Back to the Macintosh


Wow! It's been ages since I last wrote on this Blog.

But, my passion for the Macintosh only increased (and keeps increasing :)

Colour Classic 1 (CC1) has been working hard. I wrote my novella "Núcleo Exterior" on Word 5.1 for the Mac, running on CC1. I turn it on every day.

The ThunderCache Pro is installed in the CC1 and running smoothly.

The problem is with the Internal HD. Something happened to to Logic Board, out of the blue, and the HD is not recognised anymore. I've done lots of tests and ruled out everything BUT the Logic Board.

The PPC 6100 is working fine too. I also turn it on everyday.

I have started a YouTube Channel called RetroMac OT (for "and Other Things"), where I talk about Old Macintosh Computers and Retro Computing.

Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUt8f2oOdjgs3o1quv5JexQ


New Member joins the team


I'm very proud to announce that we have a new member joining the TRIO, the Mac Classic!

The Macintosh Classic joins the TRIO

I got this Macintosh Classic some 15 years ago (or so) from a pile of scrap at Rua Vitória, near Santa Ifigênia where I and Armando used to go to dig stuff out. He had a brother too, but that Mac was injured beyond repair and could only provide some parts (you will be hearing more about him in the future).

For some time it worked fine, until a time came where things were difficult and it ended up in my dad's garage on a shelf for some years (can't remember how long).

Then I moved to a bigger house and rescued him.

The board was all dirty and it had to be washed. Yes, washed. I washed it with liquid detergent in a big tray and left it there for a day. Then about 7 days drying, not directly in the sun, but in the shadow (and wind).
I replaced all the capacitors on the board and the bad ones on the analog board that were leaking. Very easy to do, just inspect the boards very carefully, looking for stains. This link was very helpful:
http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~shamada/fullmac/repairEng.html#SimasiMac

The floppy wasn't working (ejecting) either. That was hard to fix. I found out the only problem was lubrication on the joints. Drop of machine oil and some exercise (inserting and ejecting) did the trick. This is good for the problem of a Macintosh Classic swallowing the floppy and not being strong enough to eject it. Joints are full of dust mixed with grease. You need to clean them and lubricate them. It worked.

Once it was all done, then hit the power button: boot loop. He would jus keep booting and rebooting.
After some cycles he would finally stabilize.

This all happened about a year ago, then I decided to work on that Mac again.

I had made a System 7.5.3 boot floppy long ago and was going to use it again. When I inserted in the Mac last week and  turned the power on, he gave me the checker board screen for 3 seconds and straight into the happy mac icon. He booted! The boot loop was gone! I can only think there were still places where the board was not completely dry.
I left him on for two days and he just stayed there, brave. I knew he was back.

Yesterday I started to get software to the Macintosh Classic. Since he doesn't have a Hard Disk, I'm using a internal floppy drive and an external 800k Apple floppy drive I got at mercadolivre.com! Unfortunately the ejecting mechanism is broken (need a new small gear that activates the ejector)

800kB Apple Floppy Drive

So I started my research on getting a System 7.1 Boot floppy ready, with Local Talk capabilities.

On CC1 I booted System 7.1 via ZIP drive (the external iomega 250MB). In the CDROM drive I had the Apple Legacy Recovery CD with System 7.1. I used the Net script to automatically mount the disk images for System 7.1 and created a Floppy Disk with only the System Folder, with the minimum system for the Macintosh Classic. In that folder I had:

In the Extension's Folder:

  • Networking Extension
  • Appleshare

In the Apple Menu Items' Folder:

  • Chooser

That's all!

It took sometime to get it right because there is only so much you can fit on a floppy. You won't need the Networking control panel or the File Sharing Extension either. Stick to the formula above.

It booted and it Worked! I got Local talk in the Chooser and could connect to CC1, my Colour Classic.


The Macintosh Classic is now connected to CC1 and can access shares on CC1.

I'm so happy to have the Classic working again and networked!!

Welcome to the team, Classic!

Trio separation


After sometime, all three Color Classics are running fine. CC1 is now at my desk, CC2 in my room where I put another desk just for him and CC3 is currently inactive on the shelf.

I turn CC1 and CC2 on everyday and do some Bible studies and word processing on them.

New friends have arrived: A model 1 Apple Macintosh, the 128k Mac, the original.

Also, a Mac Classic that I managed to get working again. (well....sort of)

One happy Macintosh family.

Back to Santa Ifigênia. Newton is alive!


Santa Ifigênia street is the electronics paradise of São Paulo. The Street is full of electronic shops on both sides and it runs for about 1500 meters, perhaps. It is located in the old side of the town, close enough to the City Center. The street itself is not as bad as the blocks surrounding it, where there is all sorts of garbage, prostitution, violence, poverty, etc...

Nonetheless it is a good place to find old stuff for your Macintosh collection. I've been going to Santa Ifigência since I was a little kid with my father, being a Radio Ham as he is. There I found many good things, including my Digital MicroVax 3300, many Macintoshes, Sun workstations, Cisco gear and much more.

This time I was looking for precision tools (small screw drivers to open my Newton's case), contact cleaners, a SCSI HD 50-pin and of course any other old equipment that might appear.

The truth is that the place has changed a lot. Hundreds of small stands selling Computers, motherboards, laptops, media, cell phones. I guess technology has really become present in everyday life even for those that are not as wealthy as those who used to buy technology in the past. Everyone seem to be able to afford a cell phone, even in Brazil where poverty abounds. So, there are hundreds, maybe thousands in the streets buying and buying.

I got a SCSI HD 50-pin, I took a long while to find one, 1.2 GB that  I installed on CC2. It is working fine.

