Just got a Macintosh 512ke

#1 Tue, 8 Oct 2013 - 02:45

Got a great Macintosh 512ke. Had to clean up the floppy drive and re-align it with the front bezel but she boots up fine with System 5.1. It came with the M0001 mouse and the optional extended keyboard (like the Mac Plus). Came as stock as the day she was built. Odd that the some of the older Macs have plastic 68000 chips but this one is black ceramic.

Now I need to find a Macintosh 128k and my collection is almost complete (I've said this in the past but I am closer to meaning this

)

#2 Tue, 8 Oct 2013 - 02:58

Pics! Congrats.

#3 Tue, 8 Oct 2013 - 03:00

awesome!

#4 Tue, 8 Oct 2013 - 05:08

Cool! My 512kE didn't ship with an extended keyboard. I'm guessing it was an option? Could we see a pic of that CPU? I'm curious to see what it looks like.

#5 Tue, 8 Oct 2013 - 21:48

Here's the pic of my 512Ke board. It was a little dark last night. Maybe it was purple ceramic after all. I posted a big pic if someone can give me the "low down" on this board.

#6 Tue, 8 Oct 2013 - 22:31

Weird how all the lettering is yellow not white. Also, that looks like a 512k that may have had Plus ROMS installed. Does it have a 400k or 800k floppy drive? Also, what's the last digit in your serial number?

#7 Tue, 8 Oct 2013 - 22:41

It is a ke so it should have Plus ROMs and an 800K drive.

#8 Tue, 8 Oct 2013 - 23:02

Yeah I think your right mcdermd.

#9 Tue, 8 Oct 2013 - 23:41

By the serial number, it's an M0001E. I also checked the code for the Mac Plus ROMs and they are the same. The disk drive is 800k. I don't know enough about these to question the yellow writing. Maybe it's a refurb board? Odd that it's got that blue "512K" sticker on the board and on the metal bracket next to the connectors that you can't see in the picture. Did these boards have Rev levels?

#10 Tue, 8 Oct 2013 - 23:44

Well, it's definitely a 512kE. I didn't even know there were some 512kEs with ceramic processors.

#11 Wed, 9 Oct 2013 - 03:11

I would venture to guess that the first few (hundred?) 512ke lobos were the last few 512k lobos that got Plus ROMs instead, right in the factory. Since it has a ke bucket I'd assume it's an early one.

#12 Wed, 9 Oct 2013 - 22:03

Serial-wise it's not. According to http://myoldmac.net/FAQ/Mac-Serialnumber-decoder-e.php

"Your Macintosh 512Ke was the 279th Mac manufactured during the 49th week of 1986 in Fremont, California, USA."

The logic board is an 820-0086F marked on the both sides (faintly under the numbers where the memory is and on the back). The cool part is that in dim light, the board writing looks white. I checked if it was "glow in the dark".. It's not