eBay bargains - what's your latest conquest?

[Alexis Trinquet]

I've been here before. The 6306 is a stinker and almost certain not to be recognised but the 6307 seems to work ok. YMMV as ever. Admittedly, this was when when I was putting hackintosh desktops together. Can't remember ever trying one in a real Mac.

Drat. At least all hope isn't lost, I can still put that card in my Pentium 233, but since I got the datasheets for the 6306 and '07, perhaps if the pinouts are identical, I think I could probably try and swap the chips.. Even though I'm hesitant to do so as this card seems to be very obscure and I'd feel guilty about goofing up and irreversibly damaging it.

I have not yet received the card yet, in the meantime I'm going to find a HD50 to DB25 cable so I can run my Jaz2 drive off the 7500.

@Tratkazir_the_1st yep that makes me think of gold plated cables for some reason

 

[lepidotós]

It's actually been a few months, I got it in November, but I got this Asus K7V with a free Pluto 700MHz for $70, plus $15 shipping. Not Mac related, but I figure it's relevant (and old) enough. It's not in its final case or with its final PSU, I just wanted to do a quick POST... but I still need a CPU cooler before I run it. I actually got a 750MHz Thunderbird (the second CPU down) before I got this board as well and didn't realize I would be getting the free Pluto.​

 

[TheShortTimer]

Not Mac related, but I figure it's relevant (and old) enough.

We discuss eBay bargains, it's not exclusive to Mac related bargains.

Congrats btw.

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

Excuse me for silly question. May I post here about some purchases from local second-hand market? (I wish this topic could be renamed to some more .. universal )

 

[Amethyst1]

Excuse me for silly question. May I post here about some purchases from local second-hand market? (I wish this topic could be renamed to some more .. universal )

As far as I'm concerned... go for it.

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

go for it.

Thanks. I'll drop all my purchases in this topic . (Until banhammer arrives ).

 

[Amethyst1]

Thanks. I'll drop all my purchases in this topic . (Until banhammer arrives ).

What have I done?

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

@Amethyst1
We'll see...

 

[B S Magnet]

Update:

The bargain arrived. The B-quality packaging, across three carriers, took a bit of a drubbing, but there was no damage to the MBP case.

The short version: it’s a nearly new example (with an expected tiny ding on the lid). When I opened to swap drives, migrate caddy, and re-paste CPU, it was clear I was the very first person to be in there. Virtually no dust inside and no scratches on the bottom lid. Even the battery is original with 92 per cent life left after 290 cycles.

Compared with the i5/2.3 GHz it’s replacing, temps spike crazy-high in a hurry, but Macs Fan Control handles it fine. I guess it’s a consequence of a 22 per cent higher clock speed. The SuperDrive SATA bus reports SATA III (compared with SATA II in the early 2011).

More later.

View attachment 2172802


And in High Sierra:

View attachment 2173470

OK LET’S GO

I bumped up the RAM to the max, and it passed stress testing.

So then I ran some Geekbench tests.

Alas, I’m really disappointed we can’t upload Geekbench 2 scores any longer. Any time my own Mac’s scores end up higher than what’s posted on the Everymac page, it makes me smile a little.

EDIT to add: A quick and dirty side-by-side of, at left, my venerable early 2011 i5 2.3GHz MBP (with the OEM 320GB HDD put back inside — barely used!), and the replacement, at right: the early 2011 i7 2.8GHz, running on what is the same build of Snow Leopard which shipped as 10.6.0 in a mid-2009 C2D 2.26GHz MBP (replaced, when it died of coconut water, by the i5/2.3), and built upon ever since (I am such a nerd).

 

[Alexis Trinquet]

A parcel was waiting for me this morning:

Yup, that's the one. If I can't get it working under MacOS, I've got a lead on a Adaptec AUA FW/USB card. (I don't think I can cram one more hard drive in my 7500)

I've tested it first in one of my PCs, the boot ROM shows up (now there's two roms avaliable for this chip, a standard HBA ROM and a ATA RAID ROM, my card has the latter but can be flashed to the former). Now if only someone had that Power Mac-compatible HBA ROM that I mentioned earlier.

