So as you probably know I intended to delve into the cave and retreive some more treasures, bats and spiders some time back but didnt know where to start... well I found the motivation, and as there were a few machines that seemed to tickle everyones fancy I used them as a starting point on my expedition. So the latest animals to make the move over to Batcave MkII are a quite loaded IIci, a rather mint condition ROM03 IIgs, and of most interest, the 5500/250 Directors Edition "Black Mac"....
Most of you would be familiar with the 5400 DE, and the 5500/275DE as they were sold in various markets around the world, however the 5500/250DE seems to cause a fair bit of headscratching among many afficionados as it was a model that was basically unique to the Australian market... most will tell you it doesnt exist until they see it in the flesh! lol
Anyway, this machine came to me in mint condition about 10 years ago, and even then they were not cheap and were sought after... I was lucky to have had it given to me. Unfortunately now, some monkey has interfered with my old batcave and managed to damage the case grilles, and the spindleresque plastics mean that I accidentally snagged one of the rear cover tabs on a shoe rack bringing the machine indoors and snapped that off too. I will at some stage likely attempt a repair of the damaged top by cutting a section of the grill from a dead 5260 I have lying around and grafting it in place then painting it to match the rest of the machine.
Now unfortunately, the rubbish 4.5V Rayovac battery has leaked (which I half expected) and it had caused some corrosion on the board. and on the fingers of the comm slot ethernet card... the more fortunate bit though is that a good toothbrushing removed most of the corrosion to reveal the circuit traces and chip legs largely intact, and indeed the machine did boot to the desktop best I can tell?
"Best I can tell?"
Yep... it will not display video, in fact it appears to not power up the CRT at all. This in all honesty is unsurprising as 5xxx machines are no stranger to flyback circuit failures. This being said, there is nothing saying that the logic board itself is not at fault and simply failing to tell the display to power on. the only way I will know for sure is try the board in one of my beige 5500's (assuming they still work) and rule it out. In any case the board will need at the very least a thorough wash and quite likely some other attention down the track due to the battery issue and will eventually require a recap anyway.
Most of you would be familiar with the 5400 DE, and the 5500/275DE as they were sold in various markets around the world, however the 5500/250DE seems to cause a fair bit of headscratching among many afficionados as it was a model that was basically unique to the Australian market... most will tell you it doesnt exist until they see it in the flesh! lol
Anyway, this machine came to me in mint condition about 10 years ago, and even then they were not cheap and were sought after... I was lucky to have had it given to me. Unfortunately now, some monkey has interfered with my old batcave and managed to damage the case grilles, and the spindleresque plastics mean that I accidentally snagged one of the rear cover tabs on a shoe rack bringing the machine indoors and snapped that off too. I will at some stage likely attempt a repair of the damaged top by cutting a section of the grill from a dead 5260 I have lying around and grafting it in place then painting it to match the rest of the machine.
Now unfortunately, the rubbish 4.5V Rayovac battery has leaked (which I half expected) and it had caused some corrosion on the board. and on the fingers of the comm slot ethernet card... the more fortunate bit though is that a good toothbrushing removed most of the corrosion to reveal the circuit traces and chip legs largely intact, and indeed the machine did boot to the desktop best I can tell?
"Best I can tell?"
Yep... it will not display video, in fact it appears to not power up the CRT at all. This in all honesty is unsurprising as 5xxx machines are no stranger to flyback circuit failures. This being said, there is nothing saying that the logic board itself is not at fault and simply failing to tell the display to power on. the only way I will know for sure is try the board in one of my beige 5500's (assuming they still work) and rule it out. In any case the board will need at the very least a thorough wash and quite likely some other attention down the track due to the battery issue and will eventually require a recap anyway.