If you see a Classic Mac on eBay for $20 bucks, even if it's for "parts or repair", you just can't pass it up. I couldn't let this one slide. The seller said it doesn't power on. I took my chances and bought it. If anything, I'm in the market for an 800K drive for my new Mac Plus. If I can pull the floppy drive out of it and use it in the Plus, everything else will be gravy.
I have to say I've seen better. In fact, I own 3 others that look better. So it's not like I could even use the case as an upgrade.
It's pretty beat up.
I thought the outside was bad, you should see the inside! Where has this unit been? It's filthy!
I peeked in at the logicboard. Oh, please tell me this is what's "wrong" with the unit. It would so make my day!
Sadly, no. Someone intentionally disconnected the logic. I plugged it back in and powered on the unit. The CRT doesn't come on, although there's a slight "buzz". The speaker just emits a "click, click, click". I decided to take the whole thing apart and test each of the components in my other SE.
Maybe you couldn't see the dirt, grime, and grease in the previous pictures. Maybe a view of the logicboard should give you a better idea of how filthy this unit is.
I mean, seriously?
Before I took the logicboard out, I measured the voltage at the floppy port. The 12 volt rail measures 5V, and the 5V rail measures about 3. It could be the power supply, it could be the analog board. I pulled the analog board out and measured the output at the hard drive connector. 5 volts on the 5V pin, but 4V on the 12V pin. Hum, inconsistent results. I'll have to take my other SE apart and take some readings there too and compare them. I'll also have a go at actually removing the power supply from the analog board and measuring the 5 and 12 volt outputs there. I'm going to hold off on that for now because this thing is filthy and needs a good cleaning. I'm getting grease on my camera.
Wow, now there's a hard drive I don't think I've seen before.
This has to be the 4th different hard drive I've seen in as many SEs. I don't know if the multitude of drive variations is due to end-users installing 3rd party drives, or if Apple switched things up throughout the years. This is a MiniScribe dated 1987, and is a really bizarre looking drive with the motor assembly mounted on the bottom right.
Not to mention, this crazy looking thing. Looks like a chip they forgot to put the top on.
I connected it to my SE and power it up.
Man does it sound horrible! It just lets out a high-pitched whine, followed by 3 grunts.
Needless to say, negative capabilities. Not being an Apple-branded drive, I probably needed to use the patched HD SC Setup Utility, but it's probably a lost cause.
I really had high hopes for the floppy drive. After all, it's the main reason I bought this Mac. However, after seeing the state of the other components, the prospects of it working were looking pretty bleak.
I took the cover off, and just like the logicboard, it was a horror show.
Some canned air and a little lubrication and it was looking better.
I connected it to my working SE, but it was dead. How disappointing. Another addition to my growing pile of dead drives.
Lastly: the logicboard. Oh, please, at least give me a working logicboard out of this deal!
Boom!
Eureka! The board works in my SE and sports 4MB of RAM. So all in all, between the drive cables, the mounting brackets, the CRT, and the logicboard, it was worth the $20 bucks.
Maybe I'll just keep this as an open frame for troubleshooting. I could always use a test fixture for vintage parts.
