulted on their house. Fast forward to present times, I told this story to some coworkers and I had a powermac 7500 and a g4 emac donated to me within a week. The sweet justice in all this was I really just wanted my 7500 back when my parents pulled their stunt. Having one gifted to me really set things right lol. I still have some good local craigslist and pawn finds but nothing like back in the day. Our local schools used macs through the 90s so there were plenty floating around.
Posted by: PB145B on 2018-05-27 16:57:23 who auctioned it off behind my back OMG! I’m sorry to hear that. I’d be devastated (and extremely pissed off).
Posted by: Skate323k137 on 2018-05-27 19:36:17 Thanks for the condolences. Thankfully I rescued my CRTs, and none of the macs I "lost" were irreplaceable. It was definitely sad, but as far as life goes, a minor setback. Since then I've [re]acquired a nice collection. I think at this point if I land a IIc and a powerbook 190 I'm pretty well covered.
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