Thread

MacintoshTV!!

68kMLA Hardware 19 posts Jul 19, 2015 to Jul 21, 2015

#1 Sun, 19 Jul 2015 - 20:18 68kMLA

Finally found one, been on the lookout for quite a while but Austin's Craigslist finally came through. Guy said it was not workin but looked good cosmetically, it has original software, original black keyboard, and black mouse! Only thing missing was the remote control but he told me he would let me know if he finds it later. I have not opened her up so hopefully no exploded batteries, still for $60 I think it was worth it. Today was a good day got my Mac collection

I'll post some pics once I get her home.

#2 Sun, 19 Jul 2015 - 20:35 68kMLA

Nice, good price. You can use almost any Sony TV remote, and they are cheap-ish on eBay.

#3 Sun, 19 Jul 2015 - 22:14 68kMLA

Any 90s era (black) Apple branded remote will work too. There's a credit-card button-battery style and a bigger AAA-battery style. There's some argument about which is OEM with the Mac TV, and a decent case that it could've come with either.

#4 Sun, 19 Jul 2015 - 22:50 68kMLA

I will say there is a slot in the back of the machine, above the logic board, that would seem to hold the credit card remote.

#5 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 - 00:35 68kMLA

Sad news

unfortunately once I got a chance to open it up, worst nightmare an exploded battery.

Any compatible logic boards outhere ? that can be substitued other than another mactv board since those aren't found very often unfortunately.

#6 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 - 01:02 68kMLA

I believe the LC/Performa 550 and 575 boards can be installed in the MacTV, much like a Colour Classic Mystic upgrade.

#7 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 - 01:14 68kMLA

I have a couple of 575s, but will this require a major mod or just plug and play? I'm cleaning the board with acetone and swabs but I can already see several ICs will need to be replaced and several burned pads bypassed if this thing is ever going to be revived, not sure the effort is worth it.

#8 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 - 01:31 68kMLA

A 575 board should be plug and play. If the existing System isn't compatible with a 575, then it probably won't boot is all. For the original System 7.1, Enabler 065 ver 1.1 is required. Here's a link that might be of interest: http://appletothecore.me/files/mac_tv_restoration.php

#9 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 - 05:36 68kMLA

Well i cleaned it as well as possible and unsoldered the battery cover to clean the corrosion (see pic), might be salvageable but don't have the time for it now since it will require several IC replacements and figuring out broken traces if any. I would have preferred to stay with the original board but will try the 575 to see if at least the thing boots up. Many thanks for the advice given.

#10 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 - 07:11 68kMLA

F1, U29 (the CUDA chip), S1, and UF8 all look like they need to be replaced. Don't know about anything else. You may have got lucky, as at least it isn't a ROM chip. Thankfully, the damage looks like it stayed pretty localized to that area and wasn't a very violent explosion.

Good luck, and if I were you and it still didn't work - try substituting it with a LC575 logic board as others have suggested.

#11 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 - 13:31 68kMLA

I know where another Mac TV is.

Its in Louisville but the guy wants too much for it. $400 as is untested

#12 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 - 16:48 68kMLA

For that price, if it has an exploded battery, it'd be an expensive piece of junk (you'd be paying a premium for the enclosure, basically).

I actually had an opprtunity to get one a couple years ago, but it was too far away. Now I sort of wish I had gotten it.

c

#13 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 - 17:19 68kMLA

Ya but the enclosure is in good shape and even with the keyboard/mouse I guess selling those off I could at least break even. Those ebay prices for these things are all over the place. I'm still glad I got it, just wished I would have payed less for it lol

Edit: I guess you meant the $400 prize tag. I wouldn't risk it either , way over my budget even for a mactv

#14 Tue, 21 Jul 2015 - 00:30 68kMLA

If the analog board, and CRT, and power supply are all functional, then any logic board from the Color Classic, CCII, LC520, LC550, or LC575 will work in your busted MacTV logic board's place. Obviously, it will have no TV capabilities any more.

An LC 575's brain will be a nice CPU/memory upgrade (actually the 550 would be too), and unlike a Color Classic Mystic hack there's no need to change any hardware to display the native 640x480 resolution of the 575 board. The MacTV and LC520/550/575 cases are effectively identical except for the plastic's color and the shape of the varying media cut outs on the fascia.

#15 Tue, 21 Jul 2015 - 04:59 68kMLA

It looks like it might be worth a shot to redo the components, only a few of the pads were totally burned most still had copper after scraping at the pads. I have an LCII i can borrow all ICs from except for U29 (mc68hc70531dw). For the experts, is this one i can get from another common board? cant seem to find a similar chip in all the boards at my disposal.

See the naked gore of an exploded battery....

#16 Tue, 21 Jul 2015 - 13:45 68kMLA

Wow... I saw that post... with no price listed I expected him to be asking for crazy amounts of money for it...

#17 Tue, 21 Jul 2015 - 14:30 68kMLA

It may be possible to revive it - I've seen worse looking boards. There seems to be a few damaged traces right where the battery used to be, but I think an expert hand could probably run a few wires and bypass them.

#18 Tue, 21 Jul 2015 - 17:57 68kMLA

I see more dead traces there than you think

#19 Tue, 21 Jul 2015 - 18:03 68kMLA

Ya that's what I'm afraid of I'll have to poke it with a continuity meter to see if it's gonna be a big hassle. The real question here is, are there schematics floating around somewhere outthere for this board ?