Thread
IIfx/CD 5 year tune-up . . .
. . . I posted this Internal CD Hack just about 10 years ago. I gave this pampered IIfx a good going over after I brought it to the Apartment from my Storage Room about 5 years ago. Today, I needed to run the Dishwasher empty after having cycled a File Folder Box FULL of really filthy cables through it twice last week. [xx(] ]'>
So after hearing all the horror stories about getting these 20 year old beauties up and running, I checked the MoBo for anything out of the way, found all in good order and then ran the freakin' dishwasher empty!
Went to set it up for testing, but discovered I'd removed the Video Card at some point . . . :-/
So I dug ye olde plastic shoebox of NuBus Goodness™ out of the closet and filled that sucker's (four empty) slots to the gills with every cool card I could find, without an antistatic bag wrapped around it, just for kicks. [}
] ]'>
Didn't boot at the first press of the Power button on the ADB KBD II, but it did on the second!
Got everything set up just so on the desktop to take a Tell-All Screen Shot and discovered the (original no less!) Boot Drive was Impacted, so I blew out the (Investment Banker) previous owner/user's extra 200 some odd MB Folder of Extensions, (yes, over 200 freakin! MB) and the redundant Apple Commentary in the idiot's TEMP Directory and managed to get a really nice Screen Shot.
Then came the fun part, finding an FDD cable, which was conspicuously missing , . . :?: . . . dug one out of one of the other magic plastic shoe boxen™, along with the (pictured on top of the original FDD) PCMCIA HDD that I'd remembered absolutely NOTHING about! A choice goodie, liberated from my own miscellaneous HackingCrudCollection™! [
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Plugged it in and discovered some seriously wrong sound effects on startup and decided NOT to wait for boot & whacked the power button on the back. I went through two or three different FDDs before yanking one that worked fine on the right hand FDD connector on the MoBo and the Second Bondi Blue FDHD I tried from my NIB iMation FruitPack got the file transferred and verified.
Now what to do? I've been using the rug rat's 6290 on and off in the testing phase of my Classic/Projector Hybrid Hack, so I sat the IIfx on top of the new TeakBookKeeping/HackCenter™ in my bedroom, the old E3 scanner on top of that and a Zip Drive in between. After ironing out of the bugs in that collection of oldies, but goodies, I transferred the FDD file to ZIP, then headed downstairs to the 466 DA/ZIP to transfer the ScreenShot PICT to an 8 GB KCHN in order to then transfer it to the QS02/NoZIP upstairs so I could 'peg it and then put it back onto the KCHN to post along with all the piccies I took during the PentAnnual (?) IIfx Tune-UP . . .
. . . and promptly forgot the freakin' KCHN! :I
. . . so I'm sittin' here at Caribou Coffee with my . . . erm . . . :?: . . . KCHN sittin' at home, typing in my usual longwinded story . . .
. . . but the piccies will be posted real soon now, because today was the first of 5 days off! [] ]'>
So after hearing all the horror stories about getting these 20 year old beauties up and running, I checked the MoBo for anything out of the way, found all in good order and then ran the freakin' dishwasher empty!
Went to set it up for testing, but discovered I'd removed the Video Card at some point . . . :-/
So I dug ye olde plastic shoebox of NuBus Goodness™ out of the closet and filled that sucker's (four empty) slots to the gills with every cool card I could find, without an antistatic bag wrapped around it, just for kicks. [}
] ]'>Didn't boot at the first press of the Power button on the ADB KBD II, but it did on the second!
Got everything set up just so on the desktop to take a Tell-All Screen Shot and discovered the (original no less!) Boot Drive was Impacted, so I blew out the (Investment Banker) previous owner/user's extra 200 some odd MB Folder of Extensions, (yes, over 200 freakin! MB) and the redundant Apple Commentary in the idiot's TEMP Directory and managed to get a really nice Screen Shot.
Then came the fun part, finding an FDD cable, which was conspicuously missing , . . :?: . . . dug one out of one of the other magic plastic shoe boxen™, along with the (pictured on top of the original FDD) PCMCIA HDD that I'd remembered absolutely NOTHING about! A choice goodie, liberated from my own miscellaneous HackingCrudCollection™! [
] ]'>Plugged it in and discovered some seriously wrong sound effects on startup and decided NOT to wait for boot & whacked the power button on the back. I went through two or three different FDDs before yanking one that worked fine on the right hand FDD connector on the MoBo and the Second Bondi Blue FDHD I tried from my NIB iMation FruitPack got the file transferred and verified.