 

[m1maverick]

My latest conquest is a PowerBook 160 "as-is / parts only" system to obtain a floppy and hard drive for my PowerBook 180 system (note the system mentioned in the referenced post is a 180c but it turned out to be a 180).

This system has one of those weird looking displays as mentioned by TheShortTimer here and here. It has the appearance that some kind of glue was wiped all over it but it definitely looks to be heat related damage. I've attached a couple of pictures. One is with the system off, the other is powered on.

When powered on the system gave the memory chimes indicating bad memory. When I opened it up I removed the module and I got the standard Macintohs chime. So I think it's working (I can't tell given the display issue). I transplanted the floppy and hard drive into the 180 system and reassembled it. The floppy drive appears to work but I don't have a boot floppy (I'll use my newly acquired 5300ce to create one) and, unfortunately, the hard drive appears to be dead. It doesn't appear to even try and spin, it's completely silent...in both systems.

All in all I think it was a good purchase as it got me everything I needed for the 180 and it appears to work itself. Now to consider if I want to obtain a screen for it...hmmm.

 

[TheShortTimer]

All in all I think it was a good purchase as it got me everything I needed for the 180 and it appears to work itself. Now to consider if I want to obtain a screen for it...hmmm.

Next time add the @ to my name so you can tag me in.

If the LCD can be obtained relatively inexpensively, I say go for it. In the past, I routinely replaced damaged LCDs on my Windows laptops and I found them cheaply on eBay - new and used. You'll have another spare machine and it could be fun to restore as a project alongside the 180. How much was it? You forgot to mention the price.

 

[m1maverick]

Next time add the @ to my name so you can tag me in.

If the LCD can be obtained relatively inexpensively, I say go for it. In the past, I routinely replaced damaged LCDs on my Windows laptops and I found them cheaply on eBay - new and used. You'll have another spare machine and it could be fun to restore as a project alongside the 180. How much was it? You forgot to mention the price.

I'll probably keep it around as a spare / parts system. It's unlikely I'll rebuild it as the reason for buying it was to scavenge parts for the 180. If I were to embark on a rebuild I would then need to buy another as-is / parts system to scavenge parts from. The next thing I know I'll be forever purchasing such systems to rebuild

As for the price I paid $45.00 for it. I mentioned it in another thread (I've been all over the place with posting about these three PowerBooks).

 

[Alexis Trinquet]

[snip]

I'm afraid that it's the dreaded vinegar syndrome that affected the screen of that 160.

It's not external damage, rather something to do with one of the layers of the panel turning into acetic acid and eating the panel away. Some say that screens that suffered from this allegedly have a strong smell of vinegar, that's a bit why it's called like that.

 

[m1maverick]

I'm afraid that it's the dreaded vinegar syndrome that affected the screen of that 160.

It's not external damage, rather something to do with one of the layers of the panel turning into acetic acid and eating the panel away. Some say that screens that suffered from this allegedly have a strong smell of vinegar, that's a bit why it's called like that.

I did see a YouTube video about this. After you post I decided to give it a smell and this one doesn't smell like vinegar. Not saying it didn't at one time but it smells more like an electronics kind of burnt.

I hope this is not something that will happen to every PowerBook of this type. Otherwise my PB180 is on borrowed time.

 

[galgot]

I did see a YouTube video about this. After you post I decided to give it a smell and this one doesn't smell like vinegar. Not saying it didn't at one time but it smells more like an electronics kind of burnt.

I hope this is not something that will happen to every PowerBook of this type. Otherwise my PB180 is on borrowed time.

Make sure not to store it with other laptops with good screens in a closed place, it is said it can spread to other.
It is a chemical reaction of the glue used for the polarizing film, it rotten the film and diffuses vapors that causes that smell. It seems to happen when these machines are stored in closed places for a length of time, with a certain amount of humidity and heat.
There is a thread on 68kmla.org, check for vinegar syndrome. The polarizing film can be replaced, but it seems quite some work, never had to do it myself, luckily none of my machines suffer from it (yet...).

This Gentleman explains better than me, if you want to try :

 

[Alexis Trinquet]

I did see a YouTube video about this. After you post I decided to give it a smell and this one doesn't smell like vinegar. Not saying it didn't at one time but it smells more like an electronics kind of burnt.

