Re: FS/T Apple stuff and of questions

["Liam Busey" <buseyl@yahoo.com>]

"Tom" <tommage@aol.comNOSPAM> wrote in message
20040726215154.04845.00001543@mb-m24.aol.com">news:20040726215154.04845.00001543@mb-m24.aol.com...
> Let's start with the questions but don't forget to check out what I have
for
> sale/trade :)
>
> All in one Macs (yes I know this is II group but what the heck :).

While this group probably has more vintage Mac know how than
comp.sys.mac.hardware, there are better places. But what the heck. :)

> I have a Classic Color Mac, a Mac SE with special floppy and a Mac
Classic. The classic color does not power up.

Is it completely dead? Can you observe any change in state of the machine
when flip the power switch (ie flashing LEDs, spinning fan, etc)? If not it
may be as simple as a blown fuse, bad switch, or loose wire.

> The Classic shows the smiley computer, then welcome but stops saying
"Can't load the finder".

I've read that Classics have a bare bones copy of their system software in
ROM. Supposedly you can access it by by holding down command-option-x-o at
startup.

> The SE shows floppy disk icon when booting so I assume no HD, if I put in
a game disk it boots to the game.

IIRC, Mac SE have two slots in the front for floppy drives. If the unit came
with a harddrive the top one will be covered by a face plate with a
harddrive status LED embedded in it. If there is a harddrive you should be
able to hear it spin up.


 I'd
> like to keep one of these to play some of my old Mac games, Ultima II and
III
> and Quarterstaff. The other two are available for sale/trade. What tools
would
> I need to open these up?. If power supply is gone in Color Classic could I
use
> a PS from one of the other two? Any suggestions?

Ultima 2 and 3 sound like old games. As such they may require old hardware
and old system software. Of the 3, the Mac SE has the ability to run the
largest range of system software and is most similar to the original Macs.
The Classic is a cheap Mac SE that is otherwise fairly similar but limited
expansion wise. The Color Classic is something of a cult machine. It's
pretty and more powerful than the other two but it can only run 7.X systems
which came out in the early to mid 90's. Hardware wise, it's similar to an
LCII. You may have difficulty running really old Mac games on it.

I don't think you can swap their power supplies. To open up the SE and
probably the Classic, you'll need a long narrow shafted torx screw driver.
Was it a T10?

As for suggestions, if you're a collector, keep the Color Classic. If you're
interested in old black and white Mac Mac games, keep the SE or dump them
all and get a Plus (for best compatibility.)

For more information about your Macs, take a look at www.lowendmac.com. They
also have a  Compact Mac mailing list that focuses specifically on your
class of machines. Good luck.

Liam Busey