Now what to do? I've been using the rug rat's 6290 on and off in the testing phase of my Classic/Projector Hybrid Hack, so I sat the IIfx on top of the new TeakBookKeeping/HackCenter™ in my bedroom, the old E3 scanner on top of that and a Zip Drive in between. After ironing out of the bugs in that collection of oldies, but goodies, I transferred the FDD file to ZIP, then headed downstairs to the 466 DA/ZIP to transfer the ScreenShot PICT to an 8 GB KCHN in order to then transfer it to the QS02/NoZIP upstairs so I could 'peg it and then put it back onto the KCHN to post along with all the piccies I took during the PentAnnual (?) IIfx Tune-UP . . .
. . . and promptly forgot the freakin' KCHN! :I
. . . so I'm sittin' here at Caribou Coffee with my . . . erm . . . :?: . . . KCHN sittin' at home, typing in my usual longwinded story . . .
. . . but the piccies will be posted real soon now, because today was the first of 5 days off! [
] ]'>
Hahahaha, I remember that machine...didn't you pick up a whole bunch of II/IIx/IIfx series machines from an investment bank or something, WITH all their data still intact? 
Nope! They were ALL the IIfx variety! }Hahahaha, I remember that machine...didn't you pick up a whole bunch of II/IIx/IIfx series machines from an investment bank or something, WITH all their data still intact?
A bunch of High End LW IIs were acquired too! :rambo: But only the "big boss's" or the "desktop designer's" fx was all that pimped out. :'(
They ALL had a metric Crapload of info that never should have hit the streets on them, but it was already something like 2 - 10 years old at the time, so no biggiei! But my startup drive is CHOCK FULL of nice software! [
] ]'>Some of the lesser brethren, most not working worth a . . . whatever . . . got chopped up, One for the IIfPExHack, and for other variants of the IIfx/PEx Combo Towers, some remained untouched and ALL were lost in the great storage room fiasco . . . except my pet IIfx! [
] ]'>I figured all the old piccies on the iDisk were taken with the Visor/EyeModule rig, so I re-documented the whole thing today . . .
. . . while I was supposed to be cleaning up the PlexAtrocityPile-o-Poo! :lol:
I'll probably post it all tomorrow, along with some more stuff re: Bunsen'sFolley! }
Piccies!
I'm not going to chop out a big section of the side for CD access, if I get my hands on a SCSI Slot Loader, I'll go so far as to rearrange heights so it'll pop the CD in-n-out one of the coolin' slots, but that's as far as I'll go.
Meanwhile, the convertible/hardtop approach is the BOMB! :rambo:
Voila! Internal CD hacked into a IIfx MANY moons ago.)
Full House! Meanwhile, I found enough extra NuBus goodies in the other Magic Plastic Shoe Boxen that the Box of NuBus Goodness is at almost OVER capacity status again. [] ]'>
Here's the original HDD doin' its sleepin' bat thing under the CD.
Here's the Config Status Screen Shot that was such a freakin' PIA to do a staged SneakerNet onto HP_Mini . . .
. . . next time I'll get the ole' 10/100/1000 BT thing cookin' again! :
It's not the prettiest IIfx extant, but I love it!)
I'm not going to chop out a big section of the side for CD access, if I get my hands on a SCSI Slot Loader, I'll go so far as to rearrange heights so it'll pop the CD in-n-out one of the coolin' slots, but that's as far as I'll go.
Meanwhile, the convertible/hardtop approach is the BOMB! :rambo:
Voila! Internal CD hacked into a IIfx MANY moons ago.
)
Full House! Meanwhile, I found enough extra NuBus goodies in the other Magic Plastic Shoe Boxen that the Box of NuBus Goodness is at almost OVER capacity status again. [
] ]'>
Here's the original HDD doin' its sleepin' bat thing under the CD.
Here's the Config Status Screen Shot that was such a freakin' PIA to do a staged SneakerNet onto HP_Mini . . .
. . . next time I'll get the ole' 10/100/1000 BT thing cookin' again! :
It's not the prettiest IIfx extant, but I love it!
)
Seems you are the master of finding and aggregating unused space in these old beasts.