I hope this is not something that will happen to every PowerBook of this type. Otherwise my PB180 is on borrowed time.

There's already some iBooks that are affected, so unfortunately that doesn't bode well about other panels. I don't think newer LCDs would be affected but who knows, we don't know much about vinegar syndrome affecting LCDs... But in the film preservation industry, it's a well known problem plaguing cellulose triacetate film support, they just degrade and let out acetic acide when the process starts.

And it seems to be very common in humid places, but again, I don't really know much about this phenomenon.

 

[weckart]

But in the film preservation industry, it's a well known problem plaguing cellulose triacetate film support, they just degrade and let out acetic acide when the process starts.

Yes, it mostly affects pre-1960s cine films after which the formulation changed. Having said that, I took quite a few reels in the 1980s and those have started to decay in terms of colour fading and brown artefacts appearing despite their being kept in the dark and not in a humid climate. The trigger is a lack of ventilation apparently, which doesn't bode well for sealed LCD units.

 

[DouglasCarroll]

I just purchased a copy of “Learning Unix for OS X” second edition. Not sure if this was a bargain or not but I don’t want to keep checking it out from the library…so it was a bargain to me!!

🤣🤣

 

[TheShortTimer]

I just purchased a copy of “Learning Unix for OS X” second edition. Not sure if this was a bargain or not but I don’t want to keep checking it out from the library…so it was a bargain to me!!

🤣🤣

I ran up massive library fines with the campus library with overdue books and I calculated that it was cheaper to tell them that the books were lost and just pay the university for them than it would've been to clear the fine - and still have to return the books. 😂

 

[m1maverick]

Just began the exterior cleaning. It's cleaned up nicely but there is still sticker residue on the top, right. I was thinking of using some Goo Gone to remove it but wanted to check with the forum to see if there are any negatives to doing so. Has anyone used Goo Gone on this plastic (or this age) with / without any adverse effects?

I wanted to follow up on this for anyone searching in the future. I used Goo Gone to remove the sticker residue from my parts PowerBook and I'm pleased to report there were no ill effects to the plastic. No marring, melting, discoloration, or anything else. It looks as good as new.

 

[Alexis Trinquet]

Scored (for a very, very good price) a Orange Micro FW-SCSI adapter, which in turn appears to be a reskinned Belkin F5U541. Only difference is that the Orange Micro's model number is a real mouthful (70HTL00010) and it sports a DB25 output versus the Belkin's HD50.

Finding drivers for this is going to be, interesting, to say the least, but I'm always down for a good challenge!

 

[Amethyst1]

Finding drivers for this is going to be, interesting, to say the least, but I'm always down for a good challenge!

It supports the SBP-2 protocol according to the manual, so e.g. mass storage devices might just work using the drivers built into Mac OS 8.6+ or Windows 98 SE+. The manual says no drivers are required for Windows 2000 at least so it’s worth giving a shot.

 

[weckart]

Scored (for a very, very good price) a Orange Micro FW-SCSI adapter, which in turn appears to be a reskinned Belkin F5U541. Only difference is that the Orange Micro's model number is a real mouthful (70HTL00010) and it sports a DB25 output versus the Belkin's HD50.

Finding drivers for this is going to be, interesting, to say the least, but I'm always down for a good challenge!

The only driver I saw mentioned for this was Orange Converter 1.2.1, which I have attached. It's possibly not even needed.

 

[Alexis Trinquet]

It supports the SBP-2 protocol according to the manual, so e.g. mass storage devices might just work using the drivers built into Mac OS 8.6+ or Windows 98 SE+. The manual says no drivers are required for Windows 2000 at least so it’s worth giving a shot.

^ Yup, I figured as such, I've got a old Asus C2Q tower with built-in FW that I could throw windows 7 on it and see if it works.

The only driver I saw mentioned for this was Orange Converter 1.2.1, which I have attached. It's possibly not even needed.

Ah thank you! I've did a bit of sleuthing around the forums and found someone who posted a *.cdr of the Orange Micro CD, I'll just have to wait to actually receive the converter and try it.