Thread

upgrading Apple Colour Classic

upgrading Apple Colour Classic Hardware 29 posts Feb 3, 2010 — Jul 19, 2010

#1 Wed, 3 Feb 2010 - 07:51

i'v just got a Apple Colour Classic

and found http://www.kevinomura.com/macs/colorclassic/index.html

what main pcb fits in a color classic..

:simasimac:

#2 Wed, 3 Feb 2010 - 09:41

As that webpage said, the only logic boards that will run in a Colour Classic without modification are the LC/Performa 520, LC/Performa 550/Colour Classic II, and LC/Performa 575 logic boards. If you can, I'd go with an LC575 board, simply because its the most powerful, most expandable with both LC PDS AND Comm slots, as well as the ability to hold more VRAM than the others (1MB vs 768k), and upgradable to PowerPC too

#3 Wed, 3 Feb 2010 - 17:47

As that webpage said, the only logic boards that will run in a Colour Classic without modification are the LC/Performa 520, LC/Performa 550/Colour Classic II, and LC/Performa 575 logic boards. If you can, I'd go with an LC575 board, simply because its the most powerful, most expandable with both LC PDS AND Comm slots, as well as the ability to hold more VRAM than the others (1MB vs 768k), and upgradable to PowerPC too

Don't forget you can stick 128MBs of RAM in it too, making it a great Mac OS 8 machine.

#4 Wed, 3 Feb 2010 - 21:00

ok so i got my my apple colour classic today and leaky caps :disapprove:

here a list of caps for any one who needs it

c4,c5,c6,c9,c10,c11 47uf 16v

c2,c3 100uf 6.3v

c8 10uf 16v

Ps i'v just got a 575 heheh a good friend is going to pick it up

here in New Zealand no one is after old mac :disapprove: :disapprove:

#5 Fri, 5 Feb 2010 - 06:00

That's great -- you're going to love that upgraded CC. You'll be able to watch Cinepak-encoded video at quite-respectable framerates. I used to have a 575 playing "Forbidden Planet" in an endless loop in my office. It never failed to start a conversation (usually beginning with something like "I didn't know that such an old Mac could play DVDs", after which I'd explain that it was playing a CD encoded in an obsolete video format).

More fun than humans should be allowed to have!

#6 Sat, 6 Feb 2010 - 10:00

long live Robby the Robot!

arrr my hard drive wont boot :scrambled: if i remove the hdd and put it in my classic II (b/w) it boots fine....

the 575 is not here yet.. so i'm trying to fix the old one first.. dose the scsi chip give probs?? or the connectors???

hey tomlee what os are u running did u up grade to 640x480 etc :?:

#7 Sat, 6 Feb 2010 - 11:37

long live Robby the Robot!

Indeed!

He had a fairly fancy data storage setup did he not?

#8 Sat, 6 Feb 2010 - 12:09

Be aware that with a 575 board, you will have to perform either a software mod or a hardware mod. The software mod is to fool the 575 board into operating at the Color Classic's 512x384 screen resolution. The hardware mod is to drive the Color Classic's analog board and CRT at 640x480. You don't need to do both - just one or the other.

#9 Sun, 7 Feb 2010 - 00:17

thanks for the info i was going to 640x480

dose any one have a backup of http://www.stuartbell.dsl.pipex.com/PowerCC

thanks

#10 Sun, 7 Feb 2010 - 06:36

Yes.

http://www.archive.org

#11 Sun, 7 Feb 2010 - 10:26

… The hardware mod is to drive the Color Classic's analog board and CRT at 640x480 …

Recently I read about a hardware 640 x 480 hack without the need to change the analogue board. Unfortunately I can not remember where I read about this, but the message stated, you could make use of some sense pins on the internal mainboard connector. Could someone confirm or disprove this information, please?

#12 Sun, 7 Feb 2010 - 12:37

I doubt it - to my understanding, no matter what you do with the sense pins or whatever, in stock form the analog board is only capable of running at 512x384.

Personally, if it were me doing it, I'd just remove the Colour Classic analog board and use one from an LC575 - chances are you're probably stripping an LC575 for its logic board anyway, and the LC575 analog board will cope a lot better than the CC board running at 640x480, since its designed to run at that resolution, not to mention that LC575 analog boards are more common than CC analog boards.

#13 Sun, 7 Feb 2010 - 14:08

I found a hint about changing the CC to VGA resolution with an unmodified analogue board. The result seems not to be fully satisfying, as of a black border around the used display area, but it might be useful for some system diagnosis. Further information would be most welcome and should be linked to our Color Classic page in the wiki.

#14 Mon, 8 Feb 2010 - 00:05

I doubt it - to my understanding, no matter what you do with the sense pins or whatever, in stock form the analog board is only capable of running at 512x384.

Technically that's 560x384 (in Apple IIe mode). But this will rock your understanding somewhat: Though I have never been able to get anyone to explain it, My Macintosh TV logic board will drive the Color Classic at 648x480, without any special extensions, software or hardware hacks with any supported OS. Suspect this is true of all Mac TV boards. Anybody wanna take a crack at explaining that in 2010?

I'd just remove the Colour Classic analog board and use one from an LC575

Except that is a MAJOR hack, requiring significant modification surgery not for the faint of heart.

