I Like 8 Bits

Tag: Macintosh

  • Upgrading the VRAM in a Quadra 950

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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.

  • I did a thing! (Mac SCSI)

    So now I have my Mac SE/30 all nice and stable and set up the way I wanted it set up, I decided it was time to play around with something I built a fair while ago. Quite some time ago, ty tech patron (Hi Greg!), who has gifted me so much stuff over the […]