:lol: You betcha! Visual thinkers have their very own (oft-times warped) way of "lookin' at things" that the rest of humanity can't even imagine seeing! [
] ]'>My wonderful ex, a brilliant early-ed speech pathologist, once made an awed statement about our Pre-K Rug Rat: "I can see him taking things apart in his head!" [
] ]'>... Whoa. Dude. Whoa.Piccies!
Full House! Meanwhile, I found enough extra NuBus goodies in the other Magic Plastic Shoe Boxen that the Box of NuBus Goodness is at almost OVER capacity status again. [
Just whoa.
:lol:
)
Is that a National Instruments datalogger I spy?
[
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Do I see a MANUAL inject floppy drive installed? Does that work?
He's got a cover over the slot in the case for that drive, so I'd assume that its only usable when the case is open, like the CD-ROM drive.
Yeah, physically, you might need something to poke the disk in far enough through the case, but I was asking more about if the drive actually could operate. There are some Macs that must be able to use both, i.e. some Centris 660AVs had one some had the other, and apparently identical logic boards.
From experience, I have verified an auto-inject drive as NOT working in a Power Mac 5500. I guess I've always kind of wondered about this compatibility, where the cutoffs are, etc.
The FDD on the right is the original drive, which made some AWEFUL noises when I booted with a cable hooked up to it. IIRC, the FDD that's just sitting in the left bay was the one I used to write the configuration screen shot to floppy, so I could transfer it onto a ZIP on another machine.
I had to try two or three drives and then a second floppy to get a good write/confirmation, so I'm not really sure what's what. I DO remember that the FDD that worked was from one of those fugly AIOs that look like the MacTV. [}
] ]'> [] ]'> [)] ]'>p.s. Yes, comrade B, the card in Slot A is a 1988 National Instruments DIO card with internal & external 50 pin (?) male header connectors. If it weren't such a PITA to sneaker net the Pict, I ought load ANOTHER selection of six NuBus Goodies into my pet IIfx and post a second Config screen shot. [
] ]'>p.p.s. How'd you like that Graphic I found on the HDD?
Hmm.. Okay, now you need the Digidesign Pro Analog interface for that Sound Accellerator card or the regular half rack unit would do too!!!
The Storm Nubus card is the multi dsp processing card right! I wanted one for years, and when I thought I bought one on ebay, the guy shipped the PCI card instead in the Nubus box.. I'm not complaining. That card is nice too.
Whatcha hooking to the Mac/Irma card? Got a mainframe?
Have anything planned for those 32 channels of DIO??
Very nice box!
The Storm Nubus card is the multi dsp processing card right! I wanted one for years, and when I thought I bought one on ebay, the guy shipped the PCI card instead in the Nubus box.. I'm not complaining. That card is nice too.
Whatcha hooking to the Mac/Irma card? Got a mainframe?
Have anything planned for those 32 channels of DIO??
Very nice box!
:lol: Nope! All I need is the little box that came with it, I use the card to get Stereo Sound out of my Duos.
You betcha! :b&w:
Not yet, if I'd have HAD one, it would've gone bye-bye with most of my toys in the Great Storage Room Fiasco. :'(Whatcha hooking to the Mac/Irma card? Got a mainframe?
I loaded that card in there, first because it was one of the ones w/o an anti-static envelope and second . . .
. . . because I knew you'd get a big kick out of it!
) Evil Block Company™ based robotics!
) Thank you ,sir! [
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More Piccies! . . . erm . . . just one for now: see below! [] ]'>
Full House! Meanwhile, I found enough extra NuBus goodies in the other Magic Plastic Shoe Boxen that the Box of NuBus Goodness is at almost OVER capacity status again. [] ]'>
Full House 2! [] ]'>
It's a guessing game for you all until I can find the, Yellow Crossover 10Bt Cable from one of my AsanteTalk Bridges or figure out just which one of my many 10Bt/ThinNet Cards came with my Pet IIfx!
Until then, I can't transfer the Gauge SlotInfo ScreenShot with the Card Info . . . :-/
. . . however, I will tell you that the card with the missing part doesn't show up in SlotInfo window . . . :
. . . But it's the ComputerEyes . . . somethingorother . . . forgot to take note of it for the post . . . OOPSIE! . . . :I
. . . then again . . . I can always fix that when I edit in the ScreenShot! }
TTFN!)