I got the tools I needed and used them to open my Newton's case. It had batteries and it also has the power adapter but it wouldn't turn on. It stopped. Just stopped. I tried all I could, without opening the case, to bring it back, but nothing worked.

I followed the instructions I found on http://www.pda-soft.de/2x00_disassemble.html Very helpful indeed. Thanks a lot  PDA SOFT.

It was a little challenging to open the case, but I managed it. Nothing appeared wrong inside and when I inserted the batteries and turned the switch the Newton came back to live!

I followed the steps to close the case with no surprises. I tested the power adapter and it also worked.

I installed Newton Connection Utilities on CC2 and made a backup of the Newton.

I'm happy that my Newton is working again. I was lucky to find that Newton still in the original wrapped box! I got in 2000 in an Internet auction, New, in box! What a finding!

Long live the Newton PDA.


Bye Bye Seagate Hawk!


After looking at the results of Speedometer for  MacOS 7.6.1 I decided to upgrade CC1 to 7.6.1, from its current 7.5.3.
I gathered all I needed but CC1 started to behave strangely. First was the watch on the screen, taking too long to open applications. Then, after connecting the Apple external CDROM to CC1 to boot from the CD, it would hang occasionally. Weird, I thought. Then, Disk Copy would not mount MacOS image properly for installation; the installation stopped in the middle. And there was another reboot because the installer could not "replace a file".

So I thought "gotta be a problem with the disk".

So, it is time to say goodbye to the Seagate Hawk 2000MB model ST32430N. I guess death come to us all, including our hard disks.

I called CC2 to help. I took it apart, removed the 4GB HP disk and placed inside CC1. It is working.

Now it is a good time to to do a overhaul on CC2, take it apart, clean it up, take some pictures.

I also got 4 Minamoto 3.6V PRAM Batteries, right here in Jundiaí, for R$ 17,00 each (US$8).

Every MOBO is getting a new battery. Horay!

Right now I'm installing MacOS 7.6.1 on CC1. It is going smooth.

Long live CC1.

Accelerators!! ThunderCachePro from MicroMac on CC3




I guess it was 1997 when I got a ThunderCachePro accelerator for CC1, from MicroMac. I wanted to make CC1 run faster; more memory and more processing power. I confess that at that time I couldn't notice any significant improvements, and because it was such a hassle, getting CC1 to boot, 32-bit access, installing, removing, install the card again and all, I put it away after some time.




It was sitting among my other cards at home for years, years. Now I decided to give it another try.


Mine came with two SIMMs of 4MB each, 70 ns, installed at the back of the card. The requirements:


1. Macintosh Colour Classic with max RAM installed (10 MB)
2. 32-bit addressing on (Memory Control Panel)
3. The extension MM TCP v1.0 installed in the extensions folder.  
4. System 7.1 to 7.6 for the Colour Classic


It also supports other models: Macintosh LC, LCII (Performa 400/405/410/430)


When I first installed it, at boot, the screen turned black and nothing would happen. After some research I found out that 24-bit mode was on and because CC3 didn't have a PRAM battery, 32-bit mode was not sticking after being setup. So I borrowed CC1's battery and installed in CC3.


The problem is that I had to remove the MOBO, remove the card, boot the machine in 24-bit mode (the default mode), change it to 32-bit, shutdown, remove the MOBO again, reinstall the ThunderCachePro, reinstall the MOBO, plug cables in, reboot, to finally get that ONE BEEP that sounds when the card is properly in place. BTW, the sound on CC3 is not working via the speakers, only with the earphones. 


Then, going to "About This Macintosh" would not show the RAM installed in the card, only the usual 10MB on the MOBO. That meant CC3 was not recognizing the extra RAM. Also, speedometer was not showing big improvements as well. Weird, I thought.


I installed more RAM to fill the extra two banks, but the result was the same.


32-bit mode needs to be on for the card to access the RAM on the MOBO. But it was on!


So I started a very good topic at "68k macintosh Liberation Army". Check it out here.
The people there are very friendly and gave me very good advice. Thank you all!!


At some point after installing and removing the card a few times, installing System 7.1 and other initiatives, I finally turned to the SIMM modules. Could they be the problem? They came with the card!!


I removed all sticks and installed two 4MB 60ns SIMMs. It worked!! The original SIMMs were the problem all along!! Could have never imagined.


Then I installed another two SIMMs, 1MB 70 ns each. The final configuration of the RAM in the ThunderCachePro:



bank 0: 4 MB 60 ns 

bank 1: 4 MB 60 ns
bank 2: 1 MB 70 ns
bank 3: 1 MB 70 ns



Now, CC3 is happily running with 20 MegaBytes of RAM. :)


I'm running some benchmarks with Speedometer 3.06 now; comparing the performance of CC3 with the ThunderCachePro on System 7.1, 7.5.3 and MacOS 7.6.1. I'll soon display the results.


Now CC3 is the fastest of  the Colour Classic TRIO.


Long live CC3.

CC2 goes travelling.


The Colour Classic 2, CC2, left his home in Jundiaí to join the family in a trip to ARARAQUARA (I bet you can't say that name).

I put CC2 in the MacBag, after giving it a little remodeling because the bottom was giving way and loaded CC2 in the trunk of the Land Rover Discovery.

I guess he liked the old Apple Computer Sticker glued to the back of the Land Rover. That sticker came with CC1 in 1994. I still have one of the min one's left. Maybe it swill go on my VW Beetle 1976.

Here is CC2 on his desk at my brother's house in Araraquara.
I'm happy to work with him on my Systematic Theology paper for the Colorado Theological Seminary where I'm doing Biblical Studies.

I tried to find a place where I could buy the PRAM battery for CC2, but no luck. Instead, I was able to find a box of Maxwell Floppies for the Mac. I happy for that.

Long live the Macintosh.