#15 Mon, 8 Feb 2010 - 15:47

Personally, if it were me doing it, I'd just remove the Colour Classic analog board and use one from an LC575 - chances are you're probably stripping an LC575 for its logic board anyway, and the LC575 analog board will cope a lot better than the CC board running at 640x480, since its designed to run at that resolution, not to mention that LC575 analog boards are more common than CC analog boards.

How hard is that to do, though?

#16 Mon, 8 Feb 2010 - 20:02

Personally, if it were me doing it, I'd just remove the Colour Classic analog board and use one from an LC575

Click to expand...

How hard is that to do, though?

Very. But that's just my opinion. Your milage may vary ... http://www.fenestrated.net/~macman/CC575/

#17 Mon, 8 Feb 2010 - 20:20

... My Macintosh TV logic board will drive the Color Classic at 648x480, without any special extensions, software or hardware hacks with any supported OS.

Now that is very interesting.

A MacTV is, as I understand matters, just an LC520 with a TV tuner card (and black plastics). The LC520 became the LC550, which is a much improved machine.

I have an LC550 logic board in my CC, which now reports itself as a Color Classic II. It definitely has the vram to do 640x480 quite happily (256k more than a genuine CCII logic board), and is overall a very spiffy Compact Mac, with 33 MHz 68030 and bus, LCPDS ethernet, and RAM capacity in principle up to 128MB (the 36MB in mine, however, is more than enough). I prefer this to the LC575 "Mystic" configuration, as it seems much more meant. A 68030 is a perfectly capable processor when running on a decent logic board design (whereas the LC575 is most likely running its 68LC040 on a logic board essentially designed for a 68030).

I will go and fire up the CC-LC550 again tonight in order to see if it will do 640x480 resolution, but I don't think it will. I wonder, however, if a simple ResEdit hack is possible?

What does a CC with MacTV logic board identify itself as being? A Macintosh TV?

#18 Mon, 8 Feb 2010 - 21:38

I will go and fire up the CC-LC550 again tonight in order to see if it will do 640x480 resolution...

No, Monitors gives the option of only the regular Macintosh RGB setting (512x384) and the 560x384 that is built into the CC video system.

#19 Tue, 9 Feb 2010 - 02:25

i just changed my scis chip and will test it tonite..will it work 8-o

#20 Tue, 9 Feb 2010 - 04:47

What does a CC with MacTV logic board identify itself as being? A Macintosh TV?

You know I never thought to look, or if I did don't remember. Unfortunately I can't get the answer easily and will need a weekend or two to pull both out and check.

When you say res-edit hack, do you mean to the system?

Whatever it is, the logic board is telling the analogue board directly to produce 640x480 (I don't think the Mac TV will do 512x384, but can't remember), so it could be coming from ROM, in which case, I suppose a hack would do it, but something tells me this is not the case.

#21 Tue, 9 Feb 2010 - 19:38

nope 1 faulty cc main pcb WELL I TRIED :disapprove:

#22 Tue, 9 Feb 2010 - 19:44

My Macintosh TV logic board will drive the Color Classic at 648x480

this sound very cool am guessing 648x480 @ 67hz

was it full screen??

#23 Tue, 9 Feb 2010 - 20:51

Except that is a MAJOR hack, requiring significant modification surgery not for the faint of heart.

And performing an unsupported hack on a Colour Classic board isn't?

#24 Tue, 9 Feb 2010 - 21:44

Perhaps this has been mentioned before, but I didn't see it in a quick scan. You will find a wealth of information about upgrade possibilities at http://colourclassicfaq.com/

There is/was also a wonderful site by Stuart Bell. I now get a "404 Not Found" error, though. I hope that this is a temporary outage -- his site is full of valuable information (and great photos of successful mods).

And yes, long live Robby!

#25 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 - 00:55

And performing an unsupported hack on a Colour Classic board isn't?

Having performed all but the 575 analogue board hack, I would say the others are minor hacks by comparison.

FYI, the stock Colour CLassic board will support stereo sound output if a duplicate set of components are added, namely a second Sony amplifier. I have done this by cannibalizing one of the channels from the 575 board. Wish I had heard of the 575 hack before I did it as it would have solved a whole host of problems.

But I am really curious to know what is happening with the Mac TV board (and yes it was full screen, not sure of the exact HZ though). Is it in essence allowing the CC analogue board to produce the larger resolution somehow within tolerances, or is it inducing the same strain as the VGA mod (or is it the hi-res mod, I forget which)? If the former, then it would be a nice secret to learn for all CC mods.

#26 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 - 02:04

There is/was also a wonderful site by Stuart Bell. I now get a "404 Not Found" error, though.

It's been down for a few months, alas. There's a couple of onoes! threads about it on Applefritter, and a rallying of the troops to rebuild it from archive.org and google cache. No idea if anything came of that.

archive.org, meanwhile, has a reasonably complete backup of Stuart's PCC site. Some versions of it are missing some of the photos, but otherwise it's all there.

#27 Sun, 18 Jul 2010 - 02:26

ok so my 575 pcb come and i have fited it but no sound

put the old cc pcb in i have sound 8-o .. i can see the sound go up and down and the top menu flash when the vol is at max.. the mute is off etc is there no a -12v mod to do????

#28 Sun, 18 Jul 2010 - 02:59

IF i put h/phones i have sound

#29 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 - 21:22

the 575 PCB was missing the gnd on the audio }

all fix :beige: