This is one of my Macintosh findings from a local recycling center, a Performa 475 'pizza box' computer for 15 euros (about 18 USD). As you can see this unit is in great conditions, and I actually wasn't able to find even single scratch on the body.
It came without a keyboard or a mouse but luckily I was able to find few keyboards, mice and vga-adapters (DB-15 to VGA) from apple community forum for a decent price about 5-10 euros a piece (that's about 5 to 12 USD).
I just wonder how it was able to survive all these years without a single scratch. Someone really cared for this unit.
As you can see there's Motorola 68LC040 processor with 25Mhz. I think the amount of ram is more than factory default 8 Megabytes (Just can't tell how much). SCSI hard-drive is whopping 160 megabytes. There's a 3.5 inch floppy-drive and all the basic stuff. All this seems to be in really neat condition. No dust, no dirt or anything extra strangeness. Even the fan looks really clean and sounds is ok. The look of the inside is really neatly packed and sure is a pretty sight for this retro fan.
Next step is to test how this old lady boots up.
Next I plugged in all the cables and turned the power switch on.
Mac gave it's startup chime but after that nothing happened. Fan's were running, hard drive spinning but just a black screen.
After googling for a moment I found out that the 3.6v li-ion battery has died from sitting useless all these years. As the battery was special 1/2 AA type, I ordered one from a online shop specialized on all kinds of batteries. Price was about 5 euros including shipping.
Computer booted to the System 7 (pre-MacOS) and everything seemed to be working great.
OK. There's some software still on the HD, for example Word, Excel, Netscape, some kind of spreadsheet maker, tetris and a game where you have to shoot tiny running Bill Gates's :) One file did give me a clue that this computer was still used in 2003.
I checked the 'About this computer' page and it showed that total ram was 20 Megabytes and System 7 was version 7.5.5.
Next step is to figure out a way to copy software on this machine. There's many great games made for this system and I really would like the give'em a test run. Problem is that there's no USB port, no CD-drive, no local network port or any kind of modern way to copy files on the system.
I think I'll have to try to find an external SCSI cd-drive or ZIP-drive or manage to copy files through a floppy disk which will surely be a tormenting experience. There are floppy drive emulators available but I doubt those will work on older mac system. This is something I must figure out next.
To be continued...
It came without a keyboard or a mouse but luckily I was able to find few keyboards, mice and vga-adapters (DB-15 to VGA) from apple community forum for a decent price about 5-10 euros a piece (that's about 5 to 12 USD).
I just wonder how it was able to survive all these years without a single scratch. Someone really cared for this unit.
Look inside
Opening the cover of this mac is really easy, just snap those clips open from the back and the cover pops off.
As you can see there's Motorola 68LC040 processor with 25Mhz. I think the amount of ram is more than factory default 8 Megabytes (Just can't tell how much). SCSI hard-drive is whopping 160 megabytes. There's a 3.5 inch floppy-drive and all the basic stuff. All this seems to be in really neat condition. No dust, no dirt or anything extra strangeness. Even the fan looks really clean and sounds is ok. The look of the inside is really neatly packed and sure is a pretty sight for this retro fan.
Next step is to test how this old lady boots up.
Test run
I unplugged the power cable from the motherboard and tested the power supply voltages with my multimeter and seemed to be ok. That's some 24 year old proper tech for you.Next I plugged in all the cables and turned the power switch on.
Mac gave it's startup chime but after that nothing happened. Fan's were running, hard drive spinning but just a black screen.
After googling for a moment I found out that the 3.6v li-ion battery has died from sitting useless all these years. As the battery was special 1/2 AA type, I ordered one from a online shop specialized on all kinds of batteries. Price was about 5 euros including shipping.
Second test run after replacing the battery
After couple of days I managed to replace the battery with a new one and was ready for second test run. Keyboard plugged, check. Mouse plugged to keyboard, check. Power on and fingers crossed.Computer booted to the System 7 (pre-MacOS) and everything seemed to be working great.
OK. There's some software still on the HD, for example Word, Excel, Netscape, some kind of spreadsheet maker, tetris and a game where you have to shoot tiny running Bill Gates's :) One file did give me a clue that this computer was still used in 2003.
I checked the 'About this computer' page and it showed that total ram was 20 Megabytes and System 7 was version 7.5.5.
Next step is to figure out a way to copy software on this machine. There's many great games made for this system and I really would like the give'em a test run. Problem is that there's no USB port, no CD-drive, no local network port or any kind of modern way to copy files on the system.
I think I'll have to try to find an external SCSI cd-drive or ZIP-drive or manage to copy files through a floppy disk which will surely be a tormenting experience. There are floppy drive emulators available but I doubt those will work on older mac system. This is something I must figure out next.
To be continued...
From everymac.com:
The Apple Macintosh Performa 475 features a 25 MHz 68LC040 processor, 4 MB of RAM, and a 160 MB hard drive in a sleek, compact "pizza box" case.
Introduction Date: October 18, 1993
Supported Mac OS: 7.1 - 8.1
Original Price (US): US$1600
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