P.S. There are still bit o'Ye Olde Full Length Variety left in the Box of NuBus Goodness! :lol:
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Full House! Meanwhile, I found enough extra NuBus goodies in the other Magic Plastic Shoe Boxen that the Box of NuBus Goodness is at almost OVER capacity status again. [
] ]'>HEH! :lisa:
Full House 2! [
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It's a guessing game for you all until I can find the, Yellow Crossover 10Bt Cable from one of my AsanteTalk Bridges or figure out just which one of my many 10Bt/ThinNet Cards came with my Pet IIfx!
Until then, I can't transfer the Gauge SlotInfo ScreenShot with the Card Info . . . :-/
. . . however, I will tell you that the card with the missing part doesn't show up in SlotInfo window . . . :
. . . But it's the ComputerEyes . . . somethingorother . . . forgot to take note of it for the post . . . OOPSIE! . . . :I
. . . then again . . . I can always fix that when I edit in the ScreenShot! }
TTFN!
) P.S. There are still bit o'Ye Olde Full Length Variety left in the Box of NuBus Goodness! :lol:
Configuration ScreenShot:
I lopped off most of the second monitor's pixels. I love doing a ScreenShot w/three or more Graphics Cards/Monitors on board, especially when one of them is my Apple Portrait Display! [] ]'>
OOPSIE!!!!!!!! :O
I forgot to get the ComputerEyes Info off the card again! :I
I lopped off most of the second monitor's pixels. I love doing a ScreenShot w/three or more Graphics Cards/Monitors on board, especially when one of them is my Apple Portrait Display! [
] ]'>OOPSIE!!!!!!!! :O
I forgot to get the ComputerEyes Info off the card again! :I
Does the AsanteFast 10/100 work properly in the IIfx?
I don't know, I've never tested it, but I don't see why not. NuBus is WAY faster than 100Bt, so I doubt any NuBus Mac would be a limiting factor. Unless, of course, the problem boiled down to PROC or OS incompatibility. If you're interested in the results, I'll give it a whirl when I get the chance, after I RTFM first! [] ]'>
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BTW: this tangential portion of the thread isn't necessarily about the IIfx at this point. Some interest was shown in the "Full House" shot and the cards in it, so I did another round. At this point it's more about letting the troops know about another bit of the 'Ole NuBus Goodness and how to go about checking out any cards they may run across, in any slot type, with Slot Info App from the Gauge Series. It works for NuBus, PDS, and Virtual Slot spelunking. Take note of the Slot 0 info in both ScreenShots: there's provision (probably just in FirmWare) for what is likely the IIci's crappy Video SubSystem on board the fx!
There are other tools available for DeclROM snooping, maybe I'll do another round using another program that I like just as much!
______________________________________________________________
I don't think the Card in Slot C is borked, I couldn't find any obvious Setup ROM on it during a quick checkout.
Here are the Specs off the card:
Computer Eyes/Pro
by Digital Vision
P.N. FCEMCR REV. B
It has S Video and Composite Video Ports (I'm assuming inputs) and from the Production Value/Methods/Layout, I'd say it was VERY early Mac II era . . . if it was a Mac Card AT ALL! It might have been for some higher end UNIX based WorkStation that implemented NuBus differently than the Mac ToolBox Slot Manager . . . if it IS NuBus at all . . . it could very well be something else entirely, that happend to use the same EuroDIN connector.
Dunno, haven't looked for info or software for it in almost ten years!)
] ]'>______________________________________________________________
BTW: this tangential portion of the thread isn't necessarily about the IIfx at this point. Some interest was shown in the "Full House" shot and the cards in it, so I did another round. At this point it's more about letting the troops know about another bit of the 'Ole NuBus Goodness and how to go about checking out any cards they may run across, in any slot type, with Slot Info App from the Gauge Series. It works for NuBus, PDS, and Virtual Slot spelunking. Take note of the Slot 0 info in both ScreenShots: there's provision (probably just in FirmWare) for what is likely the IIci's crappy Video SubSystem on board the fx!
There are other tools available for DeclROM snooping, maybe I'll do another round using another program that I like just as much!
______________________________________________________________
I don't think the Card in Slot C is borked, I couldn't find any obvious Setup ROM on it during a quick checkout.
Here are the Specs off the card:
Computer Eyes/Pro
by Digital Vision
P.N. FCEMCR REV. B
It has S Video and Composite Video Ports (I'm assuming inputs) and from the Production Value/Methods/Layout, I'd say it was VERY early Mac II era . . . if it was a Mac Card AT ALL! It might have been for some higher end UNIX based WorkStation that implemented NuBus differently than the Mac ToolBox Slot Manager . . . if it IS NuBus at all . . . it could very well be something else entirely, that happend to use the same EuroDIN connector.
