Tag: Macintosh
Had a lot of time
In which the site owner is a bit lazy. So I haven’t died, and I haven’t stopped working on systems, but I have stopped posting. This will be the “bullet point edition” of all the things I’ve done. No idea what any of this means. So not dead, just quiet 🙂
Upgrading the VRAM in a Quadra 950
So you have a lovely Macintosh Quadra 950 with only the onboard 1MB of VRAM, and you want to upgrade it to the full 2MB? Here’s how. Firstly you will need 4 sticks of compatible VRAM. These come in either 256K or 512K sizes. While you can use 512K sticks, only 256K will be visible…
Some upgrades for the Quadra 950
Thanks to the ever generous Greg, I have received several NuBus cards to my Macintosh Quadra 950. They’re provided in a “unknown” state, so it’s going to be a fun job to install some of these and see what we can get working… So what do we have here? First up we have a generous…
Bits and Bobs
Well, here we are again. Amiga 2000 I built up the -5v rail for the A2000 and fully reassembled it. Unfortunately the A2000 is presenting with a black screen. No synch or other signs of life. Not the end of the world, but it does mean it’s on hold until my new Oscilloscope arrives. Mac…
A Tale of Two Systems (And their Horrible Batteries) Part 1
In parallel, I’ve started fixing both the Amiga 2000 and the Quadra 950 boards. Both had extensive battery damage. In both cases I’d neutralised the battery alkaline with vinegar, water and isopropanol washes. I started with the Amiga. AMIGA 2000 Evaluating the board, I ended up pulling off all components and sockets in about a…
Big Boi Mac
TLDR: I have a working Quadra 950 The Long Version: So on December 31, I went and picked up two Quadra 950s, in an unknown state, but one with battery damage. Having taken the first off as a break (Being repeatedly woken by the neighbours, who decided to “party all night” does not help one’s…
Rounding Out 2021
What a year! To cap it off nicely I was visiting a fellow collector today. (Hi Greg!) I wanted to drop him off some Commodore 64 stuff for his collection and he had a nice surprise for me! Not one, but two Mac Quadra 950s. Pretty much the “top” 68K Macintoshes available!†Wow! These are…
YouTube resources
AKA… All the cr@p I watch on YouTube related to retro computing… I watch a LOT of YouTube channels, and I mean a LOT. Here’s a list of the retro or retro adjacent channels I watch. EDIT: just to emphasise, this is not a definitive list, this is just the stuff *I* watch. There may…
While I wait for orders to arrive
I’ve got various bits’n’pieces on their way from China, so I haven’t been quite as busy as I could have been. Not a lot of upgrades / repairs are in the pipeline anyway so I haven’t needed to fix stuff. Having said that, my SE/30 needs to be broken down and the Digital board needs…
Oh no! My SCSI CD Rom let out the magic smoke!
There was a “Pop!” and a bad smell. Looks like one of the chips failed. It’s all surface mount so there’s no chance to fix it, especially as the chip that failed is a large QFP with about a hundred legs. Sorry Greg! I only got to use it once or twice.