Dunno, haven't looked for info or software for it in almost ten years!
)
What on earth is that red card?
It's PURTY! Ain't it!?! :ii:
See the Slot E Info, if you bought it directly from Radius, you got the red version! [] ]'>
It's the same as the 24AC they OEM'd for Apple. [] ]'>
See the Slot E Info, if you bought it directly from Radius, you got the red version! [
] ]'>It's the same as the 24AC they OEM'd for Apple. [
] ]'>
Correction?
Mine actually has the Apple sticker on the solder side:
Macintosh Display Card 24 AC
On the Component side the ROM reads:
1993 Radius 24AC V1.1
The Card verbiage is:
24 Bit Accelerated Graphics I/F
Scanner's down, but I bet there's one over in the NuBus Mafia on 'fritter, or here when the maniac started the card scanning craze. [] ]'>
Mine actually has the Apple sticker on the solder side:
Macintosh Display Card 24 AC
On the Component side the ROM reads:
1993 Radius 24AC V1.1
The Card verbiage is:
24 Bit Accelerated Graphics I/F
Scanner's down, but I bet there's one over in the NuBus Mafia on 'fritter, or here when the maniac started the card scanning craze. [
] ]'>I'd say that it is actually a Mac card - there was a ComputerEyes video capture NuBus card for the Mac at one point...I have a "Business Productivity" CD issued by Apple (came in a binder with some other CDs with my AppleCD 300 back in 1993) that has something to do with the ComputerEyes card, I'll have a look this afternoon, IIRC it was a demo made with Macromind Director that shows off the features of the card.
What a sweet box!
Oh and can you upload the starship pic to the interwebs? I love it!
Oh and can you upload the starship pic to the interwebs? I love it!
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Just curious, is that IRMA card 3270 or 5250 (coax vs twinax)? I'm still wondering about getting my hands on some kind of 5250 NuBus card... I have two AS/400s.
Hey also curious. You mentioned you had a "little box" for that Sound Accelerator II board. What does that look like? I've seen the Black and Beige small metal boxes that hook up with DB-25 cabling to the back of those cards. They had the analog one and a digital IO one, but they were both basically 1/2 rack width metal cases... Then they made the "pro" 1U rack unit with all the spiffy lights and both analog and digital io in one unit.
ooooh the power of 1989!
ooooh the power of 1989!
- yeh. I was in the computer industry when all this was at its height. We were using AutoCAD v2.1 on DOS AT with coprocessor that wasn't even installed on the motherboard correctly! The big deal was redrawing times in AutoCAD, many systems redrew very slowly, there was the benchmark drawings of St Pauls church etc. and the race was on as to who could make the fastest redraw.
At the time it was all exciting, cutting edge stuff and now having some old Macs of that era to play with (at the time way too costly) I can see what the fuss was all about. These old Macs must have been red hot. Interestingly even my old Atari ST bears a strong resemblance to the Mac OS6/7 - that IIfx must have been totally space age. It seems the Mac OS was the benchmark as Windows95 onwards seems virtually an incarnation of it and all the applications bought up and amalgamated into MS.
Once I get my IIfx running again, I'll be back.
I'm working on the Full House 3 shot while cataloging my TWO Magic Plastic Shoe Boxen of NuBus Goodness™ based upon the info in the SlotInfo reports in the Full House and Full House 2 screenshots.
Just received another pair of the Red_RadiusVidCards, two more VidCards and a Large Lot of assorted SlotFillers in transit ATM! [] ]'>
Meanwhile, I'm filling Magic Plastic Shoe Boxen of PDS, DOS on Mac & PCI Goodness! [] ]'>
Temetka, I'll upload your Starship piccie when I can do a SpreadSheet of what's been posted so far . . .
. . . in order to figure out what to stuff into my Pet IIfx/CD this time around . . .
Just received another pair of the Red_RadiusVidCards, two more VidCards and a Large Lot of assorted SlotFillers in transit ATM! [
] ]'>Meanwhile, I'm filling Magic Plastic Shoe Boxen of PDS, DOS on Mac & PCI Goodness! [
] ]'>Temetka, I'll upload your Starship piccie when I can do a SpreadSheet of what's been posted so far . . .
. . . in order to figure out what to stuff into my Pet IIfx/CD this time around . . .